Kiddie Pool ... with kiddies

Ducks and geese are four weeks old today. It was warm by our standards…sunny and in the 60’s. So we decided to get out the new kiddie pool I ordered from Amazon.

The pool was less than $20, supersaver shipping, and has pop up sides rather than being a blow-up like our last one. This is nice because I did not have to make myself light headed, but it is not nearly as sturdy in the end either. If anyone leans on any side at all … like the dog who desperately wants to drink out of it and is not quite tall enough.. the side is going to collapse in and we will lose all the water. Since we live on tank water this would be catastrophic loss. We get 800 gallons a week and no more. Filling a kiddie pool is an extravagant use of water at our house.

Since it is such a luxury to have all that mosquito breeding water sitting around I told the girls I would let them play in it first. They were inside putting on suits faster than I thought possible. They splashed around and Tekoa squirted them with the hose. After 30 minutes or so we started capturing ducks so they could get a turn. 

The ducks were moved to my extra large pea-bed earlier in the week so they would have more room. While this has been a great move for the birds, the extra space makes it really really hard to catch them. There is a frame and some netting built onto the bed for growing peas. This really easy to get tangled in as you are reaching for birds. We used a rake and a bucket and finally caught all the stinkers.

The girls, because they are odd and mine, decided to continue to wade around in the pool with the birds. They also made sure to announce they were not going to sit in it because they did not want poo on their butts. Well thought out.

The last time I let the ducks swim was at school and they all became way too chilled. This time they had a freak out blast. The one goose kept taking dives under the water. They are still not feathered out so this was hilariously strange looking. Sort of like if a big plucked chicken gone torpedo.

We let them all swim for a good 20-30 minutes and then Chilly started looking like she had her fill. We caught them all and put them back in the pen with extra fresh dry grass. They all fluffed right back up and a few kept trying to swim in their water. I guess once they got a taste they realized swimming was the bomb.

Ducks:

3 mixed Brown and Black with little bank robber masks = Rouen Ducks Straight run

3 light with black spots on body and feet = Ancona Ducks Straight Run

2 small solid brown = Khaki Campbell Females

2 large solid light yellow = Embeden Geese Straight Run

The Chicken Chronicles - We have lost containment

Houston…we have lost containment

I woke up to my rooster being extra vocal because it was Sunday and sunny and he wanted us all to know what a fine day it was…at 6:30 am. I am sure all my neighbors were equally thrilled to get the news (update...my neighbors are really, really nice and told me they did not hear a thing. Eggs on the doorstep coming up!). That butt head’s days are becoming numbered. The crowing is increasing and he has been getting aggressive when I go out to get eggs. The thing about roosters is that they are irrational and they are cowards. They don’t come at you head on. They wait until your back is turned to take a run at you. We have a peck me and I eat you rule that is strictly enforced. Handsome out there is about to meet my husband the executioner.

After trying to ignore the crowing for two hours I finally conceded defeat and got up.  I instantly heard the chicks in my spare bedroom all a-chirping. This is not really unusual since by morning they have invariably dumped over and/or soiled all food and water I left them with before I went to bed. 

What was unusual was that when I went in there I found a turkey running (and probably crapping) around in the room. Catching said turkey is not nearly as entertaining as it would have been after my morning coffee. I still can’t figure out how the little turd got out of the box. It is tall and it is sitting on a wooden bed platform. So he got out of the box and off the platform without any apparent injury. Turkeys grow really fast and don’t even roost. They can’t even do the little bit of flying that chickens can muster. Turkeys make chickens seem like astrophysicists. I am pleasantly surprised he did not find a new and exciting way to off himself as a grand finale to his adventure.

It is the first sign that the chicks are nearing the end of their stench filled stay in the house.  I’ll give them two more weeks then we see how many survive the big yard.

Game on.

Big Night Out

(Pictures of my fortified outdoor Duck-Goose run...if a fox can get in there it deserved the feast)

At 2 weeks we started experimenting with putting the water birds outside. For the first few days I brought them in at night and kept them in a box in the porch. Weather was high 40’s during the day and right around freezing at night.

After the third day of them being fine outside I put a 250 watt heat lamp out in their run and fortified it. It is trailer trash chic. They are in a ½ sized raised planting bed that is 2 feet wide and 8 feet long. The planter is up against a larger planter giving it one side with a higher wall. I then put one of my “drying racks” (it is some sort of old construction junk I scored and brought home much to my hubby’s delight) along the other  edge. I put some scrap wood on the ends. I don’t think the ducks can get out of the  pen even before I fortified, but dogs and kids are a whole different story. 

The first night I decided to give it a try I further fortified by leaning pallets along the edge, chicken wire draped over the top and tomato cages on the ground all around it. It is now hard for me to even get near them. The tomato cages are really easy to get tangled in and you now have to be adult height to see down into the pen. From the outside it looks like a big uninviting pile of junk leaned up against my pea bed. 

A week later and all ducks are alive and they are HUGE. I swear they are bigger by the day. I will likely move them to a bigger pen in the next few days. I ordered them a little kiddie pool on amazon and once they feather out (I hear 4-5 weeks) I will move them to the old pig pen and deck it out with a pool. By the time we head out for a couple weeks in late June I hope they are spending their days out on our pond.

Of course this means I need to clean the pig pen and get my compost pile out of there and integrated into my garden beds. It is just that time of year.

Ducklings go to School

(picture of wild ducks in the pond behind our house right after break-up. Our pond is shallow and one of the earliest to thaw out each year so we get some of the first birds of the season stopping by for a rest)

For a new and exciting adventures the ducklings got to go to school for a visit. 

Day one we went to Lulu’s kindergarten class over at Immersion. 

It was kind of funny because all the adults asked me how I got them… they thought I stole them out of a nest. It is funny because the wild ducks and geese are just coming in to nest and there are not eggs, much less babies, out on the tundra for wild gathering yet. So what they were really asking is where I found a nest to raid this early in the season. They thought I might be full of secrets and wanted in on it.  

When we (me and my box of water fowl) arrived in the classroom it was pandemonium since both classes came to see the show. I decided the kids could pet, but not hold the birds since they were numerous and very, very excited. I picked up a gosling to show the kids and it immediately proceeded to projectile crap all over me. The kids SCREAMED in horror and delight. I dropped that gosling and picked up the other one and it did pretty much the exact same thing. All kids then agreed that petting the birds was all they needed to do. I was left with an "incriminating stain" on my skirt that I wore like a badge of motherly martyrdom for the rest of the day.

The next day we moved up to Cal’s second grade class. They were also very excited and I let them hold them at first. Then we filled a tote with water and let them all take their first swim. That was fun, but then I had to deal with them all being chilled. After about five minutes the kids all started finding tissue to stuff up their nostrils to show me how smelly they find farm life to be. It was kind of like every kid in the room was suddenly recovering from nose bleeds.

Even inside the birds were chilled after their first swim even though it was warm water. So when we got home I stole the chicks heat lamp (switched them to a lesser light…which the delicate stinkers let me know was not cool) and gave the ducks two heat lamps for the afternoon so they could dry off and warm back up. I got really worried about Chilly because she seemed the worst off, but she perked right up and all ducks have survived ok. They also I think learned it is best to stay away from kids, which should be a good lesson down the road.

Movin on Out-- Ducks meet the great outdoors

(2 Embeden Goslings, 3 Ancona Duckings, 3 Rouen Ducklings, 2 Khaki Campbell Ducklings all about 2 weeks old)

My ducklings and goslings have been spending the last few days outside. It has been in the 40s to 50s so they must be fairly tough.

First day out I made a pen out of an unfilled raised bed planter and used a saucer sled as a waterer. I covered one end and used my fish drying rack as a dog deterrent along one side. For the first few hours they were fine.

I took my little one to dance class and came home to find one of my khaki campbells apparently dead. The others were walking on it. Her eyes were open with dirt caked to them. Pupils blown. She was flat on her side, limp and cold. I was very disappointed because this was their first day out and she obviously got chilled after splashing in the water-sled. I should have ignored the overwhelming stench they were creating in my back bedroom a few more days...but they are so wet and messy and flicker their poop everywhere and the smell was really noxious. I was extra disappointed because the khakis are the ducks I would really like to see if I can winter over and have for egg production next summer.

I picked her up and checked on the other birds. As I messed around I noticed her beak moved ever so slightly. I spent five minutes convincing myself that she might not be "completely dead"...my own Princess Bride moment.

I finally bit the bullet and put her under my shirt for an hour and she ever so slowly came back. Within three hours she was back to normal. How about that? A chick that gets that chilled would have been dead for sure. I also got to smell like wet dog for the rest of the day. Kind of takes the edge off my needy farmer gene.

I borrowed a long extension cord (Thanks Kurt) and put a heat lamp in the run I had made and now everyone, including chilly…who runs away from me like I tortured her back to life…are all right as rain outside. Maybe someday she will become an evil zombie duck but so far so good other than the fact she is an ingrate.

I have been bringing them back inside at night because while we have not had a dog incident there are foxes lurking about and I don’t know if my set up can withstand a sneaky fox. I am not the only one who thinks ducks are delicious.

What has been extra fun is that ducks and geese grow really fast so they really like to eat. They very much enjoy the grass that is sprouting up outside and they love leftovers more than chickens. The other day I fed them left over moose meat I diced up. I found this to be hilarious but the irony seemed to only amuse me.

Enter the Water Fowl

(Zholtee...Russian for Yellow... our new Embeden Goose at 2 days old. He/She should help protect my ducks from dogs and stray kids. I expect a tyrannical attack goose!)

 
(Ancona Duckling at two days old...love the spotted feet!)
 
Every year as the daylight comes back my farmer gene rears its evil head. It is a strange sickness but with the sun comes my need to acquire farm animals. It started with chickens and has escalated on and off from there. I have no idea why, but I just like owning animals I can eat when they become annoying. My dog is so lucky we have certain social stigmas in this country. I also think it is good for my kids to know where eggs and bacon come from.

We have had chickens for eight years. We live on a nice spot by Bethel standards and our back yard butts right up onto a shallow pond that is the first to thaw out each spring. There are no other houses on the back side of the lake so it makes for a nice view and I have been told over the years that I was missing out by not keeping ducks or geese.

This year as daylight started creeping back my farmer gene got the better of me. I discovered that I love, and I mean love, eating duck this last winter. It is fatty and juicy and at Kinley's in Anchorage they made it for me rare. It had the best crispy skin I have ever had AND it was rare. It defied the laws of physics and I am hooked. I decided to go for it. I ordered 8 ducks and 2 geese and decided I would go for it and see if they make a nice addition to our strange little homestead. Worst case scenario is that I just eat them all ... not a bad plan at all.

I have heard that geese can be really mean. I have kids so this gave me pause. Then I thought about all the stray dogs and stray kids that trample my garden and terrorize my chickens and decided a couple highly trained attack geese might not be a bad idea. I am pretty excited. I think they will protect my ducks and they will add to the lore of my yard. I aspire to be the crazy lady with the attack geese.

After much research I decided to go with:

Embeden Geese: very large and are actually not the most aggressive breed
Khaki Campbell Ducks: small but lay insane quantities of eggs if I can figure out how to winter them over
Rouen Ducks: a dual purpose breed good for either eggs or meat
Ancona Ducks: all purpose and mellow and stay close to home

The Geese will be huge and white with blue eyes. They are already obviously smart. It borders on creepy smart. The Khakis are small and frantic and run away from me constantly. The Rouens arrived with what looks like little bank robber mask markings and seem the most curious about people. The Anconas are spotted, even on their feet and are, in my opinion the cutest of the bunch.

I am more excited about this new adventure than I thought I would be. I especially like their creepy duck feet. I never realized they had toenails. So far they all have way more personality than a chicken and they are outdoor tough at two weeks. I like tough.

The Chicken Chronicles -- Feed and Assundries

(Picture is the tote of oyster shells my chickens have decided is the new hot nesting area....we find a couple eggs in here each day and a few in the back corner of the coop. No idea how part of an egg carton got in there...must be the work of my little helpers)

I have read many articles about proper nutrition and protein ratios for chickens. In my experience I give them unmedicated chicken pellets, chicken scratch and whatever else I have laying around. It may negatively effect my production...but I really don't care. I get almost an egg a day from each hen in summer because of our daylight. Early on I was hyper about what and how I fed them, but they are messy and wasteful and crap in their own food dishes.

For 8 chickens I will usually give them about 25 lbs of feed a month, maybe a little less depending on what kind of scraps I can score. Chicken scratch is their favorite because it is like candy for chickens. It does not have the same nutrient value as the pellets. I usually have one bag open at a time so they get pellets or scratch and then change it up.

The last couple years we have just started cutting open a bag and leaving it on the floor in the entry away from the door. They just help themselves. I know it sounds crazy (and lazy), but it really is a better method. When I used feeders I found that they stick their head in and flick 75% of the food onto the ground and then never go back and eat it because they are nasty stinkers. When the bag is on the floor like that they can't waist as much. I leave it in the bag because the bag keeps them from pooping all over the food. They stick their heads in the slit (about 18 inches long) while standing on the edge of the bag. The bag stays in the coop to keep it dry.

Scraps are the joy of owning chickens. I tell people I turn all my leftovers into eggs. They will eat pretty much anything...including chicken (everyone asks and that is your answer). I have found they do not care much for citrus peels, onion skin, avocado peel, uncooked root vegetables, or the very tough outside of watermelon rind. I put it all out there anyway because it composts into the chicken yard and I use that on my garden. When the salmon are running they will eat raw fish scraps a couple times but then ignore them...which leads to maggots which they are crazy over (gross but true) . Cooked fish they will eat all day, but I am not cooking salmon scraps for the chickens. They especially love leafy veggies, grass, and junk food (french fries, chips, fried things). Anything that spoils in the fridge goes straight to the chicken yard. Grass clippings...chicken yard. Gardening scraps and trimmings...chicken yard.

A friendly warning is that they will eat all your grass if you do not keep them contained. There is a chicken neck length perimeter around my fence that is barren. There is nothing growing in the chicken yard. They love grass and greens. If you have a small yard and let them run free they will pick it clean.

The only things that should not be fed to chickens are the nightshade plants (potato, tomato & eggplant plants...the fruits are fine), rhubarb leaves, and really moldy food. Mold apparently messes up their gizzards and the others are poisonous.

I have a couple water buckets that I keep full in summer. They perch on the edge and tip them over all the time...because they are dumb. In winter they drink snow since the water freezes too fast.

If my chicken yard was not already kind of ripe (A week of rain and I seriously consider just eating all of them and ending the poo production) and 8 feet from my living room window I would "raise" more maggots. When we had pigs (I'll write about that adventure another day) we would scoop up maggots for the chickens and they would go absolutely crazy with joy eating them up. Maggots are free and nutritious and keep food costs down. And yes...we are that kind of crazy at our house. Someday my kids are going to realize how wacky we are and I am going to laugh myself silly.

Beyond food, chickens also need grit and some kind of calcium source for egg shells. I bought one bag of each 8 years ago and that was it. I feed egg shells back to the chickens and I throw some oyster shell onto the ground every couple months. I have never had a mis-formed shell. I had a bag of grit. I would sprinkle it out in the yard every once in a while. I could not find it last summer. Chickens don't have teeth, they have a gizzard. The gizzard is full of little rocks (grit) that grinds up what they eat. If they don't have a natural source you have to provide the grit so they can digest their food. I have not done grit in over a year and all my birds are right as rain. Maybe they are getting what they need off the ground?? I will get another bag at some point but at present I am not overly motivated since they are fine and it is expensive to mail rocks out here.

I usually get feed and sundries from Span Alaska shipped in by Barge. There are 2 barges each year so I just plan accordingly. When I run low on feed I order on line from Alaska Mill & Feed but it is much more expensive because of all the "shipping and handling mark-ups". By barge I can also get a 100 lb bale of hay and that will easily last all year and they will get farm supplies not in the catalog if you ask them.

I pretty much dial it in and do just fine with my Chickens. They are only really labor intensive if you want to make them that way.

The Chicken Chronicles - Our Chicken Coop & Yard

(Picture is my Ameracana Rooster showing off the coop. You can see the roosting pole, nesting boxes that are just used as exotic places to poop and one of the coop's two windows)

Where to house your chickens is probably the most expensive aspect of chicken keeping. The good part is that if you do it right, it should be a one-time expense.

My coop is both over the top and kind of ghetto at the same time. At one point my house was owned by someone who had sled dogs. They built a pen for the dogs designed to keep them in the yard including fencing buried under the ground. This has been ideal for me since it keeps dogs and foxes out of my chicken yard. Parts of the fence are nearly 30 years old but we have only had to fix a couple of spots.

When we got started I asked a builder friend of mine to build me a coop in the fenced area. He is Irish and intense and what he did was build me a rental. It is 12 x 15 with an arctic entry and is on pilings and he enclosed the ceiling (so no exposed rafters). I asked him if it was a little over the top and he said "Now you don't want to be wasting your materials, do ya" (imagine it with a heavy Irish accent). It is well insulated and has two operable windows. The biggest problem I have is the door. It is full sized and blows off the hinges at least once a year. There is a door laying in the yard right now...covered in poop. Big chickens have no problem getting in and out of the coop using the stairs. Little chicks have to work at it. I wish it had a smaller one for them to use in winter. Normally I just leave it wide open all the time. In the beginning we used to go out at night and chase them all into the coop. We realized this was not the best use of our time and have not bothered with it in years.

The inside is kind of odd for a coop. It has a main room and the entry. I have a roosting pole that runs across the room for them to perch on to sleep. I also have several nesting boxes that they don't use. I have never figured out how to get them to lay eggs where I want them to. We use the "Easter Egg Hunt Method". Our birds always just find a spot and lay their eggs and then we have to find them every evening like a fun game. Only it is a game that involves walking around in chicken poo. A couple like to lay in the corners of the main room under the boxes. One or two will start liking a milk crate we mounted to the wall...this is actually where I would like them to lay but it never becomes a popular spot. Most like to lay in dark corners in the entry area on top of the feed bags. Right now they are laying in my tote of oyster shells that they somehow got the lid off of.

We put linoleum on the floor of the coop before they moved in to try to protect it from rot and it seems to be working pretty well. We use straw in the coop and add it from time to time as the poop gets nasty.

The coop gets cleaned out each spring after break-up. A lot of the poo and straw gets put out into the yard which helps it compost a little easier. If there is a lot I put it in my compost pile. Chicken poo has to winter over before you can put it in the garden. I thought this sounded like BS one year and killed almost all my raspberries.

In summer flies are an issue. They are gross and there are LOTS of them. Mosquitoes also seem to hang out in there probably because it is out of the wind. In early summer the chickens eat the bugs, which is pretty sweet. But they must get tired of them or something because after a couple weeks they stop.

The biggest question I get is about heat and light. My chickens live off the grid. I am not paying for the fuel or electricity to heat or illuminate the coop.They are chickens. They lay eggs when they have 8+ hours of light. The temperature has nothing to do with it. I find that the eggs freeze and crack in winter by the time we get home so I just don't get any eggs from November until about March. It is also hard to have the Easter Egg Hunt in the dark and in the winter it is dark by the time we get home.

They usually molt in the late fall and stop laying don't start again until the light comes back. During cold months they get feed and we use snow instead of water because the water dishes freeze so fast. I have to have tough birds.

Their coop is about 10-15 degrees warmer than outside but when it is cold they hunker down and tough it out. When I lose a bird it is either a untested breed or an older hen or one that gets caught up in something and freezes before I find it. Last year I had one that wedged itself between the wall and a bag of feed and froze. I have had one that shredded the burlap feed bag and got all tangled in the shreds and froze. It is kind of astounding the creative ways they come up with to hurt themselves. Turkeys are the only birds that seem to be dumber.

The bottom line is that the coop needs a pole for them to roost on and it needs to be safe from predators. I have only had one incident and it was with a dog. He only got in because my kids left the gate open. I chased him off with a stick and ran after him down the road screaming obscenities like a nut case. Dogs are actually much more common and much more curious than foxes. If one gets in your coop they can kill all your birds in a blink and they are just playing.

The Chicken Chronicles - Enter the Chicks

(Picture of baby chicks just home from the post office. The one looking at the camera with the bump on its nose is a Turkey. Bottom right is a Buff Orpington. Bottom left is a light Brahma. They all looked great when they arrived)

Assuming you are not lucky enough to have a hen hatching eggs...you get to be the overlord of the chicks. Their life and health depends on the diligence of the keeper. As babies they are still stupid and poop all over everything PLUS they are cold and small and extra needy. And it is the only time (unless you are insane) that they get to poop in the house. These are the joys of baby chicks.

Arrival

When I get the call from the post I usually duck out and go pick them up right away. They are so loud the post usually calls two or three times in the twenty minutes it takes me to get over there. You get to schedule the day your chicks ship, they arrive a day or two after the ship date. They ship them in at least 25 at a time so they stay warm enough and they don't really need to eat those first two days. I don't know why, but they arrive alive (usually). Since I know the arrival date you would think I would be prepared and all set up...but I never am.

A chick or two may die in transit, but I often have them all make it. Only once have I lost more than two in transit. It was cold (zero-ish) when they arrived with half the birds DOA.

The first couple days are usually the most critical for the new chicks. I have a clip-on lamp with a metal dome on it. I put it on the edge of a plastic lined box. Sometimes I put a big bag on the outside of the box. Sometimes on the inside. Have I mentioned they poop all over everything??? Keep this in mind.

In the brooder box you need to put some kind of bedding or litter. Do NOT use cedar shavings. It will kill your chicks. I put down newspaper and then put shredded paper on top of it. Straw works. You also need to be sure that your box is big enough for a waterer and food dish and room enough for the chicks to move around. The more crowded they are the more cleaning and bedding the box will require. For food I usually give them moist chicken pellets. They turn into a mush when you make them wet. There is also chick starter, but I usually don't bother with it. Water is tricky. They are dumb and will drown themselves if you let them. I fill a jar with water, put a plate on it then flip it over. Tilt up the jar a little to let water out every so often. It keeps the water shallow. After a week I use a cottage cheese container I trim down to 2 inches high. I change out the water once a day and food twice a day. I give them little extras like noodles and veggies. When they are a little bigger they will chase each other around to try to steal the noodle from each other. It is worm like. If you can get a worm it is even more fun.

If your box is warm enough some chicks will be under the light some not. If it is too hot, none will be under the light and they sort of lay down and spread out their wings and look sort of flat. If they are cold they will all huddle in a pile as close as they can to the light. Check them every couple hours the first day.

When the chicks first go into the brooder I take them out of the shipping box one at a time. I gently dip the beak of each chick into the water a couple times and make sure it drinks. I also show it the food. You want to be sure they are all eating and drinking.

The Wobble of Death

The wobble of death is a bad, bad sign. A couple times I have seen the wobble and had a chick pull through. 99% of the time once they get the wobble they are goners. This is usually due to chills or not eating. I anticipate losing anywhere from 2-4 out of a batch of 25. This last round I lost 7, which is unusual. After the first couple weeks you are usually in the clear until they go outside.

You can buy fancy feeders and waterers. I have had them...then I lose them. I find using stuff I have sitting around works just fine.

Daily I add a new layer of clean bedding and then change out the whole box every week or so. I just throw the whole thing away. You can use a tote but then you have to wash it. Have I mentioned that they poop everywhere?

After a week you need to install a stick for them to roost on. Put it about an inch off the floor. Eventually they will all sleep off the ground instead of sleeping in the poop.

Sometimes they get "pasted vents", which is pretty much just a bunch of poop stuck to their butts. Clean it off with warm water if it is really stuck on there. Once they start roosting it is less of an issue.

Every week you can move the light back until around 3 weeks when you can get rid of it. By 4-5 weeks I am ready for them to head outside if the weather is warm enough (40-50 degrees). This is aggressive. I usually lose a couple in the move outside. But by then I am really tired of the smell of them in the house and it gets harder and harder to keep them in the box or to find one big enough for all of them.

Outside I have 3 basic issues. One they fit through the holes in the fence and are often running loose. A loose chicken is an eaten chicken. Two I have to worry about my grown chickens being mean to them. This is usually not too much of a problem but if I see it I get after the big chicken. Three it is hard for them to get in and out of the coop. If they get out and the temp drops at night they can get chilled and die on me. Wimpy breeds won't last a week in my yard. I have spent many hours chasing the little turds around trying to round them up and into the coop for their own safety.

When I put them out I have to be sure there is a watering dish that is not too tall so they can reach it. I also try to give them a box of some kind in the coop that the big chickens can't get into in case they need to hide.

By the time they are too big to fit through the fence they are good to go.

Anyone getting chicks should be prepared. They are really not very smart. They will do dumb things and you will lose a few along the way.

The Chicken Chronicles - Choosing Your Breed

Because of where I live choosing the right breeds of chickens is very, very important. It is COLD in winter here. I do not heat my chicken coop (because they are chickens and it is not worth the expense). If you are in a warm climate or if you want to pay the expense of heating a coop your breed options are much wider. Below are the breeds I have tried. There are dozens I have never messed with that are probably fine. Listed below are my tried-and-trues down to my what-was-I-thinkings.

In general the first thing to consider when choosing a breed for me is its comb. The comb is that red thing on its head. There are different kinds of combs. In general if you live in a cold climate you want a SMALL comb. Look at pictures of the adults of the breed. I go for Rose and Pea combs. The big floppy single combs that you think of when you think classic farm rooster are a bad idea in a cold climate. Why? Because they freeze. Even pea combs get a touch of frost bite in winter. Worst case scenario is that they will fall off after a cold snap. This can cause sterilization in roosters. Why keep a noisy rooster if he cannot fertilize eggs though??

Beyond the comb you want tough, old school birds if you live in a harsher climate. I have never tried a Sumatra because they originate from a tropical island. Logic tells me that they are probably not going to do all that well on the tundra. I have tried a couple of the crested ones and none have made it past a cold snap. Frilly ones in general start looking pretty nappy after a long three week sideways rain snap. I do have a friend here who has a some exotics but she babies her birds more than I do. It can be done...I just don't see it as the best use of my resources or time.

Buff Orpingtons

Buff Orpingtons are one of my favorite breeds. They are a sort of strawberry blond color. They lay nice brown eggs and are very tough in winter. They are also calm and have pea combs. They are among the last to stop laying in winter and the first to start up again in spring. I usually get an egg a day when the light comes back.

Black Australorp

One of the best egg layers out there. I was worried they would not be tough enough and I had one hen who laid an egg a day each summer for five years. They are black but have this pretty green sheen in the sun. They are very tough, nice and calm and have a small comb.

Barred Rock

These are a little smaller than my orpies and australorps. They are also more frantic. They run away and seem in a panic if you are in the coop. While kind of annoying, this is a pretty good defense too. They have small black and white spots (almost a hounds tooth pattern). So they are pleasing to look at. They are also ridiculously tough winter birds with nice small combs on the hens. They lay late into fall and start up for me again early in spring. Tons of summer production. These gals are also among those most likely to go broody for me. Since they are so skittish they are also good mothers. These are the most economic to feed out of all the birds I keep.

Brahmas (come in light, dark, buff, and maybe a couple other colors...I like the light ones)

Brahmas are huge and have feathers on their feet. I have a hit or miss relationship with my Brahmas. I have not had any luck in the last couple years getting any adults to keep.

My first experience was from Sandhill though and we had the best, HUGE rooster. We actually named him Big Al. I usually don't name my chickens...because they are stupid and poop on everything. But at the time I had 2 roosters. The other was a Barred Rock. Big Al was bigger and more dominant, but Rocks are frantic and Brahmas are the most mellow of all chickens. When I would go to the coop the Rock would come charging at me with his spurs and Big Al would see him and kick the crap out of him to protect me...my personal guard chicken. So he got a name and got to live until old age. Eventually he broke the other rooster's leg and it had to hop around on one foot. Big Al was huge and white with feathered feet. He looked like a ptarmigan on steroids. We had a hen hatch some eggs and kept his son (an Australorp - Brahma cross) after he died. He was also a great rooster.

My Brahma hens have been mellow, winter tough, and excellent egg layers. We killed Big Al when he could no longer walk. He was so big that his feet went bad after four years. When we butchered his son we could see that he grew so big so fast that his breast bone had an odd bend to it. I was very bummed when all 5 of my straight run light Brahma chicks died this go round. I lost the one I got last year when his foot got caught up in something. They are just big and nice to look at with great temperaments. They are probably not the most economic eaters though. Also when they cross with other breeds you get scraggly feathers on the legs of the offspring. Brahmas are our favorite roosters.

Ameracaunas (Easter Egg Chickens)

Ameracaunas are a mixed breed with ties to South America. They are fun and I have had pretty good luck with them. Their color runs the gambit. They are usually multi-colored, have tufts of fluffy feathers around their face, and green feet. What makes them extra fun is that most of them (a few don't because of the mixing) lay eggs with green shells. Insides are like regular eggs but those green shells are too much fun. Kids go bananas for them. I have also found them to be tough birds that make it through winter. They are not my best layers but they are pretty good and the novelty makes them a keeper.

Wayandottes (come in various colors)

These are known for their winter toughness. I have had some. I think I have one right now. But they have never really caught my fancy in the way others have. They are frantic like the rocks but are bigger. They are pretty good layers of brown eggs. Lots of people love them and if you are in a cold climate they are a sure thing.

Red and Black Stars

These are a production variety. They will lay lots of eggs. I have had a couple winter over but they are more likely to die in winter and I find that they might make it through one winter but will not make it through two. If you are in a slightly better climate they can be rock stars on the egg production front.

Chanteclair

I want to try Chanteclairs but they are IMPOSSIBLE to get. They are the national heritage breed of Canada. They are supposed to be the toughest winter chickens ever. I have tried and tried but they are really really rare and hard to find. Some day though.

Jersey Giant

I had one Jersey Giant but went with a different rooster. They have a lot of potential and are supposed to be tough and excellent layers. They just eat a lot because they are so huge and that is not a quality I wanted in a rooster.

Dorkings

This is a breed I tried inadvertently when Sandhill did a substitution for me one year. They are very rare and are supposed to be excellent winter layers but they have huge combs so we wound up eating them. They are mellow and an excellent kind of odd looking rare breed if you live in a nicer climate.

Bantams

A Bantam is a half sized breed of chicken. They eat less and have smaller eggs but can be excellent layers. I stay away from them in general because in my experience they are MEAN! Especially the roosters. Someone left one in our chicken yard and it would attack anyone who went out there. I kicked him into the wall three or four times and he just did not take the hint...so we ate him. If you need feisty chickens that can better protect themselves Banties come in all kinds of colors and kinds. If you have kids, stick to the mellow breeds.

We did have one old bantie someone gave us. We named her Ittie Bittie. She was 4 when we got her and was not a bird to be messed with...but she left people alone. We had her another 4 years and she hatched three rounds of chicks, which was super funny since they were eggs from the big chickens and all grew up to be twice her size. She kept laying an egg every so often right up until she died.

Crested Breeds

There are all kinds of funny looking breeds with weird doodles on their heads. They are fantastic and strange. I have tried a couple on a whim and have had one as a mystery chicken from McMurray...none have even survived the summer for me, much less made it to winter. Pam has one in her more upscale set-up and he apparently gets picked on a lot. If you go this route and just want show chickens...get all crested so none looks different from the others.

Next post...Baby Chicks