New person over here!

[chellbean]

Hi I'm a hard working mother of two little ones. We are preping to move out onto 10 acres in NE Oklahoma. I have been canning for a while now, but a lot of my produce has come from local organic family farms. We don't have the space we want to grow what we need. Thus the move. We are planning on getting chickens, but still aren't sure as to which breeds will do best for our bipolar weather. We are looking forward to getting our little ones to help out on our little homestead. There are too many kids that don't know where their food comes from, and we will not let our children join their ranks.

 

[sumi]

Hello Welcome to SS! I love your plan of moving to a bigger property and starting a little homestead for yourselves and your little ones. In my opinion that is probably the best way to raise a child!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Hello and welcome from Texas. Good luck in your venture - it sounds like a great plan!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Hi and welcome from NH! I don't know what your weather will be like but most of us keep chickens and could help direct you towards a breed or breeds. Of course we might be a little biased towards the ones we keep... Lol

Love talking to others with kids they're raising on the homestead. I have one, and another on the way. Look forward to hearing about your journey!

 

[tortoise]

How old are your kids? Mine are 10 and 2!

 

[chellbean]

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome. My little ones are 7 and 4. They are home schooled right now. The oldest is special needs. We want to get more natural with our diets to help in that area too. Regarding our weather, it gets up to heat index of 110 or higher during summer. During winter we can have ice storms, blizzards, or it be very mild. We also tend to get a lot of rain where we are moving to. Do you have any suggestions on chicken breeds that do well with all of that?

 

[NH Homesteader]

I homeschool as well, and previous to that I was a special education teacher. Love talking to homeschoolers also!

I can tell you cold hardy breeds but not so much about the heat tolerant breeds. It doesn't get above 90 here too often. @frustratedearthmother can tell you about heat! I am in love with my dominiques for cold hardiness but they're pretty big birds so not sure how they would do in the summers there. They are by far my favorite breed.

 

[chellbean]

I was curious about the dominiques heat tolerance too. I need a breed that will be more tolerant to the heat, since I can heat the coop in winter. You can only cool it to an extent. I would like them to be docile too. I don't really care what color the eggs are.

 

[NH Homesteader]

My Dominique hens are a dream. My rooster is evil. Ok, he's not that bad but my daughter does have to carry a stick because he likes to go for your ankles. He is, however, an amazing protector of the hens and is very gentle with them. Hence why he's still around. @Beekissed how do your white rocks do in the heat? They sound like a great bird for docile temperaments and great layers. They might be a good choice.

 

[tortoise]

Homeschooling mom here too - sorta. I finally caved and sent DS10 to public school this year. The whole story is in my journal, if you care for details. DS2 is all excited about letters, numbers, and tracing