Poultry - Summer on the Homestead

How to Choose the Best Heat Tolerant Chickens

Heat Tolerant Chickens
How to Choose the Best Heat Tolerant Chickens for Your Homestead!
The Self Sufficient HomeAcre

Heat Tolerant Chickens

Heat-tolerant chickens are a great choice for homesteaders who live in southern climates. Chickens have trouble dealing with extreme heat in the summer but some breeds adapt better than others. If you live in an area with hot humid weather, raise these chickens! They will lay more eggs and be less susceptible to heatstroke than many breeds.

So what makes some chicken breeds heat-tolerant while others suffer in the summer? Chicken breeds tolerant of hot climates tend to have large combs and wattles and smaller body sizes. Why does this help them deal with heat?

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White Leghorn chickens enjoying the shade.

How Chickens Stay Cool in Summer

Chicken combs and wattles have a high concentration of tiny blood vessels (capillaries). Those capillaries circulate blood, and body heat, close to the surface of the skin.

This is a natural cooling system because it allows body heat to dissipate from the combs and wattles into the air. Chicken breeds with large combs and wattles have more surface area with capillaries to give off their excess body heat and keep them cool.

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Chickens with smaller body mass have a higher surface area to body weight ratio, which also helps keep them cool in hot weather.

So breeds like the White Leghorn, with their small body size and large combs and wattles, are more adapted for hot weather than large breeds with small combs.

How to Keep Your Chickens Cool in the Heat and Collect Eggs All Summer!

Heat Tolerant Chicken Breeds are Best for Hot Climates

If you live in a hot climate, like the southern United States, it makes sense to raise heat-tolerant chickens. Hot weather will stress chickens out and cause them to slow egg production, or stop altogether if they can’t cool down.

There are things you can do to help your flock chill out. Read about those below.

Start out right by choosing any of the following breeds for your homestead if you live in a hot climate.

Raise your meat chickens during a cool time of the year for the best results. Meat chickens have more body mass and may not gain weight as desired during hot weather.

Find out How to Raise Meat Chickens on your homestead!

heat tolerant chicken breeds - Lakenvelds
Lakenvelders are a heat-tolerant heritage chicken breed.

16 Heat-Tolerant Chickens for Homesteaders

  1. White Leghorns – Best Layer! & Brown Leghorn
  2. Rhode Island Reds – Best brown egg layer, also cold tolerant!
  3. Black Sumatra or Blue Sumatra
  4. Egyptian Fayoumi
  5. White Plymouth Rock & Barred Plymouth Rock – Also cold tolerant!
  6. Welsummer
  7. Ameraucana or Easter Egger – Also cold tolerant!
  8. Turken or Naked Neck – Also cold tolerant!
  9. Appenzeller Spitzhauben 
  10. Lakenvelder
  11. Silver Spangled Hamburg 
  12. Ancona
  13. Blue Andalusian
  14. Sicilian Buttercup
  15. Golden Campine
  16. Cubalaya
Rhode Island Reds are heat tolerant chickens and cold tolerant too
Cool your chickens down with a spray of cool water. This Rhode Island Red is cooling off under a sprinkler.

How to Help Your Flock Deal with Hot Weather

There are some things you can do to reduce heat-related stress in your flock:

  • Ventilate their coop to pull fresh air in and move hot air out
  • An evaporator system may be used if the temperatures aren’t too hot
  • Provide a lot of shade in their pen
  • Put a sprinkler on in their pasture to help cool things down
  • Plant a shade tree on the south side of the coop
  • Provide water dishes in several places, including in the shade
  • Put ice in their water
  • Give your flock several shallow pans of water that they may stand in to cool down
  • Supply vitamins and electrolytes in their water
  • Don’t feed corn, sunflower seeds, or other high-fat foods in summer
  • Reduce bedding in the coop, do not use the deep litter method in summer
  • Use a barn fan to blow air into the coop to cool birds
  • Start heat reduction methods before severe heat sets in to help them acclimate
  • Spritz stressed birds down with cool water if they act lethargic
heat tolerant chickens include Ameraucanas

Pick the Best Chicken Breeds for Your Homestead

If you are planning to add chickens to your homestead, start out right by choosing the breeds that will do best in your climate. If you already have breeds that aren’t the best fit, consider phasing out that breed and replacing them with one that is a better fit for your conditions and needs.

Hens that stop laying eggs due to heat stress are not a cost-effective breed for homesteaders in hot climates.

If you live in a northern climate and need chicken breeds that are cold-hardy, check out my article How to Choose the Best Cold-Tolerant Chickens. There are some breeds that do well in both hot and cold climates and those are indicated in the list above!

Do you live in a hot climate? What is your favorite breed of chicken for eggs, dual-purpose, or meat? Leave a comment!

Check out my Amazon Storefront for helpful products for your flock!

How to Choose the Best Heat Tolerant Chickens for Your Homestead!
The Self Sufficient HomeAcre

4 Comments on “How to Choose the Best Heat Tolerant Chickens

  1. My grandparents always had Rhode Island Reds and they were great for both the heat and the cold in Southeastern North Carolina. I will be getting some RIRs in the spring and I am already chomping at the bit.

    1. Hi Richard!
      Rhode Island Reds are one of my favorite breeds too. 🙂 They are great layers and, as you said, they do well in hot and cold climates. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and best wishes with your chicken project!

  2. we live in a hot and cold climate and I’ve had great luck with Rhode Island Reds, barred rocks, black and gold sex link, White leghorns. We’ve always use the deep litter method very successfully. We have a lot of ventilation, use a mister in their shade area and provide lots of cool treats like cucumbers. It all helps!

    1. Hi Nancy,
      Rhode Island Reds are my favorite breed for our hot summers and cold winters. I’ve also had good luck with the Barred Rock and Red sex link too. My White Leghorn rooster kept getting frostbite even though I coated his comb and wattles with petroleum free jelly and kept him inside in cold weather…I just put him down the other day because the tips of his comb froze, fell off and were bleeding. 🙁 But the hens are doing fine.

      Thanks for sharing your experience with us!

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