Help me select a breed chickens

Hello everyone, i wanted to ask a question.
Which egg laying breed would thrive in a free range farm (fenced half acre with a shed) with supplementary food?
Must forage, be both heat and cold tolerant, average brooder, good mothers, not aggressive.
Thank you in advance for your answers.
I was thinking of dominique chicken breed.
What do you think of them?
Any other suggestions?

I'm thinking Easter Eggers are right up your alley.

I'm not sure what your aerial predation looks like but they should do well for you.

I'm not sure if they are available in your area, but Black Australorps would also probably fit the bill. Known for going broody, but not as much as some. Known for being calm. Do reasonably well in heat, and do fine in cold.

Australorps were my initial choice but i read that they are more prone to heatstroke than other breeds.
Also i read that Easter eggers are not very good egg producers and they are not a real breed.

When had our homestead, we had Rhode Island Reds.

We like Rhode Island Reds because they are an all-around great chicken.

The hens lay nice large brown eggs.

These chickens are great for meat and are friendly and cuddly besides being a pretty red color.

Rhode Island Reds handles the heat in Texas really well.

But they don t go broody, are they?

By "real" do you mean APA accepted breed? Is that a priority? What 3 things are most important? The big breeder websites have good search filters once you know that.

I'd first narrow it down by looking at the heavy breeds only. We have very independent chickens with a really good record for just being smart. No wyandottes (too many crop problems). If you are in a climate that gets very cold, you may want to choose a breed with a rose or strawberry comb to avoid frostbite. We have a mix of heritage breeds plus a few Red Star (commercial hybrids) and maran x ameraucana for olive eggs. We love our Russian Orloffs. We've had them for 10+ years, but they rarely go broody. They can lay through winter well.

others-
barred rock
rhode island red
cuckoo maran

I was going to suggest Easter Eggers, too.  Technically they aren't a 'real' breed, in that they aren't listed in the Standard of Perfection as a breed, but for all practical purposes you could call them a landrace breed.  They do lay quite well, and the ones I've had have been some of my more reliable broody hens -- not all of them, but usually two or three hens in each batch, which is plenty to raise a few replacements.

You might try Icelandics, but they tend to go feral and hide eggs all over the place, and roost in trees rather than in their house.

I've had SO many different kinds of chickens, and over and over, I go back to Easter Eggers.  I really love that breed.  I had a mixed flock of 40ish chickens and as I lose them, the vast majority will be replaced with Easter Eggers.  I can't help but keep trying new chickens because I love meeting new breeds, but Easters Eggers will always be the backbone of my flock.

We like Buff Orphingtons. They do free range and currently they are turning our compost pile for us while getting lots of good protein. Also, a friendly breed too.

yup, easter eggers can lay as well as most other ‘dual-purpose’ breeds, and better than some.

Konstantinos Tsaousidis wrote:Australorps were my initial choice but i read that they are more prone to heatstroke than other breeds.

My experience with black australorps has been in a cold climate, so that may be true. However, various hatcheries and other poultry websites claim they are heat and cold tolerant (naturally all chicken breeds need shade and water when it gets hot). They were first breed in Australia... so I would imagine they have some tolerance to heat.

Konstantinos Tsaousidis wrote:Australorps were my initial choice but i read that they are more prone to heatstroke than other breeds.
Also i read that Easter eggers are not very good egg producers and they are not a real breed.

I'm in the Missouri Ozarks, and our temps here get into the 100 - 105s(F)/38C or more, during the summer and down into the -10 to -20°(F)/-23 to -29C range, in winter. As long as they have shade and access to water, they do very well. I also have Buff Orpingtons and Barred Rock. All three of these breeds have done very well, here, free-ranging about 80 - 90% of the time, and are gentle, calm, good layers, & dual purpose. The buffs are definitely the broodiest of the three, in our experience, and will happily hatch everyone else's eggs, too.

Welcome to Permies!

Before I launch into my "Dorkings are AMAZING!" speechifying, you're getting good advice.
Every breed *can* be a good breed for what you want, depending on where you get them and what the parent stock is like. I've had great birds that were from great stock, and awful birds (but good breed reputation) from awful stock. Your birds are coming from a currently unknown source, so that's going to affect what your birds are going to be like. We can only answer in broad generalities and for our own experiences and what we've seen in reading, other's experiences, and our best guesses.

For most livestock, if you get your initial chicks/young birds from a local animal keeper, you'll probably get reasonably good stock that will fit the bare minimum of what you're looking for. If you want to experiment, mail order chicks are the way to go, from a mail order hatchery that's either in your general region or large enough to ship nationally. The older the company, and the better organized it is, the better your initial orders will be treated. There are problems with mail order chicks, so that needs to be considered, too.

I don't know if you have previous experience with chickens, or any other bird, what your housing situation is for the birds, how you intend to brood, .... There's a lot of general information that does affect what kind, age, and type of birds you're looking for.
Hopefully you're considering getting chicks in the spring, which gives you a few months to get your supplies together, decide on a breed, decide on a hatchery, get on the list for that breed at that hatchery, and get your funding together for the order. I suggest chicks in the spring because that's when you get the largest possible options of breed and type. There are chicks available year 'round from hatcheries, so if you decide to get one of the "production" type of breeds (all the hybrid and dual purpose hybrids), you can order them at just about anytime, as long as you're willing to pay for heat/cold packs to help the chicks in shipping.

If you're looking for a breed that's adapted to cold weather, the larger the body, and the smaller the comb, the better.
If you're looking for a breed that's adapted to hot weather, the larger the comb, and the smaller the body, the better.

Any long term temperatures below 0C and 32F will necessitate special care being taken, but that care isn't anything onerous for most people. Most chickens are pretty good at generally temperate (75F/23C to 32F/0C) temperatures with protection from wind and wet. As long as you aren't too far outside those temperatures, any chicken breed would do well.

This website has a list of 100 birds as well as some advice and is something I've recommended to others : Website of "List of Chicken Breeds".
This one has a more complete listing of chicken breeds, but not quite as much information that's useful to a homesteader: The "Complete" list.

There are individuals that will behave in a unique and interesting way. Over my years of "chickening", I have had "production" birds that went broody. I've had "unreliable" layers that laid every day for 6 weeks. I've had "calm" breeds that were absolutely awful for my flock, and "aggressive" breeds that got along fine with everyone. It's best to make decisions based on the known traits and tendencies, but always keep in mind that you are raising tiny dinosaurs that will happily prove you wrong in everything.

There are trade-offs. A large dual purpose  chicken will take longer to grow up but will have a tendency to lay larger eggs than a smaller or faster growing chicken. A small broody will not be able to sit as many eggs as a larger broody.
My Lavender Orpington has handled the freezing cold and impossibly hot temperatures with equal ease, but lays a nice brown egg every three or four days and has only gone broody once in her life. She's also not one of my more adventurous chickens, never leaving the yard unless the gate is open and solidly middle of the flock.
My Gold-laced Wyandottes got frostbite on their combs, but didn't do as badly as the Barred Rock in the cold weather. My Dominque didn't blink twice at the freezing sleet, and handles the heat like a champ, going wading when it gets to be too much.

I only just have the Marans (they're about 5 months old?), have never had Brahmas, and can't speak to the Australorps. I know a few people who really really like the Australorps for their size (which is useful for dealing with certain situations) and their tolerance for wild temperature shifts.

I will join the others in saying that Easter Eggers can be the most wonderful, adaptable, and smartest of my flock. I'm actually placing an order for new additions in the spring since I'm finally looking at the last one in my flock and I need their silliness around. At 5 years, she was still laying an egg every 5 days or so until she went into molt, and I hope she restarts when she finishes molt. The Easter Eggers have proven to be heat and cold tolerant, and didn't cause trouble of any sort. They are the easiest of my flock to train for silly tricks and things.

I will now advocate for Dorkings.
Dorkings are smaller bodied than many of the other dual purpose chickens. They don't travel far but are active foragers. I have never had to worry about where they might get to or if they might bother the neighbors. The roosters are calm and the only roos I have had that consistently Not Attack me, but Do Attack predators. I had a Dorking roo who stood off a Carcara and have had several that defended their flock against dogs, cats, and bobcats.

They have a reputation for being bad layers, but that's in part because a Good Dorking hen will brood. I have had multiple Dorking hens who would only break brood for caring for chicks before going right back to it. One hen was so persistent, she brooded for 75 days straight, only stopping when she hatched a gosling.
Another part of their bad laying reputation is that they lay a smaller (average for my flock is a medium) sized egg roughly 1 out of 3 days. I have found that *where* I get my chicks from really determines how well they lay. Some of the commercial hatcheries have Dorking flocks that are geared toward a production hatchery model, so they lay and don't brood, but the focus is more on conformation than laying so ... They are pretty birds that don't do much of anything except taste good.

What sorts of things are you really interested in for your flock? Would you be willing to put up with silliness for a historic breed, are you looking for something that's more hands off, or are you just thinking about getting started with a flock and want to have good birds to experiment with?
New Hampshire and Rhode Island Reds are great starter chickens, as are any of the English breeds. Buckeyes have a reputation for being easy keepers and are great for colder areas, having been developed for people in Montana and Canada.
Really, there's more than one chicken breed out there for you, or you can go landrace it and just have fun with the chickens that do well for you.  

Konstantinos,

I live in an area with hot, dry summers (up to 44 C) and freezing nights in winter (-3 to -10 C). None of the breeds I had never had any issues with hot or cold. They just hide in the shade or bury themselves in cool wood chips/dirt.

A breed from the warm part of the world is Penedesenca, originally from Catalonia. The roosters are sweet and mothers sit on their eggs.

Another success was French Faverolle - excellent mothers, gentle roosters.

My Easter Eggers never tried to be sitters and Orloffs had some hip problems (probably due to inbreeding). Buff Orpington is a good choice too, but I never had their roosters. Andalusians were good layers, but roosters were monsters.

I looked at Dominique's for a while, but decided against adding them to my flock because they didn't lay as well as I wanted. I'd suggest looking at Australorps, White Rocks, New Hampshire Reds, Easter Eggers, Bresse, Standard Old English, Icelandic, Brahma, Hamburg, and Norwegian Jearhon's. I'll go into more details on those breeds in just a second, but I figured I'd mention our experience with picking our first chickens. We started out by wanting the Silver Laced Wyandottes, but ended up deciding last minute to try several different kinds. I'm super glad we tried more than the Wyandottes! They were actually our least favorite breed of the ones we bought. I would highly suggest starting with a mixed flock. Try some of "this" breed, a couple of "those," and even some of "that" breed. Explore a couple, and find what works best in your situation. There's no one size fits all, so I'd try to avoid locking myself into one breed before I know it's what I want. You can learn more about the breeds I'm currently raising at our Website.
I'll post some different a couple breeds (using the chickens I suggested) later.

Australorps are a really great dual-purpose chicken that forages well and is both cold and heat hardy. They go broody VERY often in my flock (every spring and fall I can count on basically every one of them going broody), so if you don't want them to brood that often I wouldn't suggest them. I've had one rooster that my younger siblings made me butcher because they thought he was mean to them, but he was never aggressive towards me.

White Rocks are one of my favorite pure bred chickens, and they are a great all around breed. Great egg laying (with awesome longevity), nice carcasses, handle the cold and the heat without issues, and they forage well. They don't brood nearly as frequently, and I haven't hatched chicks under any of them, but they have gone broody fairly reliably.

New Hampshire Reds are another great all around breed, but they don't brood as much as either of the previous breeds. They have a great carcass size, lay well, and I have had them show great laying longevity.

Easter Eggers are adorable, and would make a great choice for a starter flock. They lay colored eggs as well, which is pretty fun! They're hardy, dual purpose, and lay well. I have noticed that they tend to have lice issues in their facial feathers, but that can be handled with proper care. As far as roosters go, I've had both really great Easter Eggers, and really bad ones. Mostly really nice though (I have a really old guy who's won the "stay around 'till you die of old age" award).

I haven't had Bresse nearly as long as the previous breeds, but I've liked them pretty well. They lay really well for the first couple years, but seem to drop off production faster. They produce worldwide known meat that's really tasty, so that's a plus. They forage really well, and are both cold and heat hardy. The roosters have all been really nice so far, and I have one I like nearly as much as my ancient Easter Egger.

The Standard Old English is a little hard to get ahold of now, but I've liked the ones I have. They lay really well for the first couple years, are very smart foragers, are cold and heat hardy, and brood really well (one hen ran away last winter and had 20 eggs up to a week from hatch time before I found her and moved half the eggs to another broody hen). The roosters are very hit and miss as far as temperament goes, though, so I'd be careful about that. Some are really nice, and others chase my brothers around the pen (granted, they chased some of the roosters around the pen to start with, lol, but the roosters still shouldn't do it).

I haven't had the Icelandics before (I tried to get some this year, but the small hatchery was flaky and never sent any), but I've heard really great things about them. They lay really well, are extremely hardy, and forage for a large portion of their food. Other than that, I can't tell you much else.

I guess I should specify that I would suggest breeding in Hamburg to your other breeds. My pure bred hamburgs weren't my favorite, but I love their crosses. I had two hens out of a Hamburg x Black Australorp cross that laid nearly 360 eggs a year and were super hardy. The Hamburg x Easter Egger cross threw nice laying, thrifty foraging, hardiness, and brooding.

Brahmas aren't nearly as thrifty of foragers, but they lay fairly well, are super hardy, and brood well. If you like feathered feet, I'd suggest trying them. This is another breed I've tried crossing with other breeds to good success, but I also really like the purebreds. The roosters in my flock have generally been really gentle (so gentle I'm starting to run into issues with wanting to hold onto more of my Brahma cross roosters than I need, but I mean, what's wrong with more impressive looking pasture decorations? lol).

Norwegian Jearhons are a pretty rare breed, but the ones I have are nice. They lay really well for the first couple years, are hardy, and forage well. They have never gone broody.

Wow
Thank you all for your informative answers, i really appreciate all of them!
I come from Greece and where i will put the chickens can be as hot as 39 celsius under shadow at summer and as cold as -13 at winter.
I want birds that
1-can tolerate those temperatures provided a shed.
2-forage in a fenced area so the cost of their feed will diminish.
3-brood averagely and be good mothers so they can replace themselves naturally without me using incubators.
4-the roosters not be very aggressive at people.
5-and on top of all that they must be good egg layers.
I know that there might not be one breed that fits all that criteria perfectly that s why i ask for advice.
I was thinking maybe to crossbreed some araucanas with dominiques to create my own Easter eggers.
I will research every one of your suggestions though, and take a thoroughly look at the list of all the chicken breeds.
Thanks again and please keep posting suggestions.

I think i decided to cross dominique roosters to araucana hens.
So after the offspring of dominique roosters and araucana hens have the same color, will they have other similarities?
Or should i expect diversity in egg production, combs etc?
How many generations does it take to breed true?
And what will the life expectancy be for these Easter eggers?

You're asking how long it would take for a new hybrid to become gene stable?
A long time. Several generations of controlled breeding. Many years of controlled crossing and saving whatever you consider the best of the birds produced.

With the variations available from hybridization, until it's done, there is no way to tell what the new hybrid chicks will grow up to be. That's a big part of the fun of crossing breeds. You never know what's going to happen.

Document this as you go along and let us know when you're done. Then we'll all know.

Hybridization and controlled breeding is an exciting way to come up with a chicken that's uniquely fit for your situation. You do that. over years, by deciding what characteristics you want your flock to have and then only saving and breeding the chickens that show those particular traits. If you have found two breeds that you like and you want to save the traits you prefer in those two breeds, great! You're part of the way there!

No one can know, with any certainty, what such a crossing will initially result in.  The chick may have the look of Dominique and the personalities of Araucana. Or vice versa. Or something that's a mash-up of both. Or something all together new and interesting.
Chickens, as a general rule, will all live to be the same basic age and age about the same way. I'm sure there are amazing examples of productive, long-lived chickens of all breeds somewhere, depending on how they are cared for and what kind of life they have. It's up to you to make certain determinations about how you care for your chickens, when you decide you want to breed them to encourage a longer life (saving the eggs from older hens means that you increase the chance the chicks will have more of a tendency to lay eggs longer/live longer) but there's a lot involved in the questions you asked.

There are no easy answers. It's a constantly changing goal, one I hope you can be excited by and look forward to.