Hi everyone,
Now we have had our offer accepted on the house in Orkney I'm starting to think about planning up there. I want to plan carefully, taking into account the weather, mainly windy, that is up there!
One of the first things we will do is get chickens and ducks but it will be the first time we have kept them and i want to make sure I get a breed that will be suitable for our situation.
For the chickens we would like a breed who is good for meat and eggs. They will be free ranging so something that is a good forager would be nice. I would also like them to go broody every now and then, if we rear for meat it would be nice to use the hens as the incubators! But most importantly they need to be hardy to cope with the strong winds and the fact that living on an island means the vet isnt down the road.
For the ducks, much the same really, I want a breed that is good for meat mainly, I'm not too fussed about egg production as long as they lay enough to fill my incubator a couple of times each year to give us plenty of table birds. There is no pond at present so we need a breed that isnt dependant on pond access (they will have access to water from a big sandpit which can be emptyed and refilled) and again, who is able to cope well with the weather conditions and have a measure of good health.
I'd love to hear your opinions on which breeds would best suit this environment.

I think planning is half the fun!
