I'm late to the posting party, but thought I would add my experiences. We currently have 4 barred rocks, 2 black sexlinks and 2 Rhode Island Reds. We have had Australorps and Golden Comets in the past. We've never had a rooster...until borrowing one a few days ago. We've never had any problems with any hens being aggressive -- but that may have something to do with the amount they were handled by kids during their first few days and weeks -- they were forced to be used to people from the very beginning. Our current small flock of 8 hens laid throughout the winter, though production slowed down quite a bit -- it was a rare day we got no eggs, I suspect we averaged 2 a day. This spring it's a rare day that we don't gather at least 6 eggs. We live in Maine, so the winter is harsher than yours in NJ -- except for the water, the coop is not heated at all, not even on the nights that go below zero. From my experience and from what I have read, you are over analyzing the breed choice. Pick a breed (or two or three) that you like the looks of and that will do fine in your climate. If you buy at your local feed store or farm supply that's a pretty good way of being sure that the breed you get is appropriate for your region. And, of course, there are plenty of internet sites that will list the characteristics of many breeds, including whether they are cold/heat hardy, how productive they are at laying, what color eggs they produce, and how they cope with confinement. This page: http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html is pretty good and includes links to other sites that will give more detailed information on each breed listed.

My wife and I enjoy watching the wildlife, as long as the wildlife leaves our stuff alone. The coons, bobcats, red foxes, possums, coyotes and stray dogs all treated our chickens, turkeys and guineas as a walking, squawking buffet line, plus the rabbits and deer visited the garden salad bar every night. Then we got the LGDs - an adult Great Pyr female, and two GP/Anatolian Shepherd pups (not related to the adult). Since the pups have grown into yearlings, our predation has all but stopped, even with letting the poultry free-range all the time (chooks have an automatic chicken door on the big coop, and the guineas roost in trees next to the coop). Dogs keep anything they deem to be a threat to their charges run off, and have even run off or killed coyotes interested in the neighbor's calves. Other dogs are not tolerated on the property (20 acres). They will steal eggs if they find any unattended, though, and we can't seem to break them from it. At least they can't fit through the chicken door anymore, so can't reach the nest boxes. We keep a lookout for guinea nests, and when we find one, we either set up a temp fence around it to keep the dogs out, or take the eggs and give them to a broody Silkie or Cochin bantie to incubate. Honestly, our goats are more of a problem with garden and landscaping plants anymore. We have the garden fenced now, and when everything started waning a couple of weeks ago, we put three goats in the garden fence to clean it up.

Thanks again happyjacq - you are very special. Which is obviously why you got your very own fairy tale with your very own Prince Charming - or is that Knight in Shining Armour? lol. How many chickens do you have? What sorts? I don't know what ours are - 2 yellow chicks and 2 black chicks from the hatching at school - very technical! And the way my luck is going - they'll all be roosters. But we are committed now - we've built the bestest chook tractor ever (cost me less than $20 from Bunnings - got lots of roofing iron, timber etc from the scrap heap in the building site across the road - so I'm very pleased with myself). So if they all end up being roosters, I'll go buy a few silkies, or pretty bantams, to look beautiful in my backyard! Do poodles really make good chook wranglers? That must be funny to watch. Our babies have been in their chook tractor for a week now, and the last 3 days we have let them out in the afternoon. The first 2 days they stayed right next to their house, and put themselves back in after about 10 minutes (so we rushed and put their evening chook crumble in, and went "chookchookchook" - pretending we were teaching them the routine lol). Then last night when they were out, we moved their chook tractor from one end of the yard to the other. They didn't realise at first - my youngest son (4yo) was still with them - but when he started walking across the yard to get to us (about 25m) they just RAN after him - it looked so funny - Pied Piper of Chickens. Then they got sidetracked by a very nice daisy growing about 1m from their front door, and we were starting to get worried we would never get them all back inside. And even though they are just 5 weeks - they can get themselves to the top of the trampoline, so I was worried if we had to chase any, they might even make it over our 1.5m high timber fences. They are still growing their feathers (moth eaten straggly things they look at the moment lol)- seems a bit mean to cut them off one wing already!

You can look up the breeds of chickens, and they rate them as to whether they're ok for cold climates. I believe all my breeds are. The Barred Rocks, Wyandottes, Sex Links, Easter Eggers and Brahmas. As far as I know they're all good for cold areas. It gets pretty darn cold here in winter. They're coop by sundown is often 40° or less, but I have a flat panel heater on the back wall in there. It's only about 250watts on high, and heats it up about 5-8° more. This winter has been really mild tho. We're in the midst of a warm spell. Could get up to 80° this week! I figured the girls would be lounging around in the sunny spots in the pen today. But they spent most of the day off in a shaded corner all takin' a dirt bath. Goof balls!! Gettin' more eggs again tho!! And, as for the weeds, I actually don't dig up some of them. I let them grow a bit because the chickies love them! I save the dandelion, oxalis, chickweed, spurge, some grasses and a couple of other weeds that I don't know the names of. They go nuts when I throw them in the pen.