Buckeye Breed Thread - Page 359

Phrases like those are mirrored or closely mirrored in many of the articles I have.  The very last line:

Buckeyes suited me best, for my hens had that brown red surface like a ripe buckeye and the males were mostly almost a maroon red.

That is why I think the buckeyes are a darker color of garnet/brownish-red/maroon/buckeye nut color.  The shades are all very close (not exact, but close) in nature. All of the pullets/hens that are this color always have that black "ticking" in the hackle feathers.  I've never seen a darker hen that hasn't had it.

right or wrong?????/ At least it is fun.

Still no mention of the males being "too dark of a red color", you read quite a bit about them being darker than a RIR, but never to dark compared to any other breed.

Thanks for your input, knittychickadee

Thanks for the quote KnittyChick. The comment about RIR being sorrel go with what I have been taught about RIRs of yester-year. I am told the RIR of Metcalf's day was a much lighter bird, lighter than a Buckeye, closer to the color of a New Hampshire. This link shows a sorrel colored horse and it is almost N.H. color:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorrel_(horse)

However, the Exhibition RIR of today should be darker than the Buckeye and have that dead brown appearance vs. (comparatively) what will look like a red glow in the Buckeye.

I thought these color contrasts in horses cool: http://greenfield.fortunecity.com/dreams/799/hc/red.htm

I agree with you Chris, the dead brown appearance is not what should be sout after.
In  a 48 page document published by the ABC from 1916 states that the color and/or breeding the Buckeye should be a  Dark Mahogany, Mahogany Bay and Dark GARNET RED are often referenced as is the term nut-brown for hens/pullets and the Buckeye should be DARKER. 
It goes on to read: One of the famous Ohio breeders of the day, a Mr. M.B Deem of Eaton, Ohio, wrote a small section called  BEWARE of SMALL HEADS.Buckeyes should have a larger head and Mr. Deem warns about small heads in the Buckeye show circuit way back in 1916.  Apparently the Buckeye judges back then were favoring what Mr. Deem called snaky heads and Mr. Deem very boldly stated.No; the Buckeye should have a good, broad, deep head, which, with its compact comb and neat wattles, will have exactly the medium appearance demanded by the standard.  He also uses a reference to the rugged appearance of those Asiatic heads from which the Buckeye springs, and the ruggedness and strength should be preserved.

That book is full of everything regarding the breed at that time.

I just dug that up.

Food for thought.

I also noticed in that 1906 Pacific Fancier that Ms. Metcalf gives a thorough history of the Buckeye and she says definitively that she first learned of the SC RIR in 1896. her Buckeyes were already made & she was well on her way to getting them approved as a breed. She says she "exchanged birds and eggs with several of them (RIR breeders on the East coast), but never liked them well enough to mix them with my own." She goes on to describe how she showed some Buckeyes that came out with SC as RIRs in the shows and they won. The RIR breeders used those S.C Buckeyes to improve their color, their birds.

I've read that same thing. Interesting history.  Thanks for sharing

knittychickadee here are a couple pics you asked for.  One is a cock in the sun and the other of the same cock in the shade.  This cock has been on Champion Row twice in the junior class APA show and overall champion male at fair time 3Xs.  Every show he has been to, he has had best of breed with the exception of the Ohio Nationals last year to which he was reserve breed.




Below are a couple pics of some of our females





The heads that we are producing.  The first two are of one of our older hens.  Excellent producer. The last is of a pullet we hatched this year.




These are pics of this years pullets.

All of the pics are what we are breeding and exhibiting.

Chris, in reference to being able to tell which young birds are roos or pullets by first looking for red in the comb and then checking out the stockiness of the legs, I agree with you on all points...it's about  99% accurate, although I did have a chick that looked like it might be a roo at a young age but simply ended up being the BIGGEST Barred Rock hen I'd ever seen anywhere!

I have to say also, 1 7 mo old pullet has decided she wants to be broody.
So I have moved her in & out of the comfort of her coop, still, she is relaxed in my carrying her around and talks to me...I also set 12 eggs today.
IF she continues, in a few days I intend to give her dummy eggs.
And if she is relentluss, I will give her hatched chicks.
All the eggs right now are in my gQf......so will see how she is at hatching & dealing with babies in a Pacific Northwest Winter IN the coop with the others, cockeral included.
I will not give her all the chicks!
I am still not trusting the other hens....but I will give her some.

Bluface: I love your birds. I know you can only tell so much from a picture but even I can tell in those pictures: really, really nice! Thanks for sharing the pictures.

PinkDephi: Chris, in reference to being able to tell which young birds are roos or pullets by first looking for red in the comb and then checking out the stockiness of the legs, I agree with you on all points...it's about  99% accurate, although I did have a chick that looked like it might be a roo at a young age but simply ended up being the BIGGEST Barred Rock hen I'd ever seen anywhere!

I've been fooled a couple times before myself with a pullet extra large or a cockerel extra small. Then sometimes, I've learned to stick with my original call. A couple years ago, I had weighed all the birds at 8 weeks old. By their combs, overall appearance, size, weight, I had split up cockerels and pullets. At 16 weeks of age, one I had tagged as a hen, she had cockerel weight but she was a pullet -- at 7-8 months weighed 7.5 lbs, one big pullet.