Buckeye

I've raised Buckeye hens for over a year now and I love them and planning for more. Buckeyes are well adapted for free range, able to forage independently on pasture. They're out for bugs, and pretty much anything that crawls, hops, or flies out of the grass.

In addition to keeping an eye out for insects they are good at spotting danger as well. I don't own a rooster, but my hens are keen to sound the alert if a snake is in the grass or a hawk is flying over.

I have hatchery chicks and I've read of as well as experienced some agression with day-olds, so if you find you have one or two that want to wrestle everyone else down in the brooder this is probably normal; and a likely testament to their game fowl roots. Just be prepared to isolate the offender immediately if that happens.

Beyond this they will establish a pecking order so if you see them dancing at each other it shouldn't last too long before they lose interest or one submits.

Probably one of my favorite things about them is their personalities. They have all sorts of little calls and coos, and are very curious. They will talk back, and converse, and are overall very vocal, but not loud or abnoxious.

I highly recommend this spiritied American breed for those who free range or have plenty of space for them to go forth and forage.

These are our best breed for winter. (Zone 5). They charge out into the snow like it’s not snowy. Even our Chantecler’s try and avoid the snow .
These are great for kids!
Ours come to our front door every day at 3pm because I used to feed them at 3 as younger chicks.

When we first got Buckeyes I thought we were getting the absolute most boring looking birds ever. But without those looks, we probably wouldn't have a bird with so many great qualities.
The roosters are awesome natural leaders and make great carcasses, and all Buckeyes have neat personalities. The best part is their cold tolerance and free range abilities of course.
I love my Bantam Buckeyes even more than the LF but I swear both purchased hens were cursed by bad luck.
My first prolapsed and died with her first egg, the second at least waited to die until she produced a few chicks. (But still, she got sucked up by a tornado just a few days before the county fair. welcome to the Midwest ppl.)

Our buckeye rooster came without notice, he walked straight in our yard and did his own thing! We decided to take him as our own since no one claimed him as theirs. Ever since I’ve got him, he’s been a really easy bird to deal with. He’ll always watch over the girls while they eat and scare our cat away when he comes passing by. I’ve never been flogged or threatened by my rooster, they’re very chill, and loving creatures. This breed deserves a five!

After reading some reviews, I am shocked at how many people have friendly, approachable buckeye hens. My girl is the most aggressive of all my hens, constantly fluffing her neck feathers and asserting her dominance over the other hens. Which i know, there is a pecking order, she has earned her place at the top, but everyone will just be grazing together and she'll decide that is a good time to remind everyone of her place. Also, I sincerely love that she is curious and enjoys exploring, but she is so often hard to call back in the coop. She'll literally be within sight, looking at me but she is just flat out stubborn. I couldn't imagine a hen of this breed to be any other way, but I suppose there are several!

I've just had the one buckeye raised from a day old chick. I purchased her thinking that she might kill mice. I watched her completely ignore mice eating out of her feeder. I always had to go looking for her at night when she was missing from the coop. She would have gotten her self stuck in some obstacle around the yard and injured herself trying to escape whatever she got stuck in. This required me to constantly nurse her back to health. I've never had such a dumb and needy bird.

These are some of the best birds I have ever owned, and are a staple in my flock. The roosters are consistently the sweetest full-sized roosters I've ever owned. The hens are lovely to have around, and are more than willing to be handled.

Their feathers or ridiculously shiny at times. They don't peck at each others feathers, and don't fight or pick on each other (or other breeds). Their pea combs makes them fantastic for the winter, and are the only American developed pea comb (and are specifically bred to be cold hardy.) They are a good sized breed, and their meat is wonderful.

I honestly could go on and on about the great things about this breed. Personally, I think they should be renamed the awesome-st birds alive (but that might just be me). They are a fabulous breed, for the new and the old.

They're a great dual purpose breed, but primarily are used for meat. They don't grow as fast as some of the modern cross breeds do, but they grow faster than other heritage breeds.

The only fault I have for this breed is that few people raise them, and they are on the critical-endangered chicken breed list. If you want a great, all around breed, this is the breed for you.

We added a few buckeyes to our flock late last spring simply because we needed some filler chicks to get the last 4 easter eggers from the feed store and the only others they had were buckeyes... weren't we lucky?

I absolutely love our buckeyes. They are beautiful birds with wonderful burgundy colouring and reddish heads. They are the hardiest of our chickens who go out and have dust baths when there's no snow even when it's 20 degrees out and windy! Nothing stops them from going out in the outdoors, whether it's rain, wind, or snow... tough and resilient they are. They fared well with no frost bite on their mini combs or feet this winter, even in the dry, cold, bitter windy weather.

Our buckeyes lay big, brown eggs almost every day, all winter long. They lay very early in the morning, and we only catch them a few times, but those big brown eggs with the thick shells are hard to miss!

Our buckeyes aren't going to come running up to sit in my lap like some of the others. But they're friendly and calm, and one of the best words I can think of is 'stoic'. They don't flinch with the others, and are always alert and calm when other birds are panicked from something flying overhead or a scary noise in the woods. They will walk up to you and follow you without you even noticing it, and many times I turned around and nearly stepped on them because I didn't even hear them following me. They are rather routine, hang out mostly together, perch together, and always go to the same areas at the same time of the day. It's hard to see one buckeye without the other nearby.

The only flaw from mine is that they don't protect themselves. They don't make any effort to get themselves a pecking order, and are routinely attacked by our mean, young rhode islands who are trying to establish themselves. Both our buckeyes have pecked heads every night but they always just sit together and do their best to avoid the mean birds. I only saw one fight back once, and it was when the other hen would not leave them alone, chasing them everywhere, pecking them. She won that little fight and fortunately won her rights to be able to walk around the yard without being harassed.

If you like a bird who isn't a bully and is tough, hardy, beautiful, and a good layer, the Buckeye is quite possibly a good choice!

I will be adding more of these to my flock as soon as I can. I really like these girls. They look at you with calm, curious, seemingly thoughtful eyes.

The only american breed developed entirely by a woman,also the only american breed with a pea comb.They are a great dual purpose bird and need more breeders in

This is Bonnie. She is one of our female Buckeyes. We have two females and one male. The male is darker than the females and the weird thing that I had never read is that the male has a different kind of comb than the females. While the other two buckeyes aren't as friendly as Bonnie, Bonnie sure is the friendliest bird we have. As soon as we open the coop door, she greets us. In fact, she was the first bird to jump on my lap. These birds are sweet, and love looking at us. They are very pretty, although they do look very similar to RIRs (currently at 11 weeks). I wish we had more chickens like Bonnie.



Above is one of our females. The other female has the same comb, but she avoided us this morning so I couldn't get a picture of her.


This is our male. It's a single comb. We got him from Meyer's Hatchery online, so I'm sure he's full-breed, but who knows! Maybe a RIR snuck into the Buckeye batch!

I have a Buckeye Flock and love them. Buckeyes are an Ohio breed that was developed be Nettie Medcalf in 1896. This breed is a great duel- purpose breed and will lay medium sized light brown eggs. Buckeyes are also great for free range.

We have a rooster and hen and they're great. Pumpkin the hen would rather not be handled but lays well. They're both great foragers and get along well with our mixed flock. Our rooster Pablo is great, he isn't aggressive at all with us or our dogs and takes great care of his ladies. We ended up with them on accident when an egg order was mixed up but they're good birds and we would have them again.

My buckeye hen is my favorite breed. She took the longest to lay, but she may have laid sooner than we thought because the feed store said they laid white eggs and that's what we were looking for. At first the other hens picked on her a bit, but she was the youngest and once she got older she was fine. She always thinks you have food and will follow you around. When she's eating you can walk up to her and pet her, and she makes a pretty cooing noise. When they get to forage, she finds a worm with almost every scratch. And now that she has started laying, she lays us large, pretty brown eggs frequently. As long as I keep chickens, I will want a buckeye.

My Buckeyes are absolutely beautiful and did well in our Alaskan winter. My Rooster is an absolute sweet-heart and loves being petted; he will sit beside me for hours just to be petted. Unfortunately my pullet is skittish and my rooster is inside the house right now because he gets chased away from the food and is really thin. I have not seen one egg from my pullet and she is 9 months old.

I only have one buckeye hen, so that is a small sample, but I think she is great. A bit of a loner, I thought she might get ganged up on, but she holds her own, and is always off investigating something. She has also caught and eaten snakes, voles, and mice.

Buckeye, a breed originating in Ohio, are wonderful birds for cold tolerance and egg laying. They are cold tolerant, as there feathers provide warmth--unlike many tight-feathered game breeds. Also, worries about frostbite can be assuaged with this breed, as they have a pea comb, which isn't prone to frostbite like the single comb. Buckeyes are good layers and have dual-purpose qualities. To glance at the cons, Buckeyes have aggressive and broody (although some people like broodiness) tendencies. I have also heard of Buckeye roosters being nasty, which is a con if you are wanting to raise them for pets or breeding. Overall, they are a mediocre breed.

One of the best dual purpose birds out there. Most birds called dual purpose produce scrawny, disappointing carcasses but not the buckeye! Males make great meat birds. Hens are good layers and are calm and not flighty. Good foraging instincts. Roosters are good protectors

Hello all,

My name is Joseph Shumaker, owner of Shumaker Farm is located in Southwestern Ohio and is dedicated to the preservation of the Buckeye breed as Nettie Metcalf (the breeds creator) intended. We began breeding/raising Buckeyes in the fall of 2009. A single cock from Mr. Jeff Lay and a single hen from Mr. John Brown is all we started with. The rest we can say is history. This year (2014) will be our 5th year breeding this family of poultry. We’ve added a few additional, select birds in the past couple years but our breeding stock is set.

Shumaker Farm maintains a flock of roughly 50 mature buckeyes at the moment. We are fortunate to have the ability of rearing roughly 200 Buckeyes yearly. From that we cull and select through specimens for exhibition and our breeding program. Every year, we keep producing better quality specimens, so we are very excited for the future generations!!!! There is nothing like eating farm-fresh eggs and the flavor of home grown chicken!!!!

Please check out our website; http://www.shumakerfarmbuckeyechickens.com for more information.

This is a wonderful breed. I have enjoyed my hen and wish we could have roo's in the neighborhood. I'd breed them. My Buckeye is called Ruby and she does have curiosity and wants to know what you are doing. I can't think of anything that I don't like about her. She was picked out as a adolescent going into adulthood so she is a little flighty with me. Still getting to know one another and loves to free range. An over all good chicken! She has not started laying eggs but I expect her to within a few more months.