I ordered six Buckeye hens from My Pet Chicken way back in February. They apparently use Meyer Hatchery for a lot of their chicks. Meyer hatchery sells Buckeyes and the box they arrived in had a label that indicated they were shipped from Cleveland, OH (Meyer is in Polk, OH.). The birds arrived in wonderful condition on May 24th. Two did initially feather out differently from the other four and I sent a photo to Laura Haggerty, who very quickly responded that there are several strains off Buckeyes and they feather out differently, but all end up with the same shape and coloration. At 7 weeks, the two different ones turned out very slightly darker than the other four, but all six birds are well within the constraints in body type and coloration that would be expected for Buckyeyes. They DO look like the picture shown on Meyer's website.
My birds are very friendly and do not peck me or each other. Their "pecking order" displays involve one bird racing up to another bird from six feet away, with wings dropped to the sides like an eagle and hackes up. Then when they get up to the other bird they stop short about six inches away from her. No chest bumping, no pecking, just a "What was it I came here for anyway?" look. They don't even touch! ( I wish people were as non-confrontational as these birds!). They seem to be more into "roles", such as sentry, finder of interesting tidbits, and two birds seem to be involved in rounding up everyone for bedtime with cries of "Cree! Cree!Cree!", until all have trooped up the ladder to the coop.
My birds are very spoiled and heavily protected. I sang to them as chicks so they would know my voice. I give them mealworms as treats and sit with them in their run for a half hour a night before their bedtime, as "quality time". (I find it very relaxing after a crazy day at work around humans.) The birds spend the moments before "bedtime" sitting all over me, trying to fly up on my shoulder, roosting on my arms, sitting in my lap, etc. At this time of year (Early July) they go to bed here on Long Island, NY at about 7:30PM. I do need to order colored rings to distinguish most of the birds from each other, but I will order those from Randall Burkey. I get up at 4:45 AM daily and let them out of the coop at 5 AM, and they troop down the ladder single file into the run. It will be interesting to see if the same hen is in the lead and where her "bedtime assistant" is in the lineup once the identifying rings are in place.
Are they show quality? I have no clue, but it is gratifying to hear that they have been successfully shown. On suburban Long Island, where many view poultry ownership as a bit too "declasse", you couldn't find a poultry show if your life depended on it and it just wasn't a concern for me. I just wanted nice natured, friendly, non-aggressive, cold tolerant birds, and I certainly appear to have gotten that. I am very happy with an order that apparently was sent by Meyer Hatchery.
