Buckeye Breed Thread

[Tailfeathers]

You guys are driving me nuts with anticipation and anxiety!

I can't wait for my Buckeyes that James shipped me to hatch! The anxiety comes in over a bonehead move I made with the incubator. I had the incubator in the house all this year however the wife just came home and she wasn't real thrilled about it being in the house so we decided to move it out to the porch. Well, I set the eggs last Friday and was having a dickens of a time keeping the temp to hold steady. First it dropped to about 96 and them it got up to 102. Oh, I have a GQF Sportsman 1502 and was playing with the toggle switches. Thought I had the problem finally licked and it held right at 100 all day yesterday. Then I got up this morning to find it had dropped down to 95 or so.

Now, here's a very valuable piece of information. Might commit this to memory, “When dealing with a man, be sure to tell him to look at the Instruction Manual before operating equipment.” Stupid me. The book says right there that you can’t have the incubator in a place where it is below 50 degrees. It’s was only about 40 all day today. I moved it inside and managed to talk the wife into letting me keep it there until these eggs are due. I so leery of losing any of them that I don't even think I'll candle them at 14 days like I normally do. Hope I don’t lose all these eggs!

Chris, congrats on your new position and thanks for posting those pics. The rooster has such a similar appearance to the Mahogany Russian Orloff that it will be really interesting to see what they look like next to each other. It was that similarity to the MRO and the extreme rareness of the Buckeye that drew me into getting them. Btw, I have 15 MRO eggs in the incubator now with the 9 Buckeye eggs. I've wanted MROs ever since I first laid eyes on them and you have NO idea how nervous I am about those eggs in the 'bator too. As far as I know, my breeder may have the only MROs in the country right now so I can't wait to see if these hatch. I literally feel like a kids waiting for Christmas morning!

Now I have a question I just thought of for all you serious, seasoned Buckeye breeders. I thought of this just now because the Buckeye eggs look very similar to the MRO eggs. Have any of y'all tried to darken the egg color at all with the Buckeyes? Both the MRO and Buckeye eggs were pretty lightly cream-colored with a few speckles as I remember. I was just wondering if anyone has played around with the idea of a darker Buckeye egg?

God Bless,

 

[mrandmrschicken]

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Hey Cars... If it's bantam Buckeyes you're looking for, I'd be happy to share some eggs with you from the quad I am picking up in WI the day after Christmas. That is if the weatherman lets us go. Looks kinda dicey at this point. We live just South of Jackson in the Okoboji area. Have been to a couple swaps in St. James and did the New Ulm and Hutch shows this fall.

 

[Pathfinders]

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Hey Chris, congratulations on that "president" behind your name.

Laura, do we call you Madam Secretary?

Nah. Just Laura is fine.

 

[CARS]

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Thanks for the offer, but my electric bill is high enough

I wait until April/May to start brooding chicks!
One of these days all of us that go to local swaps are going to have to go out for coffee (or whatever) after a swap to get to know eachother. So far, I've only met a few BYCer's and have yet to be disappointed.

Keep an eye on the weather. This could be a good one

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Well, I just set your eggs Laura. Now to make time pass quickly! I have a question about the different lines. I have some eggs from Craig and also from Laura. And I would like to get some from James too.
Do I need to keep all the lines seperate? I can leg band them but I wasn't sure if it was a bad idea to breed the best of all lines or if I get into genetic issues by doing that.
What color is the prefered color of the Buckeye? I have read two different thoughts on the subject. One was a deep mahogany and then someone else wrote that the color should be a lighter red.

Thanks!

 

[Pathfinders]

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The Standard says "with the color similar to the richly colored Buckeye nut", and here's some pics of Buckeye nuts for you:

This is a scan of two nuts placed on my slide scanner. Then there is a pic taken with a digital camera. The correct color is somewhere between the two, IMO.

Here is a pic with my husband's digital camera. Color not the best, although I tried to correct:

Hope those help!

 

[cgmccary]

Here is the picture made for Poultry Press at the Ohio National of my BB Cockerel. I got them to send it to me. Thanks Laura for hooking me up with them at the show. In the January issue of Poultry Press, there will be a form one can fill out and send in with dues to join the American Buckeye Poultry Club, for those of you thinking of joining, we made it easier. Besides Poultry Press having the various breed club news & Show places, dates & results, they also have coupons for poultry feed. I use the Purina coupon for $5 off when you buy two bags each month -- it more than pays for the yearly subscription. (Purina used to have a coupon that had buy two bags and get the third one free (a sweet deal), but I guess that deal cut too much into the revenues so they ceased that a couple years back.)

Christopher McCary

 

[cgmccary]

Great picture of the Buckeye Nut, Laura! I think that shows the color about the best you can in a photograph. hard to describe the color, just have to look at the nut itself. I'm gonna get you to send me some for good luck-- kind of need them before the BIG game coming up (the one for National Championship).

 

[cgmccary]

Laura, if you have a picture of the Cockerel that won over in the Junior Division that your daughters, Colleen & Allie, exhibited at the Ohio Nationals, I wish you would post it (esp. if Neil or Poultry press took the picture). For those of you who don't know, Laura exhibited her best pullet at the show but was gracious enough to let her daughters show the best cockerel she had. he was really something to see. Don Schrider said I had better be glad Laura didn't show him in the adult exhibits or I might not have won Best of Breed. I will tell you that Don has a really good eye for picking them too. He handled mine before the judging and picked them exactly #1,2 and 3 in the exact order they finished.

Also Laura, how is that phenomenal cockerel related to the phenomenol pullet (i.e. can they be bred?). If they can, those eggs would be worth gold. I think I'd breed them even if they are brother/sister.

Chris

 

[Pathfinders]

Chris, honestly, I don't remember if we got a picture of that cockerel or not! I can get Allie to take one of him when she goes up to collect eggs in a little while though, will post when I get a chance. And since I flock breed, not sure if they're sibs, likely half sibs, but maybe not (I always keep at least two cock birds in the pen, last year's spare went to some ladies down the road and I kept the sons, along with my foundation sire bird.)