Buckeye Breed Thread

[Jake Levi]

How old is he??

Great looking guy !

Jake

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
Hatched April 4th.so he is almost 6 months old, becoming quite the man...and a very nice inquesitive Cockeral too....he is so thick..nice & wide, and super glossy dark, deep mahogany.

 

[Stuck in the Coop]

Thank you Janet for our beautiful chicks. I keep peeking in the brooder to admire them.

 

[Jake Levi]

Chickie Lady keep posting picds of him, I might be wanting some of his chicks.

I am planning on around 40 chicks this year, hoping to get 18-20 pullets and 2-3 roos.

 

[Chickielady]

Jake will you be able to make the Chehalis Show Dec 3-4 ?
If so, you can meet them in person, pictures rarely do full justice.
He is one awesome guy!

 

[Blueface]

Quote:
He appears to be a very nice male. Shape looks right and color looks good.
Does he have black surface feathers on his chest or around his thighs? What does the under color on his back look like?

Thanks

 

[cgmccary]

It was nice meeting some you for the first time at the Crossroads & seeing those of you I know and getting to spend time talking to you. I got to spend a lot of time with Don Schrider and Bob Gilbert, and I learned a great deal as usual. Both are a wealth of information. It was especially nice meeting and getting to know Janet Hatch and seeing Jenn Scott again. I enjoyed talking about Buckeyes. For those of you who let me handle and evaluate your birds, thank you very much.

I had told Bob Gilbert he could have his pick of the cockerels I brought except I planned to have one in the show and it would not be with the 13 he could pick from. As many of you know, I blew two tires on my trailer on the Kentucky / Tennessee state line at midnight (as it was, I was cutting it close making it to the show) and ended up having to rent a van the next morning in Bowling Green, transfer the birds over in a cold rain and didn't make it to Indianapolis until 5:00 p.m. Friday. Thanks to the Deputy Sheriff who assisted me on the interstate if anyone knows him. I wouldn't have made it at all without his help.

The Buckeyes had already been judged when I got to the show so my show cockerel simply went in the mix with those Bob was choosing from. Of course, out of the 14 cockerels, Bob must have seen the same thing I saw in the bird because he had looked at them while I was running around & he picked the one I planned to show. I let him have the nice bird as I have other nice ones back home. Schrider got two pullets from me (and I had him tell me why he selected them), and I returned home with one of Schrider's males. As always, Schrider's males have excellent type. Claire Slomski also got a cockerel from me to breed to her top prize winning Buckeye pullet. It was a nice pullet with a large skull and brow. It was in the Junior Show Claire obtained her chicks from Matt Johns who obtained his stock from Laura Haggarty (Pathfinders). It was really great seeing the numbers of Buckeyes in the show. It is a tribute to all you breeders to see so many Buckeyes in the show and in the row right up front. Congratulations to all of you. It was not that many years ago that Buckeyes were rather rare at the show. We all seem to be on the right page as to what we are looking for in the breed.

I am hoping to show at the Jefferson, GA show in mid-January and then at the Chattahochee in Newnan, GA in mid-February. If any of you can make it, look me up. Last year, I had the only Buckeyes in the show in Jefferson (NE GA Poultry Fancier's Show) -- perhaps some of you could come on down.

Chris McCary

 

[Chickielady]

Let's all hope you have much, much better trips from here on out~~

 

[Jake Levi]

Hi Chickie Lady

I will have to see how far it is to Chehellis, and hope I amnot still frantically building coops etc, I am going to be going down to near Lowell about then. If I can get a critter sitter for here at the same time. Lot of ifs. But they all need to be.

 

[Tailfeathers]

Chris, nice to read your post and sorry you didn't get there in time to enter your bird. I just read your article in the July issue of the PP. Yes, I am that far behind in my reading.

I have a question for you. This stems from my very poor memory and thinking that I somewhere read that the Buckeye had the "darkest Mahogany Red color" of any breed. I don't have a clue where I saw that but that is what sticks in my head. Then I read your article which says that the Buckeye is not as dark as the RIR.

So from there I went to the SOP. Interestingly enough, there are two different colors presented for the RIR - the SC being much darker than the RC. And the RC being similar in appearance to the Buckeye. Of course the written description is not much of a help. So I Googled "Mahogany Bay" in an attempt to see what that color looks like. Interestingly enough, this http://ultimatefowl.wordpress.com/category/heritage-breeds/ came up in my search.

I believe many of my Buckeyes have been turning out too light of a red so I've been striving to breed only the darkest colored birds that fit all the other attributes of a Buckeye. I've been trying to get my birds to look at least as dark as the color of the cock you show and maybe even a bit darker although that is one nice looking Buckeye. In fact, I don't know what it is about my birds but it seems all my breeds need better leg color. I wish mine were as good as the one pictured. Anyways, this is not meant as a criticims but rather only as a comparison, I've been culling the birds that have the color of the females shown in the link above.

So, my question to you is, just what is the ideal "dark Mahogany Bay" color? I know color is secondary to type but type-wise I'm doing pretty well - IMO. I need to work on the leg color like I said and I think I remember seeing a few birds out there that are off-colored eyes but other than that the only thing I see a lot of in my culls is black showing up in the plumage throughout.

So anyways, just thought I'd ask if you could address this color question.

God Bless,