Buckeye Breed Thread

[WooingWyandotte]

He's gorgeous.

Buckeye Cockerel (11 months old)

 

[Tailfeathers]

Here are the two males I took to the last show. The one on the Left took 2nd and the one on the Right, 3rd. The one on the left if himself as well. Notice how pink his leg color is compared to the one on the right. But he has a little longer back and I think better tail set though I think both have pretty good Type. The judge just thought he was a bit too tall in the leg and his sickles were a bit too long.

He did say that he had to go back and forth about 3-4x before deciding though. So, I thought I'd post them here and get y'alls inputs. Critique away! Don't hold back.

In particular, what do y'all think about the sickles. SOP says "Medium long". I got the impression this judge didn't wanna see any sickles at all.

God Bless,

 

[cgmccary]

"Tuskaloosa" cockerel 11 months old

 

[cgmccary]

Pictures of my Game hen with her Buckeye chicks (and the one egg of hers she laid after setting a few days)

 

[cgmccary]

Here is another one of the cockerels I am using for breeding (he's almost a year old). With the previous two, these three I believe have good type. All three weigh 9.0 - 9.5 lbs.

 

[tandersphoenix]

He does look great, I like his type. Deeper bodied and thicker than most I've seen yet.

 

[jenjscott]

Here are the two males I took to the last show. The one on the Left took 2nd and the one on the Right, 3rd. The one on the left if himself as well. Notice how pink his leg color is compared to the one on the right. But he has a little longer back and I think better tail set though I think both have pretty good Type. The judge just thought he was a bit too tall in the leg and his sickles were a bit too long.

He did say that he had to go back and forth about 3-4x before deciding though. So, I thought I'd post them here and get y'alls inputs. Critique away! Don't hold back.

In particular, what do y'all think about the sickles. SOP says "Medium long". I got the impression this judge didn't wanna see any sickles at all.

God Bless,

Some like the shorter legs, but I have seen some getting too short. I like the long ones, I think they are loser to standard. Also the sickles, medium long should be enough to show up and then some past the basic tail. I like hm.

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

I had pasty but problems with the Welsummers I raised with the Buckeyes on the high protein feed. No Buckeyes have pasty butt.

DH wanted his garage back. Moved the Feb 5 hatch birds to a Hoop House in the pasture. I put a heat lamp in and a piece of cardboard for them to get off the damp ground. I am worried about them getting windchilled and put windbreaks up around it. They still sound a little cold.....worried.....

 

[cgmccary]

Quote:
I do NOT see a problem with leg length, NOR with sickle feather length, NOR with leg color (at least in the picture,the legs I see look yellow -- the pink you refer to appears to be simply the red veining-- nothing wrong with that). Like Janet, I like a little longer leg and I believe you have to beware of too short a leg. When a leg does get too long on occasion, it makes the bird appear thinner, rangy, too "game-like." It should be "medium" in length.

I would be interested in weighing the birds and knowing that. There is only so much you can tell without actually handling the bird -- basifically, you can only discern the superficial things which ANYONE can tell, experience or not, like color. Anyone can look at color. Both birds' overall color look good except the 3rd place bird has that greenish/ black smut on the outside of his wing. I usually do not see this in my cock birds until they are 3 or 4 years old (and have molted a number of times). I would not tolerate it any of the offspring's first adult feathers (unless the bird had something else I needed), but OK to breed from him one time. That being said, just from the picture (and the limitations), the 3rd place bird, to my eye, looks like he is better type with better body depth. It may just be the way the 2nd place bird is standing but he looks a little long in the back, a bit pinched in the tail and lacking body depth. I prefer a thicker skull too. Again, no way to actually tell all this without comparatively handling of the birds and seeing more than what I can see in these 3 pictures. When I have done my best comparing is when I have had 15-20 cockerels , all the same age, at the same time -- you can then really see the differences. I go back and forth between my birds too, four, five, six times even.

The next time you are at a show with the birds, if you are on friends terms with the 1st place bird (or with other birds' owners -- sometimes the #1 bird isn't necessarily the best bird -- depends upon what you are working on), ask the other exhibitors if you can handle their birds. Then, compare heart girth, pelvic spread, length of the body underneath the feathers. The body underneath is what really counts. I have felt a heart girth of a another's bird that I thought at first glance looked rangy, then to realize the body was actually quite superb underneath (and could see the bird weighing more than "what it looked"). The only way to know is to handle more Buckeyes so you can compare.

 

[knox_co]

I thought the Buckeye breeders on this site might enjoy a picture of a little bit different kind of Buckeye. This is a close up of a model 66 Buckeye Incubator manufactured in Springfield, Ohio. I saw it in a farmer's quonset hut last week, made a deal and brought it home with me.