Buckeye Breed Thread

[Chickielady]

Buckeyes for meat:

Agree with the others, it will take longer and they will not have as much breast meat as Cornish, but I felt they had more than many heritage breeds.

Buckeyes for sex link:
Buckeyes have the Red gene, so when you cross a Buckeye Cockerel with a silver gene hen, all the males will be white and all the females reddish.
We crossed Buckeye Roo over Delaware hens, and by luck of the hatch got all boys, all white.
They were the meanest grow-out pen I have ever had. They actively tried to kill every other bird in the pen. They were on 32% protein feed and had pleanty of alfalfa/clover pasture to keep them busy. I had to isolate them. They had to go to the butcher early because the mean look in their eyes started to be directed at the kids. I hope you have better luck with your sex-link project.

This aggressiveness in the Bachelor pad could have been caused by the Mothers of the birds.
Cocks get their attitude from their Mothers.
If you breed a meanish hen she will have mean sons.
I have had this told to me several times.
The hen determines her son's attitude.
The Cock determines the egg color & feather color in his daughters, Mother to son, Father to daughter.
I have raised multitudes of Buckeye Cockerels & add them at various ages to a Bachelor pad coop & awaite their growth, to determine which I want to keep.
Never have they fought............seldom even a pecking order peck.
Just sayin'

 

[brandislee]

I am picking up some 9 week old buckeyes tonite. Can anyone tell me anything that i should look out for to reject any of the birds? I am intending to use these for breeding. They are second generation. Im just wondering if there are any traits that are going to show up this early that are allready cull worthy. The guy i am getting them from hatched a large group for the fair and has plenty of them and extras. I am getting a fair price but want to make sure i am not getting a bunch of culls.

I agree with the other poster, but since it sounds like you have the benefit of picking from growing birds, here is what I would look for (and I'm not a pro, I'm just speaking as someone who is learning this myself).

As stated a few posts ago in a reply to my inquiry, I would prioritize body composition and size (read the SOP and the SOP explanaition on the American Buckeye Club website). THEN I would eliminate any with white feathers or green eyes, as these are two of the BIG no-no's, and assuming body composition and size are equal, I would pick the darkest colored birds with the darkest colored eyes. If you want to take it beyond that, look at the SOP and pick a few other traits to look for, but as the previous poster pointed out to me, color issues can be worked out in a few generations, but body composition can be harder to fix.

 

[hiwasseenursery]

I agree with the other poster, but since it sounds like you have the benefit of picking from growing birds, here is what I would look for (and I'm not a pro, I'm just speaking as someone who is learning this myself).

As stated a few posts ago in a reply to my inquiry, I would prioritize body composition and size (read the SOP and the SOP explanaition on the American Buckeye Club website). THEN I would eliminate any with white feathers or green eyes, as these are two of the BIG no-no's, and assuming body composition and size are equal, I would pick the darkest colored birds with the darkest colored eyes. If you want to take it beyond that, look at the SOP and pick a few other traits to look for, but as the previous poster pointed out to me, color issues can be worked out in a few generations, but body composition can be harder to fix.

I would not judge a buckeye by eye color at an early age. The orange eyes that the breed is known for is not noticeable at a young age. Also feather color changes A LOT during the first year. I've had young birds with white flight feathers that grew out of them by 6 months. Size is what I would look for and you need to hold the birds and feel for it instead of just looking at the fluffy feathers.

 

[cgmccary]

Quote: I agree with hiwassee. Adult eye color cannot be discerned at 9 weeks.

A chick/ juvenile goes through seven (7) sets of feathers before they get their adult plumage. If you are going to pick on any trait, pick on size and gender. If you get only the largest chicks, you will end up mostly with cockerels so you would pick by sex (looking at their combs) and then get the gender you want and then the largest chicks of each gender. Incidentally, at 8 weeks, cockerels weigh a pound or more greater than the pullets.

 

[JoshU]

I agree with hiwassee. Adult eye color cannot be discerned at 9 weeks.

A chick/ juvenile goes through seven (7) sets of feathers before they get their adult plumage. If you are going to pick on any trait, pick on size and gender. If you get only the largest chicks, you will end up mostly with cockerels so you would pick by sex (looking at their combs) and then get the gender you want and then the largest chicks of each gender. Incidentally, at 8 weeks, cockerels weigh a pound or more greater than the pullets.

I (hopefully) got 10 hens and 2 Cockerels. They have about 70% hens out of there hatch of 40. There isnt a lot of difference between them at this age. Just comb growth mainly is what we went by. I am excited to start raising these buckeyes. After all I do bleed scarlet and gray(and Mahogany)lol

 

[brandislee]

I agree with hiwassee. Adult eye color cannot be discerned at 9 weeks.

Good to know... because some of mine have green eyes.

And sorry, I missed the part about the chickens being 9 weeks. For some reason I thought they were older??? My brain has been off lately.

 

[jtbrown]

Here are my buckeyes, I have six of them in with some SLW and Buff Orps. How do they look, we picked them up 5/3/12 and they were a few days old then. So, just maybe 6 weeks old? I think I have 3 boys and 3 girls, but we will see.

 

[cgmccary]

Quote:
Looks like they should look at that age.

 

[BroosterSpringsteen]

Need some help from the experts with my first buckeye. I don't have any others for comparison. The chick is about 8 weeks old, and up until recently, seemed very pullet-ish. But then she grew this comb, and I'm not great at sexing pea combs. Are those 3 ridges, or one ridge with bumps on the side? Do I have a roo?


And here's a body shot:

 

[hiwasseenursery]

Looks like a cockerel to me...