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When in the spring did you get them? What did you feed them? How old were they in the fall? Buckeyes do mature more slowly than Leghorns, especially production strain Leghorns, no question there. And laying is tied to many factors, including maturity, quality and quantity of feed, and especially, the length of day/daylight.
Right now my production leghorns are still giving me two eggs a day, those birds lay all year long I swear. And I'm not getting a single egg out of my Buckeyes. But as the days lengthen and the amount of light gets longer, they will start to lay again.
In regards to feed, I have always felt that Buckeyes (or any chicken, for that matter) need animal protein in order to perform at their best. In the old days, farmers used to use offal to supplement their poultry's feed; what was left over from slaughtering the beef, pork, or sheep on the farm was fed to the chickens, who ate it with relish. This boosted the protein levels and provided high quality amino acids, particularly lysine and methionine which are crucial for healthy chickens.
Today, many poultry feeds are either vegetarian (which make me snort with derision) or use synthetic amino acids, which I am not convinced are adequate for optimal growth and healthy production.
I once had a very long and interesting phone conversation with a feed rep at a large feed company. We went back and forth about the use of synthetic amino acids. He told me they formulated their feeds for the needs of the commercial industries: the giant layer houses and broiler farms. The nutrition in the feed produced by most feed companies is just what is needed to produce eggs and meat for those farms, no more.
When I asked about smaller, backyard flocks and show breeders who might have a desire for higher quality proteins and more natural sources of amino acids, I was told it was not economically feasible to create such lines, as there aren't enough of us out there for the big feed companies to bother to create such lines of feed.
And while he didn't come right out and admit it, he did dance around the fact that synthetic lysine and methionine are not the same as naturally sourced versions of same. So as breeders of small flocks of poultry, we have to get creative.
I know some folks who feed their chickens ground beef that has been cooked. I know some folks who feed their chickens fish meal. I know some folks who feed their chickens offal from deer they've hunted (I think this is a really cool idea myself.) I know some folks who feed their chickens dried cat food, and I've gotten a lot of flack over that idea from other sources in the past, but it was a suggestion given to me by a man who has been breeding poultry for over 50 years now (not Mr. Urch btw), and who has never had any problem with it harming his birds. That's what I do myself. Small amounts, not containing chicken of course.
The other thing to consider is, are your birds able to access grass and dirt? The same man who suggested small amounts of cat food also told me that there are trace minerals in the dirt that are invaluable to poultry that we cannot replicate even with vitamin mixes. Letting birds roam on grass gives them a chance to catch bugs, dig in the dirt, scratch around, and add those source minerals to their diet, which might add something they're missing.
So, honestly, no one can really answer your question as to why your birds aren't laying without knowing more about your setup. How are your birds housed? What brand of feed are you feeding them, and how much? Have you tried putting lights on them? 14 hours a day of light is the minimum they'll need to be producing eggs.
Let us know a little more about your setup, and we'll do what we can to help. Buckeyes will never lay as much as a production Leghorn, just never. But they will lay between 150 and 200 medium to large brown eggs a year if given adequate amounts of a good feed ration, clean water, oyster shell, clean and draft-free housing, and space in which to roam (with grass/dirt being optimal.)
Hope this helps.
Laura
