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Buckeye is some of the best tasting chicken I have ever had and the thighs and breasts have ample meat -- never a shortage. In October, we went to what is called Mule Day in a nearby local community. Everybody brings a dish and we eat. Our Buckeye chicken-n-dumplings were a big hit. The pot looked like it had been licked clean.I butchered all of the birds I will not be using for this spring breeding and would have to say out of all the dual purpose birds I have raised over the years these are the best we have had. They have big breasts and big legs. Can't wait to try them out!
What I have heard of folks doing is culling on the basis of eye color at 16 weeks old or younger. What 12 week old or 16 week old Buckeye has its adult eye color? Also, Buckeye eye color deteriorates with age.
What were the other dual purpose birds that you have raised over the years? And what line of buckeyes do you have?I butchered all of the birds I will not be using for this spring breeding and would have to say out of all the dual purpose birds I have raised over the years these are the best we have had. They have big breasts and big legs. Can't wait to try them out!
Part of my problem with critiquing a bird based on photos alone is that photos only show a small part of the story.
Photos can be very deceptive. Color can be off, black can show up that isn't there (as a previous poster stated.) The angle of a photo can make a bird look wider or longer or shorter than it really is.
To really assess a bird, you have to pick them up, feel their weight, feel the straightness of their keels, feel the depth of their breasts and the width of their chests, feel the straightness of their pelvic bones, things like that.
Photos only show half the story. It’s why a judge opens a cage and takes bird out when he judges it. If that weren’t important, they wouldn’t bother, they’d just walk down the line and make their decision based on looks alone. But looks are not all there is too it. Weight, feather quality, and all the rest is so important.
This is why I won't comment on someone's "line" whose birds I have never seen, much less handled. If I haven't handled your birds, I can't begin to make a comment on them, because I don't really know what they're like.
So when someone goes online and starts critiquing other people's lines and they haven't actually handled the birds, I say, take that criticism with a big grain of salt, because they may be basing their comments on hearsay, photos, and stuff they read elsewhere.
And no one should ever base their breeding program on how a given bird does at a show either. Anyone who does is doing themselves a disservice. Just because a given bird wins at a given show or two doesn't necessarily mean the bird should become the foundation for your breeding program. Maybe yes, maybe no. But there are other factors that should be considered as well. Remember, it's just one judge looking at your bird on one day. How does the bird look the other 364 days of the year? That is so much more important.