Buckeye Breed Thread

[kathyinmo]

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Laura,
Oh yes! I would love to have one! Please PM me when you can send one and I will send you my address. Yippeee!!!
Kathy

 

[JamesA]

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If you ever want to add to your flock I can gather you some eggs.I just hatched 12 out of 12 eggs and they are healthy little boogers!

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Wow, I may just take you up on that! I will pm you!

 

[bungalowtradesman]

James, do you have any Buckeyes available? Your birds are gorgeous.

 

[bungalowtradesman]

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I'm looking to get started. Let me know what you'll need for them and please send pics. Thanks.

 

[Pathfinders]

One thing I wanted to address here (and which I mention in the auction I listed on eBay last night for eggs), are things you can expect to happen, from time to time, with Buckeye chicks you hatch from hatching eggs.

One of the things that exists in the Buckeye breed, in almost all lines that I know of, is the single comb gene. It hearkens back to Nettie Metcalf having used single combed birds to create the Buckeyes, 'way back when. So be aware you may get a single combed bird from hatching eggs. It's annoying, but it happens. I find it happens in about 1 out of 100 chicks I hatch (give or take, sometimes more, sometimes less.) I don't consider that terrible odds at all.

Also, folks should know that in one of the lines I am working with now, occasionally there will hatch a chick that will grow up to have some mottling in their coloring (black splotches.) I tell you all this in the interests of full disclosure should any of you buy birds from me. Such birds will not be show quality, naturally, but the original breeder who started the line says that they will throw the best colored offspring, so they are very valuable for breeding, and should be kept for future use.

I am not a genetics expert, and cannot say for sure why this happens. But I thought you all should know, since most lines of Buckeyes are pretty related, that these things happen, and not to be too upset when they do. It's just part and parcel of working with a heritage breed that has relatively low numbers.

Just FYI...

 

[Freeholder]

Should the single-combed birds be saved, too? I know I've been told that they are valuable in Wyandottes because they help bring the fertility up (rose-combed birds are a little low in fertility).

Kathleen

 

[AtRendeAcres]

I have always been attracted to this breed! (especially for personality & Pea comb) but, I have read on Internet & in a book that the Buckeye has more dark meat than white!
This has been a factor for us! So, is that statement true?

Joanne

 

[Pathfinders]

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I personally don't save them. I don't think pea combed birds have the same issues as rosecombs with fertility. And if you breed one back in, you could be reinforcing the gene. So I would say no.

Laura

 

[Pathfinders]

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Not in my experience, no. In what book did you read this? And can you provide a link? I've never even heard that before, and do not find it to be true in my birds.