Buckeye Breed Thread

[americana-chick]

Quote:
Very docile, down right mellow and friendly, they lay eggs well, light brown, 180-200 a year, very low maintenance, great foragers. All around a great bird.

They sound like a greta breed but are they to docile? Will other breeds of chickens pick on them?

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Quote:
We have 35 one month old chicks and one year old male Buckeye. Am so happy with them. Jen gave us a dozen eggs this weekend. Sure tasted good! You will be very satisfied with Buckeyes. My 8 year old is training the male Buckeye, "Buck", for the show. A most gentle bird. Very pleased with its temperment. This is a bird that ran "wild" at Jen's until the morning she threw some corn on the ground and was luckey enough to get caught. Go to http://www.buckeyechickens.com and read the articles and links. The eggs are large and medium brown. Ate two fried this morning. Very tasty!

It is suggested that you buy froma breeder, not a hatchery. The ALBC has worked hard with the Buckeye breeders (Laura, Dave, Chris, among others) to get a quality true Buckeye. It almost feels like cheating, but starting with what these breeders have done is better than starting from scratch with some hatchery chicks. They have alraedy did the hard work and we get to benefit!

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Quote:
Very docile, down right mellow and friendly, they lay eggs well, light brown, 180-200 a year, very low maintenance, great foragers. All around a great bird.

They sound like a greta breed but are they to docile? Will other breeds of chickens pick on them?

Jenscott has her extra males running loose with several breeds of poultry, including buff orpington males, turkeys, guineas etc. They hold their own, but not a lot of fights. They are from an indain game chicken breeding....way back.

 

[americana-chick]

Thansk everyone. i think i will most definatly look into breeders..

 

[BuckeyeDave]

Quote:
No, they hold their own, instead of running away from you they'll actually come up to you especially if you bring them treats/scraps on a regular basis.
They are exactly what I would expect a farm bird to be like from the 1800s, an all around great bird, good layer, good forager, good with others, very low maintenance, etc. That is why I love them.

 

[jenjscott]

They are human-friendly for the most part, but are not going to be a doormat for another breed. Like any other rooster, if you throw them together in a pen with a strange rooster you're going to have a problem. Interestingly enough, I moved some Buckeyes this morning. I had a roo and 2 hens in a turkey show coop in a trailer for a couple of days while rearranging pens, turkeys, chickens, etc. I grabbed a hen first and as expected she carried on some, and the rooster jumped at me, but he didn't strike, but I sure knew he was not pleased. Now I generally don't care for aggressive roos, but this guy was protecting his hen in close quarters, so I really couldn't blame him. I came back, and this time took him instead of the other hen. I just reached in and got him out, no problem. When I put him in the new cage, he went right over to the feeder and started calling his hen to him. The second hen was no problem. I guess what I'm saying is some problems can be avoided if you think things out from the chicken viewpoint. If I had thought about it, I would have started with the rooster.

 

[heritagebirds]

Quote:
I was supposed to, but lost them all due to blizzard = power outtage and no heat. I wasn't doing Buckeyes this time, but I think I will do another practice hatch before I get more shipped anyway.

 

[BuckeyeDave]

Quote:
I was supposed to, but lost them all due to blizzard = power outtage and no heat. I wasn't doing Buckeyes this time, but I think I will do another practice hatch before I get more shipped anyway.

We lost power last year for 12 hours, the 'bator got down to 65 degrees, one week later we had chicks, yes there were some lost but keep the faith, the chicks may surprise you.

 

[chickinlickin]

Hi Buckeye nuts -

Question about laying.....right now I've got 10 random pullets..all hatched last April....5 barred rock, 2 delawares, a rir, a wyandot and a buff orp...and for the last couple weeks I've been getting probably 8 eggs a day (today we got 7, but the 3 previous days we got 10!)....could I typically expect that out of 10 buckeyes?..if not what would I expect? I've got room for a few more birds this spring and am wondering what to add...Oh, and has anybody kept delawares and buckeyes?...to get a comparison on there personalities?....right now the 2 dels I have are my favorites....and they act similar to way some of you have described your buckeyes...Thanks.

 

[BuckeyeDave]

Quote:
The girls can lay steady 5 eggs a week is not out of the norm, typically the older the hen the less she'll lay. I rotate through hens in my laying flock for this exact purpose, someone is always looking for a veteran hen and I'm always looking to replace one.