Buckeye Breed Thread

[Sagibaro]

I lost the last of my two Buckeyes last week for no apparent reason. She was fine in the morning and dead a little after noon. Everybody else in the coop (Welsummer rooster & hen, Golden laced Wyandotte, and Barred Rock) is in fine fettle. I had started a mixed flock because I didn't really know which breed I was going to click with, and wouldn't you know it, it was the Buckeye. BYC is a baaaaad site to wander around in when I'm unhappy, if the definition of bad is "winding up with more chickens". Before I knew it I found this thread, read all of the then-92 pages, and ordered hatching eggs. Don't know when they're going to get here, but the incubator is out of storage and being gone over with a fine-tooth comb. A new Buckeye-only coop is under construction, and I really hope the spouse meant it when he said he knew how much I wanted this particular bird

.

Stephanie

 

[mrandmrschicken]

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That's sad you lost your Buckeyes. They are good foragers and scavengers so it is possible they all got into and ate something they should not have. Thats happened to me.
Last week an order of 30 chicks came in and only 4 were peeping. The Postmistress refused to look in the box because I always open them at the PO as instructed. She is an animal lover. I was able to warm, massage/rub the seemingly lifeless ones bringing back 1/2 of the chicks. Only one more died a couple days later. We had a sudden cold snap and you can't blame the hatchery. The hatchery was really generous about crediting my account. But this time of year, by all the Gods in heaven, the folks at the PO should know to make at least a feeble attempt or excersie enough common sense to move the chicks closer to a heat source. They know whats in those boxes! It is so simple to me. I really hate to see those little lives lost. If it had been a hairless cat or dog of some variety, I guarantee you they would have treated it better, kept it warmer.
So, I too ended up ordering more chicks! Overcompensated. LOL

Good luck with your new ones!

 

[Farmington]

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I'll remember that for next time, Dave. Thank you! We'll see how things go with this years chicks, and I may be contacting you early next spring to add some quality to the flock.

 

[Freeholder]

I've ordered some Buckeyes from Sand Hill. I would rather have gotten them from one of the breeders on here (and probably will do that later), but was ordering some Mille Fleur Leghorns from them -- don't know any place else to get those. I didn't want 25 of the Leghorns, so filled the order with 15 of them and 10 Buckeyes. They aren't supposed to be here for about three weeks -- I'll have to get another heat lamp as the Faverolle chicks are under the one I have. Thankfully I have plenty of cages for brooding chicks (in the garage).

Kathleen

 

[Sagibaro]

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Thanks for the good wishes, mrandmrschicken, I need all of the help I can get

!

I'm sorry to hear about the chilled chicks

. There has to be a horrible sinking feeling when you realize that the shipping container is entirely too quiet. Glad to hear that so many survived because of your quick thinking.

I'm happy to say that there are many wonderful, dedicated postal employees in my neck of the woods...and then there's the one who delivers to my house

. She likes to do the "drive-by delivery attempt" i.e. doesn't like getting out of the vehicle to deliver anything, and only occasionally leaves notices that there are packages waiting at the post office. These days I get tracking numbers whenever possible and keep watch like an ocd falcon. So when I lost my sanity completely last December and ordered a trio of geese (Holderreads were phasing out their American Buff Goose line and I forgot that any other breeder on the face of the earth might have just a few left), I knew exactly when they hit the county line (11:25 p.m.). I didn't sleep that night because I just knew that I was going to get a 6 a.m. wakeup call.....no call. Chewed nails, paced floors, herded children like a demented collie. The tracking number said they were still at the last sorting area. Finally, at half-past noon, I get a call. Yayy! When I get there, I was told that the birds had hit the post office at 2:30 a.m. but were "noisy" so night shift put them in an out-of-the-way room and then didn't tell day-shift they were there! Day-shift found them by accident nearly 10 hours later

. Yeah, I think the prize pooch probably would have had better treatment <sigh>.

LOL, speaking of postal employees, one just honked for my attention (she's not my regular, she doesn't yet know she's supposed to ignore me) -- hatching eggs! Trout & Gray runner ducks; they should keep me occupied until the Buckeyes grace my doorstep. (and my inner child is saying, the heck with patience, I want my chickens now!)

Stephanie

 

[Freeholder]

LOL! So far, we've been blessed in our local post offices -- they'll call us at six am to let me know my chicks are there AND they'll open the back door for me to pick them up at that hour! It probably helps that they don't HAVE any 'back room' to put things in, though!

When we lived in the Interior of Alaska, two hundred miles from Fairbanks, I ordered a batch of chicks and goslings from Murray McMurray to come in March. It was still thirty below on the day they were due to arrive. The truck driver who brought them down from Fairbanks (we were in Tok, not too far from the Canadian border) kept this noisy box of babies in the heated cab with him all the way down -- they would never have survived otherwise! As it was, almost all of them survived the trip. Other than MM sending White Leghorns in place of the White Rocks I'd ordered (part of a mix of breeds), I was very pleased with that experience, and really appreciated the dedication of the truck driver! I'd never heard of Buckeyes then -- that was about twenty-two years ago.

Kathleen

 

[har]

Is it possible to sex 3 week old Buckeyes? I had a chance to really look at my chicks. According to there comb growth I have 4 roosters and 12 hens. That would really be nice if it come true.

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

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A few weesk ago I WON some Jumbo Pharoah Quail eggs on ebay. I was tracking the eggs. The day before delivery I asked our post office to call me as soon as the eggs arrived. They politly took my phone number. No call! I went to the PO to get our mail. In the PO Box was a key for the oversize boxes. There was my eggs, sitting on a cool, almost cold metal shelf in the draft of the front door. Candled them thsi week. 12 of 64 eggs have no occupant. Some were possibles, but did not feel like breaking them open. Just tossed the eggs. But 52 appear to be occupied!

Have some chicks due to arrive today or tomorrow. Have gotten no call yet this morning. Not sure if they have arrived or not. Will call the PO as soon as it is open. I spoke with a different person yesterday about the chick order. He assured me they would not be on a cold shelf! Lets hope so.

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Called the PO...no chicks today!

Back to Buckeyes!

Put up a pen around our grow out brooder yesterday. Kicked all the chicks outside. They looked around and fled to a corner. So I had my daughter go get "Buck" and his girlfriend, a buff orpington. Buck started explaining to the chicks what grass was etc. Last night he helped them back into the coop. Buck has accepted his position as the guadian of his flock. When Buck found the automatic waterer he started acting like an old setting hen. He was urgent in calling his "flock" over to drink. Will see what happens today!

 

[mrandmrschicken]

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Thats a great question Har. We have one, that is that age now and I don't know if I should call it, "Buck" or "Buckette"!

I know he/she's got a couple of really dark patches or stripes down his back, and it's a friendly little thing too!

ETA: About the PO: Our local is great. Of course it's a small town and everyone knows everyone else. They call and either drop off or I p/u. It's the intransit folks that don't seem to give a flying fig about them. This is one time where an animal welfare league needs to do an audit of just how the PO handles the chicks. I mailed some hatching eggs to MI., 2 months ago, Priority mail, with a tracking number, and it took 16 days to get there. The PO could not find them........ it was the one and only time I did not insure the box. What a mistake that was.