Buckeye Breed Thread

[HallFamilyFarm]

Quote:
I think it's a great idea, and if I had more pens I'd do it too. Go for it!

I was thinking of putting a small LF pullet with the bantams. Should be easy to tell her eggs from the bantams.

 

[faykokoWV]

Curiosity question.

I just got eggs in the mail from BuckeyeDave (thank you for the bonus eggs) I noticed that his are a darker shade than mine. Is there any standard egg color we should be shooting for? Second question, I noticed on his eggs and a few of mine.. there seems to be the occassional very long pointy egg. Is there any truth to the wives tail these are more likely to be roosters? Is the pointy egg a characteristic of the breed?

 

[jenjscott]

I just get a pointy egg every once in a while. I don't know if its the same hen every time, but I know she doesn't them every time, too many normal eggs in between. I actually have a range of colors from my girls, none of them very dark, but some noticeably lighter.

 

[danielnv]

Quote:
Daniel, it's going to be too hot to ship to/from most areas for about the next three months. I am sending out my last batch of chicks on Tuesday, then I will stop shipping until fall. Dave can tell you his sad tales of trying to ship during the summer, just doesn't work.

I'd be happy to send out hatching eggs, but again, heat is a factor, and on top of the stress shipping puts on eggs as it is, cannot guarantee anything will hatch.

Are there no breeders near you from whom you could purchase?

I updated my profile to show that I have moved from Las Vegas, in case that changes anything. I am thinking you aren't terribly far, and at least the temps are more predictable in this region. Eggs are still a good option as well as chicks. I heard there is someone in this area with buckeyes, but don't know if I can track them down or if they are established yet.

 

[foxflower]

Quote:
I wondered this also. I just completed a buckeye hatch last weekend. All of the eggs I was shipped were pointy. So, this is not a breed characteristic? What does it say that all my chicks came from pointy eggs?

 

[j.luetkemeyer]

I have also found this to be interesting. I get some very oblong/pointy eggs but not necessarily consistent. I am working on a breeder pen and when it is done I am going to put a trap nest in there to track which hens lay them and if they are consistent. Might be the end of the summer before I get to this but if anyone has any experience in this area I am also curious about the pointy eggs.

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

In my small flock each hen has a "usual" for her egg shape and color, some pointier/rounder or darker/lighter. However, each hen occassionally will lay an egg that is unusual for her.

As the "usual" shape hseems to be hen driven, I am not certain if it would indicate roosters. Does the gender gene come from the male or female in birds?

 

[foxflower]

Okay, first I'm not an expert by any means, so I looked in my 1949 book called Genetics of the Fowl: The Classic guide to Poultry Breeding and Chicken Genetics. The author uses a couple pages to address variations in egg shape. Here are some exerpts:

"He (Asmundson) concluded that egg shape is determined by (1) the amount of albumen secreted in the albumen-secreting region, (2) the size of the lumen of that part of the isthmus, and (3) the muscular activity of the walls in these regions...."

"The fact that a pullet's first egg is sometime long and narrow, while later ones approach successively to the normal shape of an egg (Pearl, 1909) suggests that the small lumen of the newly functioning oviduct may have an especially important influence on the shape of the first eggs laid."

They also talk about how genetics and breed play a role in egg shape. I'll try to scan it in, as it's a bit lengthy. If I can't, I can type it out if anyone is interested?

 

[Lotsapaints]

I'm interested is there a link so you don't need to type it?

 

[foxflower]

Nope, no link that I know of. Typing is probably the fastest since I don't have the scanner set up to the computer yet (and don't know how). Here goes....good thing I took keyboarding

... (and the typos, if any are mine

) Again this is from Genetics of the Fowl: The Classic Guide to Poultry Breeding and Chicken Genetics (1949) by F. B. Hutt pp. 370-371

"Measures. Egg shape is usually measured by the index, breadth/length X 100. The narrower the egg, the lower the index. . . While this index is convenient, it does not measure the differing degrees of pointedness, i.e., such differences as that between eggs of a hen and a guillemot or of a robin and a killdeer. Axelsson recorded these by comparison with a series of 10 eggs showing the different gradatiuons of pointedness, and Hutt (1938) did so by measuring the diameters at a fixed point (13mm.) from each end. This was done by fitting the ends into holes of known diatmeter in a thin brass plate fixed 13 mm. above a base plate.
Variability. Pearl and Surface (1914) and Asmundson (1931) agree that shape of the egg is more variable than either length or breadth but less so than weight. Among 85 pullets for which all eggs were measured for over 5 months, marble (1943) found that some females were much more variable in the shape of their eggs than others and that the coefficients of variability ranged from 1.97 to 5.46 per cent, with a mean of 3.33 for all the birds. He saw no evidence of any seasonal change in the shape of eggs but proved clearly that the first egg of a cycle is slightly longer or narrower than succeeding eggs in the same cycle. Similarly, the first egg laid after a pause of 7 days or more is longer or narrower than the last one preceding it. These facts are especially interesting because, as we have seen earlier, that first eggs of a cycle are larger than average, while the first eggs after a pause of are smaller than average. Since both classes are changed in shape, being either elongated or narrowed down or both, the independence of forces influencing shape from those influencing size is demonstrated.
Genetic Influence. Differences in the shape of eggs are hereditary, but the nummber of genes concerned is unknown. In two generations of selection Marble established two strains of Barred Plymouth Rocks, one producing rather long eggs with indices a little over 69, and the other laying rounder eggs with indices about 76 (Fig.92) [Sorry I can't type the graph in here:/] When these were crossed, the F1 generation produced eggs intermediate in shape between the parental types. Backcrossing to the "long" line yielded bireds laying eggs with a mean index of 71.1 , and backcrossing to the "round" line pproduced pullets with a mean index of 75.9. Clearly, multiple factors are aresponsible for genetic variations in egg shape.
Axelsson's extensive data showed highly significant differences between breeds in egg shape, the mean indices being 71.8, 73.1, and 74.0 for White Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, adn Barnvelders, respectively. However, remembering that in eggs of Barred Plymouth Rocks Pearl and Surface found an index of 74.5 and Marble one of 71.9, the question arises, as in most attemmtps to compare breeds, whether the differences observed by Axelsson were characteristic of breeds or of the particular flocks from which he drew his samples. Crosses of his breeds yielded results similar to those of Marble.
It must not be supposed, however, that the genotype is the only source of differences in egg shape. Sometimes the egss laid by one hen differ much more among themselves than those of the two lines bred by marble. Atwood (1922) found that, over a 3-month period, one such hen laid 26 eggs with shape indices from 60 to 68 and 16 with indices from 71 to 77. This bimodal distribution led him to believe that the hen had two functional oviducts, but Professor Atwood later advised the author that tat autopsy only one was found."

Now, is there a breed standard of egg shape for Buckeyes? Is there a lot of anecdotal evidence that Buckeyes tend to lay more narrow eggs than other breeds? Or, rather, do specific lines have increased tendency to lay narrow eggs? I had a pretty good hatch from my shipped and narrow eggs, so maybe hatchability is not adversely affected. Perhaps our resident Buckeye experts have some insight. I hope this was informative and not off topic. (Edited to add the measurement info.)