Buckeye Breed Thread

har · Sep 2, 2010

punky rooster · Sep 2, 2010

they look great!!!!!!!!!

al6517 · Sep 3, 2010

ChickBond 007 · Sep 4, 2010

Hello Buckeye people, Last April, I ordered several Buckeyes from Ideal hatchery. They arrived fine, all lived to pullet stage and were a beautiful bird. I found it surprising that many times they would skip the feeding time to head out for the bugs in the tall grass. I have about 30 chickens and 10 ducks who free range in our yard/pasture areas.
Someone from this thread sent me a message asking for photos of these hatchery stock birds. I would have loved to send them, but a mama fox and her 3 kits have nearly dessimated my flock this year. We did catch one of the kits in a box trap, and have had a shot or two at mama, but she's "sly as a fox". We haven't caught up with her yet.
Anyway, the point is that those bug loving buckeyes were the first victims of the fox family. This breed truly enjoys free ranging and if I had a safer set up, they would be my breed of choice because the feed costs would have to go down for a period of spring/summer. However, I won't likely buy them again with the predator issue I have going now. Just wanted to update.

har · Sep 4, 2010

Quote:
I was the one asking for your pictures. I am really sorry that you lost your Buckeye's. Best of luck fox hunting.

punky rooster · Sep 4, 2010

oh my thats too bad.......... well happy hunting

BetterHensandGardens · Sep 5, 2010

I just posted some pictures of our 3 week old buckeyes, and was wondering at what age you can begin to tell the difference between the girls and boys? The pics are here: http://www.betterhensandgardens.com/2010/09/05/baby-buckeyes-3-week-update/

Some of them already have full dark feather coverage on their backs, and short tails while others look like the one in the closeup, with fuzz still on the back and not much of a tail. We were wondering if those without the tails - full feathering were the girls?

We really have no idea how to tell the difference!

har · Sep 5, 2010

Quote:
I'm no expert but I think everybody is going to tell you its to soon.

jenjscott · Sep 5, 2010

"some people say" that the boys are slower to feather that the girls. I generally think I can tell the difference at 6-8 weeks, but some say that is too early too. I watch for early red in the comb with three distinct rows starting at the beak. The hens don't pink up so fast, and tend to have the comb flattened at the beak, with the rows starting less defined and farther back. Just my observations, I'm usually right, not always, and I don't know if it is just the line or strain I have.

sekinkead · Sep 8, 2010

So I am getting ready to make my cull selections to get the numbers down for winter. I have several questions I would like some advice on. First what do you guys do with extra girls? I have at least 2 that I don't want to use in my breeding plan and possibly more. One is way too light, she is more of a brown and the other has a lot of green in her hackle feathers. The other thing I need advice on is roosters. This is what I have:
My main flock rooster, Brutus, that I got from Chris at the Ohio National
1 cockerel that I hatched from Laura's eggs
3 cockerels that I hatched from JamesA's eggs
4 cockerels that I hatched from Brutus and the 1 hen I got from Jay at the Ohio National.

My questions are how many do I keep? I looked them all over on Monday and spent about an hour feeling them, breast size and fullnes, heart girth, ect. I have a few with 1 crooked toe and some I know I don't want to keep as they are scrawney compared to the others. I have one that is nice and square but his legs seem a little short. I will take pictures of all the boys (if I can) and post so you can give me opinions that way as well.

I do have the APA standard of perfection, the black and white version and will use that to help me choose but I am just trying to find out what seems to work best for all of you. I currently have them in 2 coops and would like to get them down to 1 coop as we want to add Deleware's and those will be our two breeds to concentrate on.

I am perfectly fine with eating any culls which is what I plan on doing with the cockerels as long as no one expresses an interest in them, but I hate to do that with the pullets as they could still be good layers.

Sorry to ramble, I will stop and let people respond now.

Edited to fix spelling...

Buckeye Breed Thread

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har

Songster

punky rooster

Awesome

al6517

Real Men can Cook

ChickBond 007

Licensed to Cull

har

Songster

punky rooster

Awesome

BetterHensandGardens

Songster

har

Songster

jenjscott

Mosquito Beach Poultry

sekinkead

Songster

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