Roosting is more an age thing, but it can also be in their rearing. When a game hen has raised my Buckeyes, she takes them eventually to a bush or tree and the Buckeyes go up too. My older Buckeyes must always roost and will roost on anything up (even a waterer, a cinder block) whatever is available (except for one old hen who is blind as she can't see to jump up to roost but she always gets up on the baseboard of the run 6" up off the ground and behind one of the roosting coops). It has more to do with how they are raised and what they get used to -- the older hens or hen raised chicks ALWAYS roost early (if given a roost young). I have a set of 9 raised by a Buckeye hen and the hen did not have a roost in her pen but a cardboard box. The juveniles chicks, all ten weeks old now, still pile in the box together at night. They have roosting poles, and they do fly up and sit on the poles in play. They also fly over in the other pens.
I don't believe Buckeyes are any less intelligent than other breeds that I have owned or own now (I now also have some Game, a Buff Orp and some Dominiques & in the past, I have had Easter Eggers, Australorps, Cochins, Brahmas, Plym Rocks, mutts). Instead, Buckeyes are very trusting and they are more curious than afraid. Their curiosity gets them in stupid trouble sometimes too. They scare me getting under my cows trying to catch feed the cows drop. They move when the cow's feet move though and nobody has gotten killed.
Buckeyes are a real easygoing, friendly breed and not aggressive toward other birds or animals (other more aggressive breeds will run over them) -- my hens have little skirmishes amongst themselves but it is always a skirmish 'tween a broody hen & an unbroody hen -- none of them like putting up with the broodies. At any one time, I have 5-6 broodies & I am always breaking them up). My Buckeyes have never drawn blood on each other. I can let my Buckeye roosters stay outside together (I don't pen them together though when they are older as the pecking order puts too much stress on them).
What I find different about the chicks, at least with mine, is that they eat and eat and eat-- they are always eating, scratching and hunting food -- they are some of the most voracious eaters I have seen. I have a couple of chicks in with a couple of BR poults. The Buckeye chciks crawl all over my hands when I fill their feeder -- and try to eat it out of the cup before i can put it down. They then dive into the food. The poults eat but the Buckeye chicks are always eating. Even my older hens eat whatever I put out whether I increase or decrease it. There doesn't appear to be a limit -- they polish off whatever is there. Just my take & my experience. Others may have different experiences.
