Buckeye Breed Thread

[Quirky]

Someone? Anyone?

 

[vmdanielsen]

My eggs are in the incubator. Your birds look good to me. but then i don't know anything!!!

 

[cgmccary]

Someone? Anyone?

It is hard to tell much about them at five week olds. Chicks will go through about 7 sets of juvenile feathers before their adult plumage so the feathers you see in the pictures will all be gone in weeks. At about 8 weeks old, you can start being able to say this and that, cockerel or pullet, weight, heart girth but that is about it at that age. If you had pictures of them at 8 weeks, I'd be asking for weights and heart girth comparisons -- all you would need to discern by handling them.

Your lighter ones still have chick down on their heads. They look smaller than the other one too. Is it because they are pullets and the larger one is a cockerel or just because the larger one has more feathers. All too early to tell. Too early to comment on them.​

 

[rodandstafffarm]

I got some like that in my batch too, I have one buckeye who doesn't even look like any of the other 17 buckeyes... she's mostly white and tan so far. Mine were different sizes because they clearly were different ages (some with wing feathers some without) when I received them.

 

[steelefarming]

Quote:
I don't know much about the breed, but those kinda look like my RIR chicks i got from mcmurray this year.

 

[Quirky]

Thanks everyone. The smaller birds do look like RIRs. But my neighbor who has RIRs says mine aren't RIRs

I think the big girls (assuming they are girls) are big for their age, and the smaller gals are small for their age. None of them look 5 weeks old to my understanding (which is limited by inexperience). The real comparison will come when I get my 12 chicks from Buckeye Dave.

 

[BuckeyeDave]

Quote:
Well yea, they are both red feathered chicks!!

 

[Five Points John]

Well I guess I can post heren now, We got 11 buckeyes today form ma2babygurl13 today. This thread realy help deside to get buckeye. Funny thing she got eggs from the guy that lives 7 miles from me that I got my 5 wellies from, small world! They are 3 weeks old, and very active, more so than my Wellies out side. And eating, and drinking twice as much. Is this comon? I know more than 2x the chicks but only 1/3 the size! Do you try to keep feed in front of them all the time? If so we're going to need more feeders! At this age should I expect lose some? I hope not. Sorry for all the Questions but I'm new to chickens as well as buckeye. Thanks John

 

[cgmccary]

And eating, and drinking twice as much. Is this comon? I know more than 2x the chicks but only 1/3 the size! Do you try to keep feed in front of them all the time? If so we're going to need more feeders! At this age should I expect lose some? I hope not. Sorry for all the Questions but I'm new to chickens as well as buckeye. Thanks John

John, welcome to Buckeyes; I am happy this thread led you to them. It is a compliment to all the Buckeye folks who regularly contribute here.

A good Buckeye chick is one that is a great eater -- the more they eat, the better they grow. Up until they are 8 weeks old, they need a feed that is at least 28% protein and SOME of the protein needs to be animal protein -- they'll grow anyway but for optimum/best growth, the protein % and some animal derived protein is needed. A Buckeye is a very muscular bird and muscles need good quality protein and a lot of it. You should NOT loose any at 3 weeks of age.

I never let my growing birds run out-of- feed. Please don't be shy to ask questions. None of us have all the answers but we'll tell you what we know.​

 

[Quirky]

Welcome, John.

My Buckeyes eat a bunch, too. I always keep their feeders full. But I haven't found a feed that's 28% protein. Any leads on that? I feed yogurt sometimes for the probiotics, but that's the only supplement I've offered. Maybe they need a steak.