Buckeye Breed Thread

[Five Points John]

Thanks! Glad to hear that they eat good and I should not lose any, they are more fun to watch in the house than tv. I'll try to get the yogurt away from the kids but you can forget about getting steak away from me

 

[knittychickadee]

Quote:
Look for a turkey or game bird feed. They usually have protein around 27-30 percent.

 

[cgmccary]

I use Purina's Game Bird Chow (it is the only one I have available near me that meets the requirements). The Game Bird Chow STARTENA is 30%.

I use the Game Bird Chow CONDITIONER after 8 weeks (19%) and the Game Bird Chow LAYENA (20%) for my laying hens. The Game Bird Chow bags all look the same but the tags will tell you if Startena, Conditioner or Layena. There is also a Game Bird Chow MAINTENANCE I use in winter / non-laying time -- I think it is 12%. The entire Game Bird Chow series of feeds all have some animal based proteins in the them.

If you can't find these, ask for a turkey starter as they will be high in protein.

 

[Quirky]

Thanks, knittychickadee. Are you on ravelry by any chance?

 

[knittychickadee]

Quote:
Lol, yes I am. Haven't updated it in a good long while though.

 

[knittychickadee]

By the way Chris, I've had broodies coming out my ears! At one point I had 7 at the same time. It was ear splitting walking into the coop, lol. I'm down to 4 now, and I just separated 2 moms from their 5 week olds. I'm pretty sure they rival silkies!

 

[Five Points John]

This has probably been asked in this thread but it's 300 pages long. How soon can you tell the sex of a chick. The lady that we got them from said something about the stripe on their head being pullit and no stripe roos. And can they go out at 4 weeks old? It's been biblical hot around here lately at 10:15 it 70. Thanks John

 

[ejcimd]

Thank you Buckeye Dave!

I've wanted Buckeye's since I started reading this forum and other sites; now I finally will have Buckeye's of my very own after tomorrow.

If I could do cartwheels without hurting myself I would!!!

 

[flowerchild59]

I just had surgery on my foot on june 3, so I am propped up at the computer a few hours during the course of the day reading this entire thread. I am enamoured with them, I can't wait to order chicks. I currently have a mixed flock on one year old brown egg layers, none of which have captured my heart. I have been reading about different breeds for the past year trying to decide on what I want to concentrate on. We do have weather extremes here in southern illinois, negative numbers for weeks at times during the worst of winter and many, many days of 100 degree heat and/or heat index during the worst of our summer. It sounds like the buckeyes will handle those extremes.
Thanks for all the info on this thread. Now I have to decide where to order from.

 

[Pathfinders]

Quote:
Definitely chicks. I'm almost to the point where I will not offer eggs to incubate.

This year I have heard it all with hatching, cracked eggs, low hatch rate, it seems that not a single person I sent eggs to was happy with their order. I had one guy who was oening up the hatcher and taking out each chick right after it hatched, he had 6 that hatched, 4 that piped and never hatched and wanted a refund.

Buy chicks.

I'm with you. I don't sell eggs any more. Last year I had so many people who expected (and were paid) refunds due to problems that were totally not my fault that I decided I wasn't going to do it any more. I can't control the USPS, the temp during shipment, or the way you set up your incubator.

So now all I sell is chicks. In the past two years I've only had two (maybe three?) arrive DOA out of almost 1,000 shipped.