Buckeye Breed Thread

[cgmccary]

bluface: Thanks Chris, He is roughly 10 months old and was taken at the last October APA show in Lucasville. He was the American Class Champion and Reserve Large Fowl Champion. This picture should be in next months poultry press.

You have a very nice bird as well. Each bird looks very similar and they should.

The Lucasville Champion-- very nice to see him so close up. That is a great at such a big show -- to beat all those Rocks & RIRs is s difficult thing to do and then to go on to place second to all those other classes is really something special. One of these days we are going to see a LF Champion in a big show -- but that is really significant given the class sizes in that show. Very hard to do -- the sun, moon and stars have to line up perfectly for exhibitor, bird and judges (more than one since large show and all those classes-- )

10 months old. I have such a hard time keeping them from breaking wing feathers and staying kept -- doubt I could get it to that age & show, lol​

 

[Blueface]

I agree Chris, we will see one at the top, the breed has gained in popularity. That has led to an increase in show presence; in return the judges become more familar with the breed. I know that one of the judges really liked him and wanted him as the LF show champion. He told me that you hardly ever see buckeyes that nice and it was really great to see him. He is about as close to perfect as buckeyes get, in his opinion. That was a great thing for my daughter to hear. Her hard work is paying off. The american class was the largest class there aside from the bantams. I wish Sydney and I could have made the crossroads but it wasn't meant to be with the responsibilites we have. Good luck at the show, as I mentioned before; I'm sure the breed will be well represented.

Good luck with your fowl.

 

[Chickielady]

Oh, both cockerals are absolutely awesome.
The main man I have growing here, is a sight to see as well.
I went out & sat in a lawn chair & just watched him.
And I swear, yesterday he was just a big boned gangly mess of elbows & knees if you get my drift.
Today, he is stunning!
I have to get an update on pics tomorrow..if it isn't raining too hard.

Love these birds!

 

[Chickielady]

Note to add:

We went to the Stevenson, Skamania "Winter Classic" last weekend.
Just for the day, and we took no birds.
It is a 2 day deal..so I could not show/motel & all.
Anyways, there were NO bucks, 3 cage cards for RIR but none showed up, no Javas but a very black "mottled" (without yellow soles) and about 12 Dominickers.
No Bucks, that is sad.

But, my birds will be ready soon..and at the next couple of shows, and boy am I excited about it!

 

[Tailfeathers]

I agree with Chris too. That is quite an accomplishment Bluface! Bravo Zulu!

I was particularly impressed with the birds Typiness (is that even a word?), deep, dark body color, and ochre leg color.

I did my best to start off with really good stock so I don't know what happened but I'm not impressed with what I'm seeing this year in chicks coming up. Oh, they're still pretty typey but the leg color isn't where I want it to be and the body color is way too light I fear. The best females I had to use were much lighter red that what I wanted but I chose to breed them instead of some others that were darker but not as good. IMO anyways.

I've got some fairly decent females coming up but not many of them and they aren't as dark as my RIR's. I'm not seeing much in the males either. Most of them have way too much black in them. Same goes for the females too. I do have one male though that i'm hoping turns out to be a Keeper because his legs are like twice as thick as all the others. He looks like he's walking on tree trunks! He's still pretty young though.

I'm also finding that a lot of my Buckeyes just aren't as hardy as I thought they would be. Buckeyes are my newest breed so I still don't know a whole lot about them but I figured they would be pretty hardy and deal with the cold quite well. Having originated in OH and such. I've had several come down with the bubbly eye, runny noses, and even get a sinus infection so bad that I was pulling big balls of white cheesy stuff from their eyes.

Even though I don't care to medicate my birds, I did on the Buckeyes in the hopes that I can grow them up for some nice meat birds. Maybe it's just the PacNW and this crazy, constant wet, cold weather we get. I've had the same problems in my other breeds too. In fact, the Barnies got so bad that I finally got sick and tired of treating them and wound up calling everything that so much as sneezed. I thought I had the problem finally solved with the Barnies but did experience a few chicks get runny noses this year. I'll see what happens with them but won't breed them. Same goes for the Barnies. I ain't breeding sick birds anymore!

Anyways, I went off on a rabbit trail. Let me say again, "Bravo Zulu" to you. Your efforts are certainly paying off and he's sure a nice looking bird!

God Bless,

 

[Chickielady]

Rabbit trail

So experiencing MG???
It will get passed from hen to egg..and it IS here in the great PNW~~
I considered vaccinations, but opted out due to the nasty results had in egg production.
I believe these birds will acclimate, and as you said, we cull what blows, and so on.
So far,mine are doing really great...so we'll see.
Had mg in a Marans coop, culled all who sneezed.
Brought up 2nd generation daughters, and so far, no sneezes but 1, and I refuse to further medicate the flock.
If a bird sneezes and has the sign of MG, it is GONE.

***In effect, what we are doing is paying attention to the hardiness of the bird, not only how pretty it is

***
seems to me, it will strengthen the flock.

 

[vmdanielsen]

Quote:
MG? PNW?

 

[Chickielady]

MG is a poultry diease, It causes (if I am nor mistaken) Black head in Turkey, and aircasculitis, in many other poultry.
It is, pneumonia, in domestic fowl.
In certain areas of the United States, it can be prevalent.
In other areas, never seen.
We poultry keepers, in the US of A, all have different diseases we have to deal with, and this one, is ours here in the PNW.
I will shortly post a link so you can check up on things where you are.

PNW is the Pacific Northwest.

 

[Chickielady]

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

if you bookmark the site, you can reference it when ever you have a problem.
Note: this is not inclusive, there are other issues to deal with, with poultry.
That said, please pan down to the bottom of the paGES, there are many paGES..and note the tables, where you can check the symptoms you may have.
Hope this helps.
And please realize as I said before, not all of us have every disease previlant in our corner od the country.
Those in the warm SW may have entirely differnt issues than we have up here...and so on.
One thing we DO have here in the PNW, is issues of Marek's.
And so I vaccinate all my chicks/birds for it.
Mycoplasma...needs to be eliminated.
In my opinion, it needs more attention than PIP.

 

[Tailfeathers]

From what I've read it's pretty much impossible for Mycoplasma to be eliminated. It's too wide spread and it can be brought in to a new flock from just way too many outside sources. Basically it would be like eliminating the cold. Ain't gonna happen.

It can be passed down vertically which is all the more reason why I don't vaccinate or medicate in most cases but rather cull hard. IMO, the best treatment is to create birds that are hardy and disease resistant. That requires diligence and a concerted effort to only breed the healthiest birds. Sometimes it's hard to do but I've found it's worth it in the long run. That's why I called my Barnies down to just three birds last year.

I've been practicing this the longest with my Ameraucanas and I was just thinking that they are the one breed in which I don't think I've seen any problems this year. So it must be working. Thankfully the problem in my other breeds seems to be isolated to just a few birds. If I see the problem spreading, I'll just put the chicks down and not take any chances.

God Bless,