Buckeye Breed Thread

[knittychickadee]

Very nice bluface, love their heads!

 

[knittychickadee]

Chickielady,
If you want to save yourself heartache, don't try to keep her and the chicks with the others in the coop. They get trampled too easy. I've successfully kept them in the coop with the others when I partition them off their own space though. Voice of experience here. I raised around 200 chicks this year, about half of those with broody Buckeyes. Didn't lose a single one. They are fabulous setters and mothers.

 

[Noncentzter]

These birds are all the same age, but some of them look like they are questionable, like they haven't decided if they are a pullet or a cockerel...these birds are approx 6 months old.

One of my cockerels

A pullet and ?

Another of ?

Why do some of them have that lone long tail feather? These are all birds from Pathfinders...

 

[knittychickadee]

The rest of those all look like pullets to me.

 

[Blueface]

Quote:
Thanks for the nice comments Chris and knittychickadee

 

[knittychickadee]

I'm butchering 8 more pullets that I pulled last night today. I am realllly getting tired of butchering, I feel like I've spent the majority of my life this year to this task LOL. I hope I can get finished by the end of this month and then get my breeding pens set up. -Marci

 

[bigshawn]

Outstanding Buckeye's, can't wait till I can get some this spring.............

 

[Pathfinders]

Quote:
That may just be a stray tail feather. Try plucking it out and see if it comes back. They do look like pullets to me!

 

[Pathfinders]

Quote:
I think the thing to remember is, there haven't been many Buckeyes at shows until about the past three to five years. There has only been a sanctioned breed club for the past three years, so of course we'll see some variance in the birds. And honestly, I think we always will. One breeder will be working towards his interpretation of the Standard, while another will be working towards his, and they may differ (McCary and Brown, for example.) That's not bad, in my mind, just how it is. You can see this sort of variation in other breeds as well, and I don't think it's something to be worried about.

I would never breed towards what a particular judge feels is right, as we know, some judges know the birds quite well, others do not. It's never good to build your breeding pens around what has won at a show (or not, as the case may be.) But to read and read and re-read the Standard, take it out with you to your pens, compare your birds to it, and above all, as Chris and Don suggest, pick those birds up and make sure their structure is sound! You have to get your hands on your birds in order to make good decisions about which to keep and which to sell down the road as layers.

I have not shown at all this year, and won't be, due to family stuff. But that makes me no less a dedicated breeder, and I know there are lots of folks out there who don't show who have AWESOME birds. The things showing does do for you is allow you to see the birds others are working with, gives you a chance to talk to other breeders, and to avoid having "barn blindness" about your birds (and get some stock from others who may have perfected a trait you're working on!)

 

[cgmccary]

Pathfinders: I think the thing to remember is, there haven't been many Buckeyes at shows until about the past three to five years. There has only been a sanctioned breed club for the past three years, so of course we'll see some variance in the birds. And honestly, I think we always will. One breeder will be working towards his interpretation of the Standard, while another will be working towards his, and they may differ (McCary and Brown, for example.) That's not bad, in my mind, just how it is. You can see this sort of variation in other breeds as well, and I don't think it's something to be worried about.

I would never breed towards what a particular judge feels is right, as we know, some judges know the birds quite well, others do not. It's never good to build your breeding pens around what has won at a show (or not, as the case may be.) But to read and read and re-read the Standard, take it out with you to your pens, compare your birds to it, and above all, as Chris and Don suggest, pick those birds up and make sure their structure is sound! You have to get your hands on your birds in order to make good decisions about which to keep and which to sell down the road as layers.

I have not shown at all this year, and won't be, due to family stuff. But that makes me no less a dedicated breeder, and I know there are lots of folks out there who don't show who have AWESOME birds. The things showing does do for you is allow you to see the birds others are working with, gives you a chance to talk to other breeders, and to avoid having "barn blindness" about your birds (and get some stock from others who may have perfected a trait you're working on!)

Laura: Very well put. I agree with you 100%.​