Buckeye Breed Thread

[acez618]

i am curious to see how well buckeyes would do in my part of the country. I'm in albuquerque, new mexico where the summer highs can easily reach intot the low 100's and in the winter the usualy reach down to about teens' to the high 20's. I'm curious before I order any, since i remember my cousins grandparents had a few in their flock when i was young. anything you can tell would be helpful.

 

[vmdanielsen]

Emeril did a video on buckeyes. Check it out. Maybe give you an idea.http://planetgreen.discovery.com/videos/emeril-green-preserved-lemon-bricked-chicken.html

Thanks for posting! It was a good video, made me want to fry one up now!!

 

[JoshU]

i am curious to see how well buckeyes would do in my part of the country. I'm in albuquerque, new mexico where the summer highs can easily reach intot the low 100's and in the winter the usualy reach down to about teens' to the high 20's. I'm curious before I order any, since i remember my cousins grandparents had a few in their flock when i was young. anything you can tell would be helpful.

I know there are buckeye flocks spreading out all over the country. We had heat index of 110 for the better part of 2 weeks in July. My buckeyes were out foraging while my layers were hiding under whatever they could find to hide. And they are designed for the harsh cold ohio winters. All around fowl in my opinion. They just thrive no matter the weather. In my opinion of coarse.

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

i am curious to see how well buckeyes would do in my part of the country. I'm in albuquerque, new mexico where the summer highs can easily reach intot the low 100's and in the winter the usualy reach down to about teens' to the high 20's. I'm curious before I order any, since i remember my cousins grandparents had a few in their flock when i was young. anything you can tell would be helpful.

We had Buckeyes here in southeast Arkansas. Still have one older male. Temps reached 115 a few days and he had no issues. We offered shade and plenty of water.

 

[jenjscott]

Agreed, shade and plenty of water. And while plenty of drinking water is important, If you put out a shallow pan of water or a small swimming pool with a few inches of water, they will wade in it to cool off. If they are where you can provide some moving air that will help too.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Phew! Took me a week, but I finally made it through the entire thread

I've learned a lot reading through all that and hope to retain at least some of it. My husband and I saw our first buckeyes last fall at the Crossroads show in IN in the sales area (Chris, I suspect that may have been you). We were awfully tempted to get them then, but at the time we were really just looking for a few pullets for our small backyard flock and didn't really want a rooster to go with them. We did end up coming home with a rooster too (against my better judgement), but after 6 months the neighbors called animal control and we had to rehome him to the pot. I'm glad now that we passed on the buckeyes because it would be a shame to have had to eat one of the boys that we saw at Crossroads. I will admit that when I first saw the buckeyes I thought they were rosecomb RIR (it being our first really big show I think I was just too overwhelmed by all the sights to catch that they had peacombs and not rosecombs)

But my husband and I have been somewhat enamored by them ever since.

Now we are looking at moving in the next few months and my grandmother has agreed to let us keep chickens at her farm. So we are looking at getting into a breed that would be a good dual purpose breed. High egg production is not a big concern of ours, as 4 hens produces plenty of eggs for our family plus enough to sell to coworkers to cover (or just about cover) feed costs. A cornish-x like carcass is not a concern of ours either, we raised a few EE this spring/summer and processed at 4 months and while certainly scrawny compared to supermarket chicken (or even most of the spent hens we've processed in the past) one is plenty enough for a meal for our small family. It would be nice however to have a bird that will dress out a little bigger though. We've (ok, I've been the one doing the research since the chickens are really my hobby...DH just builds the coops and enjoys the fresh eggs) been looking at different breeds and the current plan is to get a few of three or four breeds to try and see which one we like best.

Buckeyes have always been towards the top of the "short list" and I'm looking forward to getting some chicks hopefully this fall. My husband especially considers it a big bonus that they are a more endangered breed and that we could, in some small way, contribute to their preservation. Now I just have to figure out when (between the weather and a new baby on the way in Oct) and from whom. Laura, I seem to recall way back towards the beginning of this thread (so, like about 2 years ago) you mentioned that there was someone in Urbana, IL with buckeyes? Do you know if they still have them and/or if they are currently breeding? That would be most convenient, as it would just be a matter of minutes to get across town if they were.

bobbi-j, your "odd" cockerel is not a buckeye, he's a wyandotte. Either a gold laced or a black blue laced red (which is based on andulusian blue so you get blue laced, black laced, and splash laced birds out of a blue-blue breeding). If his ground color is very similar to a buckeye's, I would strongly suspect blue laced red. He has the distinct lacing on the chest and a rose comb vs the pea comb that buckeyes are supposed to have.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:

Always a chicken in the oven around here!!

 

[poltroon]

I'm wondering if there is any chance that this could be a Buckeye cockerel, or if it looks more like something may have jumped the fence. I got this guy in a variety pack of chicks from a breeder. There were 10 Buckeyes and 15 of misc. breeds (I only wanted Buckeyes, but she only had 2 hens and 10 was what she had available when I wanted the chicks to arrive). If he is a Buckeye, I'd like to keep him since he's so pretty. It's hard to see in the pictures, but the feathers are mostly iridescent with reddish-brown flecks. I couldn't get a good picture of that because he was in a hurry to be let out to forage. I will also post pics of the ones I'm sure are Buckeyes. Thank you for your help! Oh, I don't know if it matters or not, but the Buckeyes are from the Urch line.

Bobbi-j, I'd say he's looking like a young golden laced wyandotte. Might let him grow out a bit and see how he turns out. Urch has a pretty nice line of GLW.

 

[poltroon]

Agreed, shade and plenty of water. And while plenty of drinking water is important, If you put out a shallow pan of water or a small swimming pool with a few inches of water, they will wade in it to cool off. If they are where you can provide some moving air that will help too.

I started doing the pan of water too a couple of years back, and the birds all seem far more comfortable when this is available. I like to have it in addition to drinking water. Of course they drink from both, but this ensures that they don't spill all the drinking water with their waterplay.

 

[poltroon]

An APA judge mentioned to me that he's seeing a lot more Buckeyes around lately and that they're looking good.