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.
