Buckeye eye color?

[exop]

I have Buckeyes from two sources; I have noticed that one strain has quite bright tangerine orange eyes, and the other strain has pale gold eyes, in some birds almost a greenish gold.

What eye colors correspond to different strains? Has anyone noticed eye color differences between different strains and different hatcheries?

Urch
Brown
Braden
Rhodes
ALBC (mostly Urch - Brown)
Fitch (? is this line still extant?)
Sandhill (mostly Urch)
Ideal (?)
Cackle (?)
Pathfinders / Shady Lane
Crain's Run laying strain


Interested to hear any observations you may have!

Best - exop

 

[tadkerson]

Quote:
The eye color should be a reddish bay color.

Eye color is polygenic (many genes) and can have differences from bird to bird within a variety. There is not much research on eye color and I have not worked on the genetics behind eye color. Eye color will change with birds as they age- especially in females.

You have asked a difficult question to answer. The buckeye is not raised by enough people to answer your question. They are a handsome bird and I would like to do some work with them but I do not have the facilities. Maybe in the future I will do a study on eye color- but right now I can only work on my current projects.

Tim

 

[exop]

... Which brings me back to the word "bay". Bay and horn are two words which seem imprecise to me, though they're in so many breed descriptions. I'm inclined to think bay must cover a lot of territory as many breeds are supposed to have bay eyes, and yet eye color seems to vary a lot.

The two strains of Buckeye I mentioned attracted my attention because each strain seems to have a stable eye color, and birds from the two strains can be told apart even at a fairly young age on the basis of the eye color.

Best - exop

 

[Buckeyes-R-Us]

exop, since none of the Buckeye "experts" have chimed in on this question I'll take a crack at it.

Buckeye eye color changes with age and most will be a reddish orange....leaning more toward the "orange" side when the bird is fully mature (20-22 weeks of age).
They will start out pale yellow or light gold or "greenish gold" as you put it but ALL of mine end up with the "orange/red" as the mature.

Oddly enough the original APA standard from 1904/1905 states the Buckeye should have RED eye color but I've never seen one that I would call a true "red"!

By the way, I'm the owner of Crains Run Ranch and I have the following lines in my breeding pens;

ALBC (Urch/Pearce/Rhodes/Brown)
Brown (Urch/?/?)
Fitche or Fitch (pick your spelling)
Pearce (Urch)
Pierce (Fitche)
Rhodes (?)
Urch (Tallman)

Basically, ALL of these lines are Urch related somewhere along the line except perhaps the Rhodes & possibly the Fitche lines.....I'm sure this will stir some debate but the truth is Mr. Urch has had the longest running line that dates back to the 1950's and nearly EVERY Buckeye breeder has used a Buckeye or two from Mr. Urch at one time or another! Unless a breeder crosses another breed with their Buckeye stock the eye color should NOT vary in these strains but I suspect over the year some breeders have done just that. At least one of these breeders admitted he crossed Dark Cornish and RIR blood at one time or another so I suspect others have done the same but just haven't been so forth coming with their cross breeding "projects".

Yes, the "Fitche" line does exist and from my research it may contain the original "Romig" (of Maine, not New York) blood or vice versa, this is still a bit unclear depending on whom you ask. There are a few folks who own "Pearce" Buckeyes and another line of "Pierce" that are often confused with one another. One came from the west coast (Dennis Pearce) and the later (Ron Pierce) came from the east cost. The Pearce line originated from Urch but the other Pierce line came from Fitche's line 18 years removed!

The "newer" lines you have mentioned, mine included, are a combination of 2 or more lines and for the most part one might argue they are a variation on the ALBC line. According to Don Schrider the ALBC line was heavy on the Urch/Pearce but had a little Brown and even less Rhodes influence....in Don's words they developed a "true Urch" line by crossing current Urch to old Urch (Pearce line).

Now I'm rambling but my point with ALL of this comes back to the Buckeye eye color question....all these lines that I own have the same eye color and it's more reddish orange than "bay" or "reddish bay"!

Hope this helps,

 

[Chris09]

Although I haven't worked with the Buckeye breed I have worked with the Rhode Island Red and both have nearly the same Standard.

Quote:
Hens tend to loose some of the red bay eye color right before they start to lay where as a good rooster will hold his eye color till a very old age.

Quote:
Reddish horn would be a Red to very dark red (almost black) color.

Here is a picture of a 3 year old R.I. Red Rooster showing very good Eye color (Red bay) and Reddish horn beak.

Chris

 

[exop]

My line with the pale gold eyes does orange up with age... these are ALBC birds from Jeannette Beranger. (Many thanks to Jeannette). They retain a slightly "capillary-ish" look... you can distinctly see the tiny blood vessels which give the eye its orange cast.

The other line I have has uncertain ancestry. All I know for sure is that it originated from a cross of some Buckeyes from X-Treme game birds of Texas, and a show rooster from an unknown (but female) breeder in Oklahoma. These birds have a vivid, even orange eye at a very young age, when they're just fledglings. It's a deep, striking color and I wonder if carotenoids could be involved.

Thanks, Jeff for the snippet about the Fitche line. I'd be interested in hearing more about this history, if possible. ,

Best - exop

 

[Buckeyes-R-Us]

Well put Chris!

Here is a close up of one of my Buckeye roosters from 2009;

The eye color is not nearly the RED color as Chris' RIR eye color but you can see the orangish/red color that I find typical in most Buckeyes!
"Horn" colored beak is similar to the RIR "horn" color.....