Buckeye Roo over Delaware Hens Meat-Type Cross Project

[bigzio]

Good project to try. My Buckeyes have never had a manfighter and are the nicest roo's. Dels aren't hard to find. My friend by Green Bay has nice birds, and many have them on the cheesehead thread. Stop over to visit. Prolly can find Bucks and Dels there, if you are in need.

 

[speedy2020]

How is this project come along? I purchased some cross eggs (delaware, buckeye, buff orping, dark cornish) from a lady and 2 of the chicks turn out to be delaware with pea comb. I notice 2 of the chick growth faster rate than buff orpington and other unknown cross. If they are large, fast growing, early maturing, lay well, hardy bird, then they are good keeper chickens.

 

[tbishop]

Getting my notes together as the Cross Boys are in week 14. Our county fair will judge the birds on July 23. They will go to the butcher slightly thereafter.

Some un-scientific observations:

They were all boys, with white barred feathering and some reddish tones here and there. All had pea combs from the Buckeye side. Four showed barred neck feathers, the fifth shows columbian neck feathers (which seems to match the Delaware hens from Sand Hill)

They put on a very long leg bone, suprisingly tall birds, taller than either parent. They spent a lot of time and energy growing that bone. They do not appear to be very breasty birds, Buckeye birds of similar age appear fuller (so deciving when they have feathers).

They are robust, active, widely foraging. They did not eat a lot of feed once on pasture. They were less destructive of the pasture, much better than the broilers who are currently busy slicking it down.

They cannot/will not fly, will not use a roost or jump up onto a chair. Or get over the 42" fence around their pasture.

They are incredible bullies. It may not be possible to grow them out with any birds of a smaller size. They are constantly squabbling and picking. The five act as a predatory pack on all other birds or threats in the pen. I am certain they would tear my 4 week old broilers apart and eat them (penned separately of course, but they try to attack them through the fence) They are starting to stalk the family as we do chores in their pen.

They are twice the size of the Speckled Sussex Roos hatched and raised with them, but that may be because the poor boys spends more time hiding from the Cross Birds than eating.

Because of their demeanor, I will be very happy to see them go. Their personalities were not endearing. All Buckeye and Delaware Roos I have had were similar, though I am told they should be different. Maybe I train them incorrectly.

Not certain I will try this cross again. The kids hated them, would like them to be slightly more docile. Could not test the females for egg production.

I think I will start over with Buckeyes from another source, give them another try. I suspect the right strain will be a better meat bird for us than this cross.

Any chance you took pictures?

 

[Guy4God]

There is a request for goals.

Delawares at our house do not have much breast meat. However, the white feathering makes of a cleaner carcass, and the hens are good layers of large eggs.

Buckeyes at our house have somewhat better breast meat than the Delawares. The dark feathering makes processing a little more of an issue. They do not lay as reliably as the Delawares.

Either breed is better adapted to pasture raising we do than CornX. The pasture does not get slicked down with poop the way it does with CornX.

Both breeds have decent personalities for small and hobby flocks. The personalities should pass to the pullet offspring.

Buckeye Roo over Delaware Hen should produce a sex-linked off-spring. I have a market for a few production pullet chicks, but I am no good at vent sexing. Whitish Roos should produce nice clean carcasses.

Delawares and Buckeyes are recovering, but were endangered. The best way to insure the survival of a breed is to make it economically practical. If the cross of these two breeds produces an excellent pasture-raised broiler and the red pullet's laying is like the Delaware rather than the Buckeye, then it adds a source of income. It may become practical to keep small pure Delaware and pure Buckeye flocks to mix up and provide annual crops of broilers and production pullets.

If the cross does NOT perform better than members of the pure breeds as a broiler....then I will go back to raising single breed broilers. I can always raise straight run to 4 weeks when we can tell the genders, and sell started girls rather than day-old.

The chicks were hatched on April 4-5. They were all light colored, indicating all males (still waiting to see). I only hatched 5 (forgive us for being small and modest in our plans). At the current 2 weeks, their wings are feathering out with a lot of black baring/trim. They are getting 20-25% protein feed. They seem to be healthy and thriving.

The Buckeye roo may get butchered tomorrow. The sons think he is human aggressive. I can get more and probably better Buckeyes in the area, so iit does not mean the end of the breed for us. Delawares are the ones that are hard to find around here.

You try it again??