Buckeyes, opinions, and how to improve.

[Blueface]

It's a good place with good people. We won't blow smoke up your butt and you must take any critiques as a building process and not as a negative response. To be a breeder you must be honest with yourself.....I go by the idea that if your flock isn't improving, it's degressing.....you can't simply just maintain it. I read that idea from an early 1900's poultry magazine. Go back through all of the buckeye pics you can find. You will see the quality of fowl in many flocks beginning to actually look worse.....this can be contributed to many things primarily people using the idea of genetic diversity improperly and others focusing only on specific traits and their birds are falling apart completely in other areas. As mentioned before, take an honest look at ALBC bred birds...you will see lighter colors (yes buckeyes should be mahogany bay....not multi-shaded or mahogany-orange....There appears to be more people talking the talk vs. walking the walk in the exhibition world!!), bad beaks, thin heads, poor feather quality,short backs, no tail angles and unbelievable fluff in the saddle and thighs (buckeyes are a tighter feathered breed!!) But they have only been bred for production purposes and and any exhibition qualities have nearly fallen by the wayside. That is why I suggest people be very careful with what they choose to breed with!!

Buckeyes have been great for my daughter and myself. My ideas of the breed have never changed and to date they are becoming better than ever!!

 

[HumbleHen207]

Thank you, I will continue to post updates. I wont start hatching till spring, as it is getting risky to hatch and brood chicks here. It is beginning to reach freezing temps at night. I can see that the hen I have isn't ideal, some of her feathering is light for my liking, but she is young and some of her coming feathers are darker than what she has now. She has a nice shape to her though. Its a start. I will update this thread as I hatch and obtain birds, get peoples opinions on what should be culled, and what should be kept.

 

[Blueface]

You're welcome. We have to start somewhere I started with a baby cockerel with a skinny head and a 10 year old faded out hen. It's having a set goal and good selection process that makes all of the difference . Be true to yourself and weed through the BS and you'll be as right as rain

 

[Bethel3330]

Sounds like we're in the same boat, HumbleHen. I just placed an order for 20 chicks today. Joe, the color on your birds is amazing

 

[HumbleHen207]

Its been a rough few months with my buckeyes...
When I first attempted to integrate them, the rooster in particular was targeted by my other roos and even my gander. The beat on him mercilessly, I eventually wound of getting rid of my wyandotte and bantam rooster to alleviate the problem. I keep all my birds together in the winter because I need to heat water and water heaters are expensive. Due to lack of proper nutrition in his early life, and sudden new stressors my rooster was then thrown into a spell of wry neck brought about by an E deficiency. I was successful in correcting it by persistently supplementing his diet with vitamin E. Im not sure if this will be a trait carried to his offspring, especially due to the fact I was able to pinpoint the cause being a deficiency.




It has been several months since his last flair up, it seems if he is not being kept from the feed canister by a bully bird he has no problems. I was forced to separate him yet again, which put me back at stage one with integration. With some work I did manage to integrate him, but it was a long process.

This morning my gander beat him up again, I decided I had enough and decided to separate him and his hen a little earlier than I had previously desired. They are now in a small-ish breeder pen. The water is still freezing and it is frustrating to have to separate them so early but I dont want to lose him, especially when he has shown so much promise.