Question about breeding Buckeyes (or any other breed)

[bearcreekbees]

I purchased 25 straight run Buckeyes from Privett Hatchery late last summer. I have been keeping chickens for many years but have never really gotten into breeding them before. The sum total of my knowledge about breeding is this- put the rooster in with the hen.

Having said that, I really like the Buckeyes and would like to start breeding them so that I will always have some on hand. Not looking to show them or sell them, just want a supply for meat and a few eggs. I printed out the SOP and the photos which go with it, and will start trying to compare the birds I have on hand now with the ones in the photos, as well as the written description in an effort to winnow out the obvious worst ones.

I have several roosters with single combs- wondering if I should cull these first? Also, I think one rooster and one hen with greenish colored legs- should they go as well?

What I would like to do is to keep 2 roosters (a breeder and a spare), and as many of the hens as I can find without obvious to me) faults. I plan to spend this first year learning to use my incubators, raising meat for the table, and then see what I have when Fall rolls around. If all goes well I would then look at bringing in some additional, hopefully higher-quality birds for next year.

Would appreciate whatever advice you all can offer a rank newbie.

 

[Blackberry18]

I purchased 25 straight run Buckeyes from Privett Hatchery late last summer. I have been keeping chickens for many years but have never really gotten into breeding them before. The sum total of my knowledge about breeding is this- put the rooster in with the hen.

Having said that, I really like the Buckeyes and would like to start breeding them so that I will always have some on hand. Not looking to show them or sell them, just want a supply for meat and a few eggs. I printed out the SOP and the photos which go with it, and will start trying to compare the birds I have on hand now with the ones in the photos, as well as the written description in an effort to winnow out the obvious worst ones.

I have several roosters with single combs- wondering if I should cull these first? Also, I think one rooster and one hen with greenish colored legs- should they go as well?

What I would like to do is to keep 2 roosters (a breeder and a spare), and as many of the hens as I can find without obvious to me) faults. I plan to spend this first year learning to use my incubators, raising meat for the table, and then see what I have when Fall rolls around. If all goes well I would then look at bringing in some additional, hopefully higher-quality birds for next year.

Would appreciate whatever advice you all can offer a rank newbie.

You don't have to cull the birds with unsatisfactory traits, you just don't use them for breeding. In fact, if you're not selling or showing the birds, quality shouldn't really matter. You ordered from a hatchery, so you're not going to get great quality birds; there's bound to be a few disqualifications. Often times, hatcheries breed single-comb birds because they have a higher fertility rate than pea and rose combs.

The best thing to do is to separate them into breeding pens, which I think a 1-5 rooster-hen ratio is sufficient. Collect the eggs and incubate, checking every few days in order to discard those that are rotten (totally dark) or infertile (totally clear).

 

[bearcreekbees]

Thanks for your response, blackberry.

The reason I will be culling is to get birds for the table (roosters) and for dog food (hens), two purposes for which we never have too many birds. I bought the hatchery Buckeyes because, at the time I placed my order (late summer) the hatchery was one of the few places I could find them reasonably (to me) priced. I really just wanted to try the breed out and see how we liked them for table use before I committed to raising them. If we had found the roosters to be too tough, or not flavorful, we would have just fed them all to the dogs and been done with them. Since we now know that we do like them, we will go ahead and start breeding. In the meantime, I don't need a lot of non-breeders hanging around eating. I have other hens which are laying better at the moment, and more eggs than we can use or sell. So, it will be, "off with their heads!".

 

[beanmcnulty]

Hello! I came across this thread googling Privett Buckeyes. The american Buckeye club has Privett as having stock that are nice quality and originally came from Sand Hill. Can you comment and their adult weights and growth pattern? As in how big are they are fryers (16 weeks or so)? I've been breeding Delawares but thinking about trying Buckeyes and Privett also has the turkeys I want to try next (White Holland). thanks!