The Buckeye Thread

[love2carve]

Hi! I like the way you said you were clicking with your Buckeye baby! I have had chickens in the past but now am back into being a total chicken nut! I got 26 day old chicks from Meyer's Hatchery and they are wonderful! They are now 1 year and 9 months old. I got my Buckeye as a substitute in my order. I did not know what a Buckeye was. That little chick was a hoot from day 2! She was the littlest chick of the bunch and I called her PeeWee. She was so sweet and nosy! I wish I had gotten several more but I did not know at the time anything about them. Now she is the same size as most of the other girls in the group. ( assorted heritage type layers) not as big as the rocks etc. just a nice size laying hen. She is one of my most precious and favorite girls. She is the first to come up for a sample of whatever I bring to them. She is not flighty at all. She lays light tan or sort of tinted eggs, bigger than medium but not really what I would call "large" eggs. but a steady layer. She is nice to the other hens too. I wish I had 5 or 6 more of them! I cannot give in to the "chicken math" because I don't have room!

Good luck with your chickies!

 

[Minniechickmama]

I love these great discussions about combs and such. I will need to be selecting my breeders from the 15 Buckeyes I have. My younger birds will be 24 weeks in January so I'll need to know what I am looking at when that rolls around. For me, how fast they gain is important so I will also be recording weights in a few weeks.

Good info on the blues as well. I have 4 birds from a breeder who purchased them directly from Foley and a cockerel descended from them. BLRW genetics is a whole lot more to learn.

BLRWs are not as much about the shade of the blue but the lacing, when it comes to color. The big problem with them at this point, what I am told by a long-time Wyandotte breeder (over 30 years) says they just aren't consistently meeting the size. I am not terribly impressed so far with the size of the birds. I do have some that come down from the Foley line, but twice or more removed from a breeder doesn't seem quite right to label them to me. I have heard that Foley's birds are breeding up to standard size, which is why I got these ones. I do have one very promising cockerel who is putting on some good size as well and looking very typey and has excellent color. If that continues into maturity is yet to be seen .
Good luck with them, they are beautiful even if they are just for laying eggs in a backyard flock. I enjoy them and most people getting a mixed flock from me like seeing them with the mixes I give them.

Edited by staff

 

[Blueface]

...

Size of the comb here is somewhat subjective.

I have not seen that combs generally are the big problem when it comes to Buckeyes. I suspect what Wynette says about different climates making combs larger or smaller would apply to the Buckeye's comb as well. I do not understand why it wouldn't. I am not at the point where I am selecting just on the basis of a comb, but I have only been breeding Buckeyes for 7 years.

IMHO, the problem I see with some Buckeyes that is not as easy to fix is in the bodies of some present lines.

Yes, comb sizes can be very subjective like anything else with the buckeye. However, I disagree that there is not a problem with many of the combs! Creating the ideal pea comb with any consistency has proven a challenged based on many of the birds I have observed.

For those utilizing their buckeyes for utility or a barnyard bird, I can see why the "appropriate" color might not mean all that much; the way a bird carries itself, holds its tail, walks, talks...... As long as they have that big body and wide chest....to make the chicken and dumplings or tasty chicken dishes; that's all that really matters. But for the preservationist; one who reads back through the recorded history and feels what was important to the creator and her views on color are very much different than the backyard enthusiast who loves a fresh chicken noodle soup. The two concepts of type and color go hand in hand. I get a real kick out of the constant phrases like type is the most important; it's 60%?!?!? It's true; the type establishes a breed but what's often lost is the other 40%, not to mention many of the aspects within that 60% that are not given the credit they deserve. A big wide chest is not the whole 60%! There is much more to it.
So let's go back to the newbie; a newbie sees that big ol' stripped body and they think "I want that"......ok. They go to Throckmorten down the road with a strong backyard type flock and get their start as chicks. They raise then up; hopefully with the best of care and they go to a poultry show with these " big" bodied birds and get beat by a darker bird which is as the creator described but guess what; the darker bird had that same big ol' body and now they think back at this kind a jargon and then feel something was wrong. I find this very troubling. You see, I raise those beautiful dark colored birds and I have big ol' bodies to go along with that color. There is a clear difference between getting best of breed and winning the class! A big ol' body will only get you so far; but that other 40% actually does matter in places outside chicken noodle soup!

Edited by staff

 

[homeworkin]

One reason I bought this BLRW quad was their size. I have not weighed them yet but they are big birds with some serious heft. The cockerel is still smaller but coming along nicely.

 

[slfarms]

...

Yes, comb sizes can be very subjective like anything else with the buckeye. However, I disagree that there is not a problem with many of the combs! Creating the ideal pea comb with any consistency has proven a challenged based on many of the birds I have observed.


Thank you for answering about the combs and clarifying the need to follow the makers design for the breed. I'm following that breeding plan as well and finding you can have the dark red bird with type as Nettie dreamed.

Edited by staff

 

[AinaWGSD]

Hi! I like the way you said you were clicking with your Buckeye baby! I have had chickens in the past but now am back into being a total chicken nut! I got 26 day old chicks from Meyer's Hatchery and they are wonderful! They are now 1 year and 9 months old. I got my Buckeye as a substitute in my order. I did not know what a Buckeye was. That little chick was a hoot from day 2! She was the littlest chick of the bunch and I called her PeeWee. She was so sweet and nosy! I wish I had gotten several more but I did not know at the time anything about them. Now she is the same size as most of the other girls in the group. ( assorted heritage type layers) not as big as the rocks etc. just a nice size laying hen. She is one of my most precious and favorite girls. She is the first to come up for a sample of whatever I bring to them. She is not flighty at all. She lays light tan or sort of tinted eggs, bigger than medium but not really what I would call "large" eggs. but a steady layer. She is nice to the other hens too. I wish I had 5 or 6 more of them! I cannot give in to the "chicken math" because I don't have room!

Good luck with your chickies!

None of my buckeyes are particularly "friendly" in the wanting to be touched kind of way. Mostly because I just don't have time to cuddle them once they reach the wack-a-doodle adolescent phase (though my 4 year old is all to happy to help me cuddle them as chicks!) But they are, as you said, the first to come see what goodies we're passing out. We pull up and the whole flock comes running to the fence and follows us as we get out and walk to the gate. Makes me smile every time

My uncles, who raised white rocks in their youth for 4H, have mentioned several times that they've never seen chickens follow people at the fence line like that before!

I agree, my buckeyes' eggs are not as impressive as my hatchery layer's eggs. But they're bigger than medium for sure (most of the time). We had one slightly odd looking egg, very much on the small side, in the nest box today. My husband thinks we may have a new pullet (one of the girls from our Mother's Day hatch) laying! Personally I think it's one of the older pullets, as the younger ones are still about a month shy of when the first hatch started laying.

 

[Minniechickmama]

One reason I bought this BLRW quad was their size. I have not weighed them yet but they are big birds with some serious heft. The cockerel is still smaller but coming along nicely.

Do you have an SOP to check weights against for them? I haven't weighed them out, I just have been going my comparison and feel. I am hoping to get out with my scales in the next week or so and start checking weights on more of them to be sure. I have seen some photos of beautiful BLRWs that look like they should have the size, but you never really know from pictures.

 

[homeworkin]

Getting the SOP is on my to do list. All I know is the rooster and two of the hens are heavier than any other breed I have at the moment. One of the hens is scrawny. They are super fluffy, definitely can be misleading. I culled one of their cockerels a few weeks ago for having a narrow body. He was all fluff. Dressed out at barely 4# at 26 weeks. These guys are much meatier. My processor is always telling me to stick to Cornish X because of skinny birds like that one. But he tasted so good. We had chicken and rice made from a couple of scrawny 3 year old hens I bought for summer eggs til the pullets started laying. Together they barely made 5# and they took hours to cook. But, oh, the flavor!

 

[HappyBuckeye]

Quote: I can see that there are two different schools of thought on raising show quality Buckeyes (and probably other breeds as well) and that there are some very strong voices defending each of the two sides. I find it odd that there seems to be teams debating on the SoP.

So here goes- I hope this does not kick off another round of ruffled feathers and chest thumping.

Can each of the teams please describe the point system regarding both "type" and "color" as well as describe the specific steps you take when selecting show quality birds?

(I think I've got the carcass thing and chicken noodles down pat. My Buckeyes are already exceeding expectations in that area and have been judged and approved by friends and family alike!)

 

[HappyBuckeye]

Getting the SOP is on my to do list. All I know is the rooster and two of the hens are heavier than any other breed I have at the moment. One of the hens is scrawny. They are super fluffy, definitely can be misleading. I culled one of their cockerels a few weeks ago for having a narrow body. He was all fluff. Dressed out at barely 4# at 26 weeks. These guys are much meatier. My processor is always telling me to stick to Cornish X because of skinny birds like that one. But he tasted so good. We had chicken and rice made from a couple of scrawny 3 year old hens I bought for summer eggs til the pullets started laying. Together they barely made 5# and they took hours to cook. But, oh, the flavor!

I find that too. My Buckeyes are heavier than any other breed I have. When I pick one of them up and hand them to someone to hold, they are usually surprised by the weight.