The Buckeye Thread

[Metella]

SPARKY --

My word of advice ... don't buy from a hatchery - DO buy from a breeder. I ordered my first Buckeye from a hatchery just to get a taste of the breed and what I got was closer to a buff orphington than even a RIR - let alone a buckeye ... now, I'll get good eggs from her .... but she ain't even near a buckeye!

Not putting hatcheries down - they do a great job in helping people get started and giving general different breeds. But if you have spent time doing research and really want a true breed - travel more and pay more for a breeder's birds.

 

[buckeyechicken]

SPARKY --

My word of advice ... don't buy from a hatchery - DO buy from a breeder. I ordered my first Buckeye from a hatchery just to get a taste of the breed and what I got was closer to a buff orphington than even a RIR - let alone a buckeye ... now, I'll get good eggs from her .... but she ain't even near a buckeye!

Not putting hatcheries down - they do a great job in helping people get started and giving general different breeds. But if you have spent time doing research and really want a true breed - travel more and pay more for a breeder's birds.

I have been looking at different breeds of chickens and am considering starting a flock of them. These sound like a wonderful breed. Can any of you tell me where I can find some nice Buckeyes if I choose to get them? I am not sure if I will breed them or not or if I will just keep them around to enjoy for myself. Can someone tell me the difference between Buckeyes and Rhode Island Reds?

I will agree with Metella on buying from a breeder and not a Hatchery, But I have also had good luck buying from a Hatchery with a Grand Champion and Best of Show this year. My suggestion would be buy from a good reputable breeder, as I will be getting some this spring from a very good breeder in Ohio. PM me and I will give you their names

 

[Blueface]

Thank you, blueface3.  I will check them out.
Is there a good place to read more about the many different breeds?  There are so many sites, it is hard to know what is telling the good information and what is not.

You are absolutely correct Sparky; there are a bunch of sites out there now; some good and many not do much. The sites that usually have merit have something to back what is mentioned up and not as many opinionated statements. I'm sure you will read a broad spectrum of things about the buckeye; let the facts dictate your decisions and not the current flavor of the month. This can be said with all families of poultry. As far as a single place to read about other breeds of poultry; BYC has the most expanded input regarding nearly all of the breeds of poultry from what is out on the net currently; just be mindful that most of what you read is highly opinionated.

 

[Pathfinders]

I have been looking at different breeds of chickens and am considering starting a flock of them. These sound like a wonderful breed. Can any of you tell me where I can find some nice Buckeyes if I choose to get them? I am not sure if I will breed them or not or if I will just keep them around to enjoy for myself. Can someone tell me the difference between Buckeyes and Rhode Island Reds?

Welcome to the thread Sparky,

Where do you live? Often, when new at a particular breed, it is wise to purchase from someone in your area (if there is one) who is familiar with it, so they can assist you with learning to look at them to determine quality, setting up breeding pens if you decide to breed them, and so on.

I will PM you with a link to a list of breeders nationwide, perhaps someone on that list is in your area. If not, many of those breeders do ship chicks in the spring.

 

[Pathfinders]

"I have tried apple cider vinegar and can honestly say it repulses me so if I were a chicken I would like to be able to drink fresh water too! That being said, vitamin D helps the uptake of calcium. But I don't think you need to add anything especially since most feeds have added calcium." I'm pretty sure I read that somewhere?!?!

Yes, you read that in another Internet forum, where I posed the question about the use of ACV for thin-shelled and shelless eggs to a vet I know.

So, given he feels it has little to no effectiveness, what do you recommend Joe? The point of this particular sub-thread was to help the OP fix this problem with her hens. Can you offer her some advice to cure/alleviate this problem?

 

[Pathfinders]

From a veterinary perspective you're going to get just as much argument as we have here. Electrolytes are used in theraputic medicinal ways during supportive care. Potassium is the most common and can be given as an oral supplement or intravenously. Given intravenously you have to be very careful of the dosing because it can have devastating effects. But given orally, and in the way that most people use it, it is a nutritional supplement. All of our nutricuticals (nutritional supplements that are given to produce a theraputic effect but are not medications and therefor not controlled by the FDA in the same manner) are listed in the computer under "oral drugs" even though they are not drugs.

As to offering additional water, again there is going to be a lot of debate amongst veterinarians about this. The board certified avian vet I worked for was not a fan of medicating birds in the drinking water. One of the concerns being that medications or supplements added to the water would make the water taste off and cause the birds to not drink enough. The bigger concern being that you can't accurately control dosage because you have no control over how much water each individual bird drinks. That said, this board certified vet works primarily with pet birds and doesn't do as much "flock management" medicine as someone with chickens would tend to do.

I agree, using water to deliver drugs is less than ideal, but for those who are not practiced in giving IM, IV, or sub-cutaneous injections, it's a much better way to do so than to experiment, which can sometimes have fatal results (giving a shot of antibiotics IV that is meant to be IM can kill a bird almost instantly.)

For those not practiced in giving injections, I used a trick with our 4-H kids that made it easy to learn the difference between IM and sub-cute:

You need several thick-skinned oranges, some small bore needles, and some Hawaiian Punch (the red works well for this.)

Using the HP as the injection fluid, practice giving injections just into the skin of the orange, then into the "meat" of it. Then you can cut the oranges open to see how accurate you were, with the red color of the HP showing where the fluid went. We did this for both our Horse and our Poultry 4-H groups.

 

[Blueface]

Yes, you read that in another Internet forum, where I posed the question about the use of ACV for thin-shelled and shelless eggs to a vet I know.

So, given he feels it has little to no effectiveness, what do you recommend Joe? The point of this particular sub-thread was to help the OP fix this problem with her hens. Can you offer her some advice to cure/alleviate this problem?

Sure; but I don't have this problem and really never have on the 24 years of managing my own flock. A well balanced diet with proper care ensures that only the superior birds propagate. If I have problems with any bird: they are culled immediately no matter the bird. I don't medicate ever other than preventive maintenance which is worming a time or two each year. I take on the ideology that I'm not running a hospital and anything weak for whatever reason needs to be removed and eliminated immediately! This method has never let me down and the resulting propagating specimens are physically and genetically sound. So the short answer is kill anything that is not performing as nature intended!

 

[Blueface]

To add to my previous comment; I'm very good friends with 3 very respected vets one of which is Dr. Glyde Marsh from OSU. All of them strongly support intense culling to maintain a superior strain of fowl. All of them also dislike any form of soluble medication.

 

[Pathfinders]

Sure; but I don't have this problem and really never have on the 24 years of managing my own flock. A well balanced diet with proper care ensures that only the superior birds propagate. If I have problems with any bird: they are culled immediately no matter the bird. I don't medicate ever other than preventive maintenance which is worming a time or two each year. I take on the ideology that I'm not running a hospital and anything weak for whatever reason needs to be removed and eliminated immediately! This method has never let me down and the resulting propagating specimens are physically and genetically sound. So the short answer is kill anything that is not performing as nature intended!

And your advice to her to determine which bird(s) are laying the thin-shelled eggs? Surely she shouldn't have to kill them all if only one bird is having this problem. That seems extreme.

Of course, she could build a trapnest (if she had the skills to do so) which would tell her, but in the meantime, if she can find something to assist the bird, it would be useful to know which one it was having the problem. What do you recommend to tell which one it is?

And fwiw, I would not kill a bird that was having this particular problem, as it is not necessarily a sigh of weakness or illness, it is sometimes just a side effect of molt. I do agree that sick birds are not coddled here, they are culled. But this is not always a sign of illness. A soft-shelled egg can accompany illnesses such as IB, but sometimes it's just a bird that's molting.

I don't think I would immediately begin killing birds just because I saw such a thing happening.

 

[Pathfinders]

And here are some plans for building a trapnest, which could help determine which chicken is having the problem with the thin shelled eggs:

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/trap+nests.html