The Buckeye Thread

[stryker]

When you pick up that cockerel, feel with your whole hand over his back, if the spine curves up at all, it is considered roach back and a bad thing to breed. It can have negative impact on breeding ability and laying ability and should be culled out. It could be that he is just getting an excess of fluff in his saddle though, but you need to feel for it.

Does the roach back also apply to the hen/pullets, or only roosters?

 

[Minniechickmama]

It applies to all fowl.
And it can come in varying degrees.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

MCM thanks. Hopefully that pullet is a Welsummer cross and will lay nice dark eggs but she won't be part of my breeding program. I do think it's just the feathers sticking up on the rooster's back, it does seem pretty straight under all those feathers but the feathers are sticking up rather than laying flat and it looks incredibly ugly. I do have a few younger cockerels, so I can select the best of them, but my pullet choices are very meager - it's so true that you need a lot of chicks to choose from! I'll give them more time to grow up and hopefully I'll have a somewhat decent pair at least.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Even if flocks that generate exhibition quality stock, there is about 1 in 10 that is a keeper.

 

[cvamoca]

Ugly Buckeye or cross? I think I see silky in this pullet. She has nice colour, but she has black in her hackle (a lot), and she's too fluffy and has a weird shape- hard to describe but I won't be surprised if she lays a green egg

Supposedly she's a Buckeye but I hope not. What

do you think?She's around 14 weeks old, and actually does have a pea comb.


And, have a look at my cockerel, same age. He is definitely going through an ugly phase, but do you think he's pure, a very bad example of pure, or does he look like a mix as well?



He has a strange thing going on with his saddle feathers sticking up in a V along his back- looks like a hunch back but it's just his feathers. His tail is just growing out now. Do you think he's too leggy? Not a bad comb though, perhaps a tad large? He's the same age as the hen. Is that a sneaking suspicion of white in his ear lobe too, or do they start out a bit pale at first?

I only have one rooster and three hens from this hatch, one hen (above) is a mix or not typey, the other two look more like I think buckeyes should, but my "best" one has a single comb. I have five younger chicks from a diffferent source that I think might be a bit better but they still look a bit on the fluffy side to me. I am trying to learn how to select my Buckeyes for further crosses so please tell me what you think. I have a source of some hopefully excellent buckeyes for next year, so I'll be able to judge them better. (I have never seen a Buckeye except on the Internet!! and my chickens.)

@CanadianBuckeye- I also have 7 from that same breeder as posted above. Lots of black in hackles and tails, and for roached back- she's had a Marans and Barred Rock who are totally rumpless. So it could be a mixed bag of spaghetti...
My Welsummers have feathers between their toes, and a Marans with clean legs and the wrong leg colour. It happens...

 

[cvamoca]

Speaking of feathers, is it normal to have a "shredded feather" appearance, like what you see in some lavender orpingtons, on the back feathers of young buckeye pullets? The cockerels are too young and are not interested in the hens yet, and nobody's feather picking. I am hoping this will grow out, if not, that's poor feather structure and I don't want more of it. Any thoughts?
Cvamoca, you are very lucky, five pullets and two cockerels to choose from!

Many people seem to be hatching a lot of cockerels this year (not just Buckeyes). Some of my chicks were very slow to feather out, I was starting to wonder if they ever would- four weeks and still half naked! Ouch.

Yeah but I got 6 Welsummers as day olds- all are male. Same with the Silver Penciled Rocks- 2 males. The only luck I had was the Buckeyes. All came from the same hatch as day olds from the breeder.

 

[stryker]

It would appear that the seller would know what he/she was selling you with welsummers. I am not by any means an expert with welsummers but at a day old, even I can tell which is which.

It reminded me of my current luck when I hatched out some chicks and sold buyers pick, week old chicks. I saved 18 leftover chicks and most are looking like about 15 roos. I am giving it another 4 weeks so they will be 10 weeks old before I cull.

 

[cvamoca]

The Welsummers weren't sexable- They were all wild-type e+ chicks. I would have said 4 were female and 2 male, and I've hatched many other breeds.
I had several with thick eye stripes and some with thin--body stripes of different thicknesses, so it's not the breeders fault. You don't know what's in your chicken's background until many generations down the road, and even then- things crop up in genetics of fowl, been there, understand it. They are quite handsome.

The Buckeye chicks all looked partridge as chicks- that's exactly the pattern. One had a different colour as a chick, but was one of the pullets-- I didn't keep track of what it looked like then and now. Some have Columbian markings as young growing birds--as you can see in tails and hackles. Same coloration as Rhode Island Red I believe. Mine are quite pretty and very personable, I'm just not sure how "good" they are. I'll keep them regardless and use them as layers- they are part of my master plan. But I do want to breed everything for SOP, so when things don't look right, I need to know.
My eye is pretty good for breeds I know, but I've never seen a live Buckeye in this small area we 're at, until I got them.

The Marans are quite lovely, I'm waiting on egg colour but they look correct.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Yeah but I got 6 Welsummers as day olds- all are male. Same with the Silver Penciled Rocks- 2 males. The only luck I had was the Buckeyes. All came from the same hatch as day olds from the breeder.

That would tick me right off if they sold them to you as chicks. Welsummers can be sexed at hatch if they are pure and if they aren't or darn close to pure, they shouldn't be sold as such. Having things like wrong leg color is definitely not cool for a breeder to then sell as pure.

 

[fowlman01]

That would tick me right off if they sold them to you as chicks. Welsummers can be sexed at hatch if they are pure and if they aren't or darn close to pure, they shouldn't be sold as such. Having things like wrong leg color is definitely not cool for a breeder to then sell as pure.

99 percent of the people calling themselves breeders are not breeders in any sense of the word.

Walt