The Buckeye Thread

[CanadianBuckeye]

I am new to Buckeyes so I can't offer any advice, but from what I've learned you have to wait a while longer to assess them (except for really obvious faults like single combs or crooked toes etc.). They look good to me!

 

[Minniechickmama]

11.5 weeks old now and uncooperative for pics!

Feel free to critique them. I'm hoping there are some worth breeding but if not, I'll start over.

I have 23 pullets and 6 cockerels. My dog killed a pullet recently. She weighed 2.9 lbs at 10 weeks.

Mostly I'm looking for:

Meat birds that can be eaten over a period of months, something like 5-9 months of age, yet retain reasonable quality with proper cooking methods.

Free range well and hearty, vigorous, etc.

Decent amount of eggs, 150 plus per year and broody enough to sustain the flock and freezer.

If you are working toward a sustainable flock for eggs and meat, then all I can say is wait until that time period you mentioned and what you are looking for from them to see if they meet that. I see definitely color issues, head shape and size and overall lack of depth I would look for from what I can see. I don't mess with weighing that early, just at the end of when I make my selections.
What may constitute good for breeding for one person may not be the same as the next, so it is your call to decide if they work, but they do have some growing to do and you will see quite a bit of change from this point until maturity.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Here's a couple I've got in the flock:

 

[BlackBriars]

Thanks Minniechickmama!

I appreciate your assessment. Your chickens are gorgeous!

I had read where some complained of snake headed chicks and was concerned these might suffer that affliction.

Would you mind expounding upon "overall lack of depth"?

Much appreciated.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

MCM I think I see what you mean by depth when I look at your Buckeyes- their bodies make their legs look short? I'd say my oldest rooster lacks depth.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Thanks for the compliment. I like what I have but everything can be picked apart if you look close. I got a good start from Duane Urch's stock. I added a pair this last year from Shumaker Farms which seems to have blended in quite well for type. I do fight with the color. You would think an all red bird wouldn't be difficult, but it isn't just an all red bird. It seems with the push to get darker surface color, black wants to rear its head into the picture and shows up in various parts I don't want to see it.

I think you mean, the mean as snakes line. I think that is just an urban myth. The truth of that, as I see it, is that Buckeyes should be bred to maintain the calm disposition that they started with. The use of the Cochin breed I am certain is what gave Nettie that from the start. I cull any roosters that are aggressive toward people or too aggressive toward other birds. I have a lot of people with children get birds from me and I can't imagine what I would feel like if a mean bird from me injured a child. It is not unlike breeding dogs and having a mean disposition in the line. I can honestly say, I have never raised a Buckeye that turned aggressive, and I attribute that to good breeding practices on the part of those who have maintained them ahead of me. There still can be an odd one who turns, but I haven't experienced it myself. I have had one customer a few years ago who did have one from me who was nasty as the day was long.
Now, snake headed is not that uncommon. That would be a narrow long head on a neck that is longish and narrow as well, which goes along with that undesirable long and narrow body.
The Buckeye should have a modified Cornish body, one that has real substance, is not too long or too short, but carries considerable mass for its frame size. You can see how it actually starts at the head and will carry through the bird. If you have a long narrow head on a Buckeye, chances are the body type will follow. Which is why I choose birds who have a nice wide brow on them with a moderately sized beak.

As for depth, you want width of body and vertical depth that would constitute a full-bodied bird. Not to be mistaken with fat and round. The opposite would be long and narrow or short and narrow, or a shallow body vertically.

 

[copper2]

Where can I get buckeyes? I read purely poultry has the urch line. And can they forage all there food( or most of it)?

 

[hellbender]

Where can I get buckeyes? I read purely poultry has the urch line. And can they forage all there food( or most of it)?

You can buy from a hatchery with little problems but if you were to give some hint as to where you live...someone NEAR you (relatively speaking) might consider giving you some play.

EDIT: The prospect of someone letting birds go to a person who might try letting their birds forage for all or even most of their food would be a deal breaker or at least for me and certainly everyone I know.

Plenty of people feed grain to totally wild birds, in hopes of augmenting what they must rustle up on their own. I don't see why anyone could reasonably expect a domesticated bird to be totally self-sufficient.

 

[copper2]

I have my location on my profile, and I meant free ranging them like turkeys, able to forage half of there feed, thank you for replying!

 

[Minniechickmama]

I have my location on my profile, and I meant free ranging them like turkeys, able to forage half of there feed, thank you for replying!

They are good foragers, but like hellbender said, if I knew someone were going to only free range and not supplement anything else, I would not sell them birds.
Don't buy into the "they hunt mice" bit, it is a wives tail. Almost any chicken will go after mice who skitter and scurry around, along with grasshoppers who hop and other bugs that run and wriggle. I have fed "ping wigglers" (baby mice) to chickens that some just looked and did nothing and others snatched them and ran, gobbling on the go.

If you are looking for breeding stock that may turn to showing of some kind, find a breeder. If you want just a good hardy chicken with some of the attributes of the Buckeye, then the hatcheries may have what you want. It all depends on what you want out of them and what your expectation is.