The Buckeye Thread

[stryker]

Don't change it now, We wont know who you are if you do. I love the freaky eyes.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Stryker I have to agree with Hellbender, I think that comb looks darn good for a pea/single cross. Looks better than the one on my (supposedly)purebred Buckeye rooster. From what I can see I like his colour too, tiger striped.

I have a hard time taking pictures of my Buckeye hens too- I don't know but as soon as the camera comes out they take off. I see you had to catch yours on the roost or unawares with her head stuffed into the cookie jar.


PS Stryker I think Hellbener's avatar must be the Monty Python Holy Grail rabbit. ; -) Love it.

 

[stryker]

PS Stryker I think Hellbener's avatar must be the Monty Python Holy Grail rabbit. ; -) Love it.

 

[Minniechickmama]

The pea comb is dominant over single, but it doesn't stop there being some mix up and making the pea go ugly.
It shouldn't matter what the comb is though if you plan to just eat them. Even with that one he is less prone to getting frostbitten than with a single.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Minniechickmama, please have a look at my Buckeye rooster's comb- it looks a lot like Stryker's cross, even bigger. Could it be that's why the comb/wattles are so huge and ugly, it's a single comb cross? One of his sisters had a single comb. Poor guy! His future is looking very dim.

 

[Minniechickmama]

I wouldn't assume it is a cross of anything, just it is a very ugly comb. I have some too and I have never had a single combed Buckeye bred here. This is more due to bad combs being bred with bad combs, I believe. I have a gawd awful comb on one of my Cornish, but I started with good ones, so I don't know where his came from, but I have noticed with them, that the last two hatching seasons their combs have gotten worse, perhaps because there are some poor genes for combs lingering and just being expressed more now with a closed flock of that breed?
I cull the ones with big or no wattles, neither is correct.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Minnichickmama, thanks, good information to have. I'll apply it to my Cornish as well, I see some ugly combs (messy, not a nice 3 lined comb) among my roosters so it will help me decide between #1 and # 2 roosters. The comb on my buckeye is correct, 3 lines, but butt-ugly and as he's only just short of 5 months old, can only get worse.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Minnichickmama, thanks, good information to have. I'll apply it to my Cornish as well, I see some ugly combs (messy, not a nice 3 lined comb) among my roosters so it will help me decide between #1 and # 2 roosters. The comb on my buckeye is correct, 3 lines, but butt-ugly and as he's only just short of 5 months old, can only get worse.

Keep in mind, the comb carries very low points overall. If you are going to sacrifice something, body type will still trump a crap comb. You still want to keep with the right type, even if it may be a bad example of it. Finding the perfect bird is pretty much impossible, so you pick things you are willing to have to work at. If you are in it to breed and make good birds, you have to be in it for years and not expect that in one or two years you are magically going to have birds going on Champion Row. If it were easy, everyone would have beautiful birds and it would likely be a lot less fun. The keys to finding success is to 1.)start with birds that are already a good representation of their breed, 2.) learn the SOP, 3.) learn how to interpret the SOP, 4.) never stop asking questions and 5.) don't give up too easy.

Success to me comes one year at a time, and striving to make each new year's offspring better than the last. That doesn't mean it will happen, but I think so far I have improved and learned each year, and that to me is something. As long as my husband doesn't kick me out, I am in this for the long haul.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Thanks Minniechickmama, I'll give the old boy some more time to grow up and then I'll have another look. I like the look of my 2 younger cockerels better, but perhaps this guy will grow all his goofy parts together and turn out not too bad!
It seems to be easier to pick out the faults rather than the good things....... I'm going to try to find some good things about him tomorrow. It was a horribly windy day, the chickens all disappeared in the morning and I didn't see them at all until bedtime- it was way to quiet in the barnyard. They don't seem to like wind much either.

 

[cvamoca]

Minniechickmama, please have a look at my Buckeye rooster's comb- it looks a lot like Stryker's cross, even bigger. Could it be that's why the comb/wattles are so huge and ugly, it's a single comb cross? One of his sisters had a single comb. Poor guy! His future is looking very dim.

CanadianBuckeye--I haven't had a single comb on my Buckeyes, although I have one that lays almost Welsummer/Marans dark brown eggs, and one who is oddly laced some pages back.
What I was told about these "messy" combs is--there are the homozygous/2 copies of the pea comb gene that give a nicer, cleaner look, all 3 lines of comb are the same height, and then there are the heterozygous/ 1 copy of the pea comb gene, that give a uglier comb, usually the middle ridge is higher.
Your guy looks similar to mine only mine has a slightly cleaner comb. Let him grow more- I can't believe how much my girls have grown and matured in just a month since I last looked at them with a critical eye. I only have one rooster, so I don't have much choice for this year, but hopefully next year I'll get more choices.
These are the 'sleeper" chickens in my flock- bought them for meat but they were all female except one, and turns out I really like them a lot. While I'd decided to keep the feather footed breeds, I made the choice to keep my Buckeyes as the main laying flock. Really love these birds, love the pea comb, and their foraging skills.