Updated pictures on 6 week Buckeyes! 8wk added to thread!

[joyous]

Heres a better leg picture of them side by side. These two I hatched from Crains run ranch, the adult rooter I have is from sand hill. I am getting very discouraged about starting my flock. I guess I will see how this roo turns out and decide which rooster to keep and order a hundred chicks, maybe I will get lucky and get at least one pullet! lol

roo from sand hill, I took this with my camera phone, and he is really much darker that this picture shows!

 

[punky rooster]

very nice boy! he is great! he is from Urch line if i remember right sand hill bought birds from him

 

[joyous]

Thanks, I was thinking about ordering more through sand hill (they are just 30 minutes away) this spring, as my hatch rate was dismal (2 out of 50) on the hatching eggs., . If the Crains run ranch rooster turns out well, which one should I keep, I am new to breeding chickens. Or should I try again with hatching eggs through the mail??? I had a great hatch rate with guinea eggs though the mail, but there shell is much tougher and I am sure travels better. I like the idea of Crains run in breeding to type and function, Sand hill however is very convenient.

 

[knittychickadee]

Joyous,

It really depends on what you are hoping to accomplish with your breeding (just for eggs and meat for yourself, sell to public, show, etc), but with the quality you have here, I would start over with birds from different breeders. You've really got no good choices here. The one that looks like a possible pullet has several outright flaws, the single comb and black hackles. The folks that were in charge of the Buckeye recovery program at the ALBC have recommended culling any single comb Buckeyes. The cockerel with her has very dark hackles and probably has the single comb gene floating around too since they are from the same breeder. Breed them together and you've got a good chance of more single combs, and more birds that carry the single comb gene even if they don't have single combs themselves. Their offspring would all have dark hackles too, to boot.

The other cockerel looks like he may also have a single comb gene floating around, looking at the build of his comb and the size of his wattles. So again, not a good pairing. Does he have any dark hackles?

You might want to think about getting on a good breeders list for a trio of young started birds for next year. It seems expensive to have them shipped, but when you look at the cost of hatching eggs and only having a few hatch, or the expense having to grow out a min 25 chicks to get a good trio it ends up about the same in the end.

There is a new Buckeye breeder list (under 'our members') that you may find someone near you on.
http://americanbuckeyepoultryclub.com/?page_id=9

 

[knittychickadee]

Quote:
Punky,
Sandhill may have started out with Urch birds yrs ago, but they don't look much like Urch strain at this point.

 

[joyous]

Thanks so much for the reply's, all good viewpoints. I want to accomplish 2 things with this breeding. For eggs and meat for my family and possibly to sell someday, and I find it meaningful to help conserve an endangered breed. I would consider a trio from a good breeder, but my concern is that when animals are bred for show, they seem to cull for looks only and not for function...as in the dog world, so many dogs can not do what they were originally bred for because of this. So that is my dilemma. I do not want to show, but I want them to look and function as they were originally bred for!