Buckeye cockerels at 17 weeks old

I have raised a couple of groups of buckeye chicks. There has always been two different types of body and tail feathers displayed. I have only had two different batches to compare to, but certainly a very big difference in the aforementioned type.

I have found that along with the tailfeather differences, there is also a very different body style. The first group that I raised two of the best body types were chosen to keep. I only have one now of that first group, as I lost a rooster to mouse bait poisoning. The remaining dude is one year old coming on October 1. A huge and most beautiful bird, I will be bringing him to the poultry show in November to hear comments on this bird. I am sure there will be lots. His colour needs improvement, but body type is great!!

Anyways, this particular group of buckeyes that I am growing now are 17 weeks old. The buckeyes take a very long time to mature, and only in the past little while have I been able to ascertain gender, I have several roosters and only one pullet, smiling. Go figure that one.

I have more buckeye eggs in my incubator growing as we speak. They come from another strain of the breed, although very distantly related. They come from Heda Gobbler.

Anyways, I have three pictures that I want to show you. Two pictures are of a cockerel, that for a long time has always appeared very different than his nestmates. He has always had a very short, buffy looking tail, his other fellow mates have had much longer tails. The body type cannot yet be ascertained as to who will be good, who will not, but the colour on this one particular fellow has always been so much darker. I am hoping that he will end up being a keeper, because he is displayed some pretty deep mahogany, such as the buckeye colour should be. Enjoy the pictures, comments would be welcomed as to opinions or thoughts. Have a wonderful and great day, CynthiaM.

This is the dude that has the buff, short tailfeathers, the much darker, even colouring.

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Another angle of this dude

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Believe it or not, these two cockerels are brothers, or should I say half brothers. There is a huge difference in the tailfeathers and the colouring. Interesting stuff eh? Same age, possibility of different fathers, or perhaps the same fathers, there was two roosters in with the hens, both roosters related.

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Hi CynthiaM,

Yes the color is better on the smaller bird. Before I make more comments on them I would need some pictures of the wings and feet. The wings look a little loose but probably will be alright because there's still growing and might have green quill feathers. The feet is for of a concern to me. If you could look at them to make sure they are not duck foot. To me from these pictures, that back toes is not good.

Very interesting. I'll have to post some photos of my youngest buckeyes for comparison.

Have you candled those eggs yet? Hope they are all developing well!

Rico, duck feet, thought it would be faster to look it up on the internet, came up with all kinds of weird things, not related to a duck foot problem in chickens, so I went to the SOP.

"a condition where the fourth or hind toe is carried forward so as to touch or almost touch the third toe instead of being carried backward to touch the bround and help balance the bird, a disqualification (figure 24)."

In all honesty, I spend an incredible amount of time sitting and watching each group of my birds, and have never noticed anything that must be clearly evident with regard to duck feet, smiling, but then, I never paid really, really close attention to that. I will be on an agenda today to look at each youngster very clearly to see if this is evident. I get an impression it is very bad, and I will mark any bird that I find with this, they will go to my table for dinner, smiling again.

it is funny, when you mentioned duck feet, I immediately thought of a webbed foot, that was what I was expecting to find in the SOP and was very surprised at the picture of the deformity. Interesting stuff, and boy oh boy, do I sop up knowledge like a big, fat sponge .

Heda Gobbler. The eggs are going to lock down on Monday, they are due to hatch on Thursday. I was bad, very bad, I was so swamped with some stuff, that it took me a few days past when I got the eggs from you (thank you very much again for your Hubby going that extra mile to get the eggs on the bus, hats off to him). I honestly can't wait to see what your buckeye babies turn out like. Nope, I haven't candled them, I will when they go to lockdown. I just never seem to ever get around to candling before then, only once in my term with incubation of eggs have done that. I think that your buckeyes you got from Heidi should now be at least a month, or more older than mine, which came from my stock. Do you recall their exact age? I could get an approximation from you from my records, if you don't, I keep notes on things, smiling....and I have been watching you , smiling, I mean stalking you , no just kidding. I just remember you getting hatching eggs before I set my own into the incubator, smiling again. Please do get some pictures. Pay particular attention to if the mahogany is an even colour throughout the bird, that is pretty important (well I think it is and according to Heather it is). I know Heidi had some very nice birds from a very tried and true line from the line from the president of the Buckeye Club in the states. I think that line that she has could use improvement in size, but then, as Ethan had mentioned, sometimes what feed is given too can govern size, but I cannot comment on that. Anyways, nice to see you back, Heda, hope you had a beautiful time away.

I will try and get some other pictures today and focus on wing and body feathers. Can't guarantee it, not sure of the weather, but indicate what exactly please, Rico, what you would like to see in the pictures. The birds like to have their pictures taken, and are not freaky and afraid, so it is simple, but I need a focus indication. Have a wonderful and beautiful day, CynthiaM.

I would really like to know why this. And I have seen this in the first hatch of buckeyes. Wondering why some cockerels get those long tailfeathers so quickly and others take such a long time, the tails remain very short and stocky looking, but eventually get long, I find that rather odd.

Useful observation from Rico. Maybe we should have a "buckeye feet" thread and all post our photos to be sure... I haven't looked for that either.

My Buckeyes from Heidi hatched July 8 and 9 (when my niece was visiting - perfect!). I think I must have lost one or two - when the brooder light went out overnight a week later (didn't write that down in my diary) so it will be interesting to compare them to yours. I have some of my own

breeding - another 8 I think that are in the "hardening off cage" - no light but in the chicken house where it is a little warmer but they don't get picked on by the mature birds.

As you noted before photos can be really difficult especially for colour and shades on different feather textures. But it's a start.

My husband will want to know how those eggs turn out...

Heda, oh, oh, so yours hatched on July 8 and 9, funny, I thought that they hatched before mine, funny how the mind plays tricks, smiling. Mine hatched on June 6 and 7th, so mine are one month older than yours. Yours would be about 12 weeks old, coool, nice to know, soon you should be seeing some nice maturing. So, how old are the ones in the "hardening off" place, would be interested, and even more interested in seeing the pictures. Don't ever think that you are straying off topic here with this thread. This is intended for putting in pictures and stuff for anyone that is breeding buckeyes. I would love for Ethan to put some of his pics on here, I know he got some stock from Meyers and would love to hear how that line is coming along. Looking forward to seeing some pics, I'll try and get some more today too, but need to focus on the wing feathers, just need to know more about what to focus on from Rico. Perhaps he will enlighten us a little more on what exactly to focus on.

When you take pictures, that gloomy day is best, meaning overcast, if you do take pictures when it is sunny, try for around noon, or at best, have the sun at your back. Sometimes that makes nicer pictures, the sun glimmers on the bird. Don't use a flash on your camera when you take pictures outside, that really messes them up as far as I am concerned. Have a beautiful and wonderful day, CynthiaM.

The subject of duck foot has been discussed before on one the forums with pictures but it is good to touch on it again. There are couple of ways to observe the foot. He you pick up the bird and flip outside down, head toward you and feet in the air, you can see the feet really good. The best way is to put them on a piece of plywood and let them walk around the observe them. Take pictures of foot from the front side and back and flip to me if you wish. Chat later.

Rico, thank you for the indepth description, it is good. I spent a few minutes observing the youngsters, buckeyes and buff orpingtons this morning. It is a rainy day, and there was a break in the rain. I did this before I let them out of the run to the wild blue yonder. I did not notice anything of the unusual, but on the next nice day I will absolutely look closer. I will hold each bird upside down with the head facing me and take a gander at those feet, I will also attempt to get some good pictures. It is supposed to be rainy in the Okanagan for the next couple of days, ich (so much to do outside yet), so doubt if this is in the near future. Thanks for the input, I truly do appreciate it, now I will be on a search through this and some other forums for duck feet on the birds, smiling, I have such a need to know. Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

The dark one looks nice but be careful, and watch out for too many black feathers because that will really come through on their offspring, I learned that lesson this year and as a result a lot of the young ones, cockerels especially had too much black. Out of 40 pullets I culled down too 15 looking forward to going through them next spring to select which ones will go into the breeding pens. Only a few cockerels made the cut this year, although I've still got a long way to go on my buckeye project.