Buckeyes are coming!!

An order of my very first Buckeye eggs are being shipped from New Brunswick next Monday. I am having them custom incubated to be sure I get the best hatch.
Then hopefully I can get some from Saskatchewan to add to those Buckeyes. I'll have 2 lines, I plan to keep them separate for now. Should start to get interesting pretty soon!

Oh that is good to hear. Buckeyes are neat birds, you will like their personalities and looks. They will not look that dark mahogany brown until they have reached about 2 to 3 months old. They will have kind of a mottled look, with light feathers, so don't be discouraged if they are not dark brown right away. Enjoy, you will have some lovely birds. Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

Thanks Cynthia for the encouragement. Yes I did know that they were mottled when young, the first time I saw a picture of a chick I thought it was a cross.

I have been following you excitement!
I am also on a Buckeye Train.

I have 100 chicks coming from a private breeder ( ALCB) in Oregon US. But with ALL this AI in the states is making the process a wee bit difficult. But, if it does not happen this year and can wait till 2016.
Hatching eggs from Eliza's/Cynthia's line ( birds that made it to northern Alberta) in the incubator now.
Hatching eggs coming from Ethan and Les farms coming soon.
AND 40 Ideal birds.

I am really concentrating on only 1 breed with the focus of:
1) Growth Rate and SOP weights at 22 weeks
2) SOP standards
3) building a production purpose with focus of improvement over every generation.
4) give an excellent show bird for everyone to see and want.
5) feed my family and friends and have chefs involved that want birds to prepare in their restaurants.
6) and network with ALL buckeye breeders across Canada.

First Cull is at the end of May. I am sure I will only be keeping 10% for a breeding program.
Select the best and eat the rest!

Sounds like a great project! Maybe we should start a thread and all of us with Buckeyes do the same comparison at 22 weeks?

I should say that the birds you got from me were from birds I bought from Heidi Shuster originally - where Cynthia got hers too. Heidi sold the last of her Buckeyes to me; she doesn't raise them any more. She bought them from a prize winning breeder in the US.

I can't remember if the birds I sold you already had Ethan Wiggins birds in the mix or not - I bought some from him a few summers ago. I put leg bands on all of them to tell them apart but of course I think one bird had a leg band (the spiral kind) left after the winter. Sigh.

And to close the loop, Cynthia got some Buckeye eggs from Ethan too, and I got some of Cynthia's Buckeyes in the end though another breeder who sold them on to me.

It is great you are getting a lot of different lines - it will be interesting to hear your observations as to their differences. I wanted some from Performance Poultry this year but they were sold out from the start.

I would say check chicks right away for crooked toes. Not sure if I was having issues with my incubator heat or the genetics but that did turn up periodically. Generally though chicks are incredibly vibrant right from pipping.

It's great you are being so systematic - look forward to your results!

I too am hatching some Buckeye eggs this spring.  They should hatch next week.  

Why, you may ask?  Well, the hub called me into his computer room to show me a picture of a chicken he approves of.  It was a Buckeye.  I will do anything to get him interested in chickens.

I think I will set up the brooder in his computer room.  Not sure how his kitties will like that, though.

The kitties will love it! you might want to make sure there is something solid across the top of the brooder though. Bet the kitties want to sleep on it. Warm with chickies to watch!

Warm kitty nesting spot...hmmm...I think he will love those chicks.

Heda,
I think, it would be very interesting on how weights are across the board. Everyone weighing at 22 weeks. And how close to the standard they have improved.
I am keeping detailed records with the Buckeyes. I am wanting more of a meat bird and I am hoping that the egg laying ability slows a tiny bit or better yet not at all.

I am loving the fact that I am also willing to work ONLY with the buckeye and the other chicken breeds I have will be rehomed.

I think if you keep the comparison simple - just weight at 22 weeks you will get more participation from other breeders.

But a terrific project!

la-chicken, that's great!! Sounds like  you are off to a great start.  I would like very much to participate in any Buckeye activities :-)  I expect a hatch around May 7.

I don't have any unique lines, the Les Farms ones (in the mail !!!!) and the ones from Ethan, later. I was going to get a trio from Jeff Lay but he didn't come to the Sarnia show as planned so that didn't work out. My focus is egg laying ability, I plan to select for egg production as a priority (I'll try to conform to the SOP) so it will be interesting how our two lines evolve.
Here isthe picture of the eggs I am getting from Les Farms. the palest one is a Buckeye cross egg, buckeye x  cornish cross xbarred rock. I am really hoping that one hatches and that it's a pullet.  

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I get a big variety of egg colours from my Buckeyes too. I don't want to start selecting for that though - there are more important qualities first.

I have never actually seen a live buckeye chicken so I'll be asking all of  you to critique my birds for breeder selection.

This is wonderful, and wow, obtaining 100 from a breeder in the US is awesome too, that is a whole lotta chicks.  Anyways....something....and I am not sure if it is breed specific, but as the birds get bigger feet, something that I would like you to be aware of and to look for (I did not know this condition even existed) but is something called duck foot.  I am going to link a thread that I started in 2011 about this that I found in my one year old rooster.  I just never thought there was anything odd about his feet, until Sebas49 (a poultry judge on this site) mentioned that he thought he may have seen duck foot on the male.  The thread is lengthy, and I do not see any pictures that I put in the thread, I thought I had put pictures in the thread, but guess I did not.  Fortunately, I save my pictures I put on forums on photobucket and I know I have a folder in there about the duck foot condition I had in one of my males.  I am not trying to alarm you, but knowledge is POWERFUL stuff.  Duck foot is not something that you want to breed with in your flock if it shows its ugly head.  I will put on a couple of pictures too.  Anyways, just information, listen, learn.  This world is full of information to take and do with what we will. I am excited about the buckeye projects going on here, and awesome, awesome, awesome!! Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

This is what the duck foot looked like on my buckeye. This inappropriate type of toe makes it difficult for the bird to have good stability, hard to describe, but the toe is not long enough basically to sit flat on the ground and makes for a wobbly bird.  I never really noticed it, but did think he ran kind of funny.  I was grateful for the comment that made me study about duck foot in chickens.

Note the short back toe....and how it kind of sticks out sideways, not going kind of straight back??? look closely at the pictures

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Look closely at the back toe

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This is holding the bird to get a really good picture of the bad toe

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This is the thread that I started, oh so long ago, smiling that big smile.....there could be another thread on our forum that has more talk, but I was lazy and only found this one, a search function here is wonderful for finding stuff, if you want to spend time and look around, do the advanced search, using the author's name, that helps to hone it down

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Oh Cynthia, the dreaded duckfoot! I am sorely familiar with this issue having struggles through it in the Houdans. I will be watching.

Personally I would select for a fourth toe that points back as far a possible if this is an issue in the breed. It was the first thing I selected for in the Houdans and it took 2-3 years to eradicate it entirely. There was a compounding issue with the Houdans though. The fifth toe! Yep, the Houdan fifth toe needs to point back and up. Often both toe four and five would be fused and pointing sideways, or even worse, forward!

Well Cynthia I believe you now have to discuss smut. Buckeye feather smut to be exact. Don't think we ever had photos of that, did we?

Glad you revived those duck foot photos!

I have been told about the duck foot possibilities.
I am curious if it is a line/strain issue. But, Thank you for the heads up.

Yet something else to monitor…..and eat.

Buckeye eggs made it to Ontario from New Brunswick in 2 days! Thanks Canada Post. I did not hear any sad news from my custom incubation services person so I assume all is well with them. May7 is hatching day! Wooo Hooo!!!

Sue, wow, Houdans had it bad eh? You are working so hard, my dear. OK, Heda, never got to the point in my breeding where I worried about the smut. I don't think anyways, can't recall ever addressing that. So can't help one little bit. I sold the flock before I got off onto looking for smut in the feathers. Duckfoot was my concern and had it not show its ugly ahead again whilst I had the flock. It really did affect the way the rooster ran, I totally so remember that, and thought he ran rather weird, smiling. I think certain breeds might be more prone to things like this condition. Derbyshire, that is awesome! You will so love this breed, they are such curious lovelies. Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

Cynthia thanks, I am really looking forward to them.  I spent a year researching breeds and to me they seem like the perfect chicken for my purposes- and temperament was high on the list of must- haves.

All right Heda, I want to hear about smut. Do those Buckeyes have a preference for Penthouse or Playboy?

I had 24 hatch just yesterday!

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My first hatch in a week ( 20 so far) and I just set another 36 eggs. And 24 are coming in a week in time to fill up AGAIN. Then another 36 and that is all. Plus Turkeys!

If the border ever opens up……i will have another 100 ACLB line.

LOVE the one on the left.

Lovely! That one on the left I call the "toasted" colour. Is the one out of frame a chipmunk one?

I just set 50 eggs....

What breeds are the chicks? I thought buckeye chicks were that toasted colour only?