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Right, the individuals showing their birds don't get to choose the judge at all. However, that's not to say that a breed club can't request one or two judges in particular who are familiar with their breed to be involved in judging their class. It's not "fixing" so much as trying to ensure...

My 4 week old chicks have been outside for 3 days now. The first two nights we had to go outside and move them into the coop in the grow out pen, last night we forgot to check on the chickens before bed, and tonight when we went out to move them inside all 17 of them were already in the coop...

Just a few pictures of the buckeyes from this morning... My cockerel, Pepsi, and one of the pullets. He's been pretty wary of us ever since we evaluated the cockerels last weekend (guess he's not a touchy-feely kind of guy) so it was a little difficult to get a good shot of him. Two of...

What a busy busy weekend we've had! Yesterday we put 3 buckeye cockerels and 10 6 week old broilers in the freezer. We've decided we definitely need to invest in a turkey fryer for scalding, the buckeyes didn't quite fit in our large (6 or 8 qt) stock pot! Their feet stuck out while we...

So far we've named all of our birds. The buckeyes are slightly different, as we are preparing for a move and won't be living on the same property (they're going to a family member's farm). But we did pick the cockerel that we're keeping last night and have dubbed him Pepsi. I don't know that...

I don't think so. But it might make it harder to do a quick head count if the chickens are standing next to the coop.

We actually have used our baby scale to weigh a baby, once. But we did purchase the scale for the express purpose of weighing chickens. I've also purchased used dishwasher bottle racks at the consignment store for the purpose of separating chicks as they hatch.

We use a baby scale we picked up used at a local consignment store. We weigh our chickens "loose" but it sometimes takes several tries and we occasionally get an escapee. If you have a box or cage that will sit on the scale and zero the scale before adding the bird that would be easiest.

I'm so happy right now! Candled tonight, and all but two of the 23 buckeye eggs we set are showing definite signs of development!Bob Gilbert had said that the eggs from the B2 pen may not be fertile, as he had zero development of eggs from that pen on the last three settings, but he was hopeful...

I think Monica will get along just fine with the other breeds you've mentioned. Size really isn't what's important in the pecking order, for chickens it's all about attitude. My biggest hen was a blue orpington, and she was second lowest in the pecking order in spite of being significantly...

Me too! Mine are still at that awkward phase at 12 weeks old. But they've finally stopped acting like the sky is falling when we step out the back door and are reverting more towards how they were the first few weeks in the brooder. I nearly stepped on three of them this morning when I went...

My little chicks are growing up! The biggest is about 3 and a half pounds now, the smallest just shy of 3bls. They'll be 13 weeks old on Wednesday, and they're starting to make the weirdest noises. Not quite big bird noises yet, but not baby peeps either. This afternoon they were getting way...

I'm impatient, and nosy, so I tend to candle pretty often. I check at 3 days, then again at 7. The breeder I got my buckeyes from doesn't candle before day 14. I don't toss any until after day 10 though, and if there's any question at all I leave them in there. I've been fooled before, eggs...

Weighed all of the chicks again today. The biggest cockerel is right at 2lbs exactly. They seem quite happy on the back porch, none of them seem at all bothered by the fact that it's a good 10-20 degrees cooler out there than in the house. I have the heat lamp on just in case (and to keep the...

I tend to agree, making a laying line sort of changes the purpose of the breed. However, I believe what LeBlackbird and Bluface are talking about is not a "laying line" bred for better laying ability over dual purpose qualities but a line of birds that originated from a breeder with the last...

LeBlackbird, you should still band them or identify them in some way. When my buckeyes hatched, six from one line and one from another line, the one that was from a different line was distinctly different in appearance. Within 2 weeks I couldn't even tell her apart from the others except that...

Maybe I missed something, but I don't think anyone is saying that the slate bar "isn't necessary if you have good type." I think the point that is being argued is that the slate bar isn't the only thing one should focus on when evaluating birds and choosing which birds to breed. Yes, it is...

Hatcheries use vent sexing to sex day old chicks. It's a specialized skill that takes a lot of practice to learn and can be stressful for the chicks, which is why most smaller breeders and poultry enthusiasts do not use this method. The rest of us just wait for the secondary sex...

Well, my little guys are only a week old so it's way too early to tell on gender. This morning it wasn't quite as obvious, I had to really look to pick out which one had the odd feathers. So maybe it's just a strange growth pattern and in the end it'll be perfectly normal. On the bright...

Has anybody had split wing show up in their Buckeyes? One of the chicks' wing feathers is growing in differently than the rest. There's a slight break between the primaries and the secondaries which is present in both wings but more prominent in the right side. I noticed this almost as soon...