Buckeye Hen

Buckeye Rooster

The Buckeye

 

An American native, the Buckeye was developed in the 1890's by Nettie Metcalf, a farmwife in Warren, Ohio. It is the only American breed to sport a pea comb, and the only one that was solely developed by a woman. During that period women were mostly the keepers of chickens in the US.

The Buckeye is a cross between Barred Rock hens and a Buff Cochin rooster, then some black breasted game fowl were added to get a dual-purpose bird that would perform well on the farmstead.

 

The Buckeye is known for it's meaty legs, wings and breast and have very dark meat. They are calm, sociable birds that like being around humans. The roosters can get aggressive. They are good foragers, and they perform well when allowed to roam, but will adapt to close confined spaces. They grow more slowly when confined. When kept in confinement they don't get feather picky as some breeds do when over crowed. They are known to venture out even on the coldest days and hens readily become broody.

 

The Buckeye is a striking bird with deep reddish brown to mahogany color. Small red pea comb and waddles. They can have black to dark green tail feathers. Roosters weigh around 9 pounds and hens 6.5 pounds. The buckeye is an average layer of brown eggs.