Nettie Metcalf's own account of making the Buckeye

Nettie Metcalf's account, reprinted by the American Buckeye Club from its 1916 catalogue, begins with practical dissatisfaction rather than a plan for an exhibition novelty. She describes trying several farm breeds before crossing Buff Cochin cockerels with Barred Rock females. The resulting birds were too inactive for her preference, so she added males bought as Black-Breasted Red Games. Red offspring attracted her attention and led to deliberate selection.

Her early chicks varied widely in leg color, comb and feathering. Over successive years she worked toward darker red plumage and a modified Cornish-like shape. Correspondence and exchanges with Rhode Island Red breeders briefly led her to use their name, but differences in comb, shape and undercolor persuaded her to maintain the pea-combed birds separately. She describes the official showings and affidavits that preceded recognition in February 1905. This is the founder's retrospective testimony: valuable primary evidence of goals and decisions, rather than a modern genetic reconstruction.