Recently, Jenn Andersen forwarded an email to me that came from Jeffrey Dennis Pearce, the son of now passed Buckeye Breeder Dennis Pearce. She asked that we share this letter with our ABC members so here is what was sent on May 7, 2012;
Helllo,
Ms. Andersen.
I
just ran across your blog today and was please to see that the club has been
reconstituted, and that you have mentioned my father, Dennis Pearce. Thank you
very kindly. You list his death date as 2010. He actually succumbed to
esophageal cancer on October 22, 2008. Here is a blog we kept for family and
friends: http://dennisleghorn.ebloggy.com/ Dad
was also a Single Comb Light Brown Leghorn breeder, hence the blog URL.
Some
history that might or might not be of interest to you and your club members:
We
have our birds on our old family farm that my great-grandparents bought in
1909. Dennis's parents had an egg business here, and so my father grew up
surrounded by 10,000 white leghorn layers. There was never any money in eggs,
even when my grandparents sold them to my grandmother's brother, who owned some
grocery stores.
My
father and my brother, Tim, began raising poultry in 1994. When Dad died, we
decided to leave all of his writings that he had put on the white boards
outside each pen, so there is some interesting history. I can verify that there
is one pen marked as a Buckeye pen and the date is 1996, so this may be the
year they started raising Buckeyes. I remember the earliest Buckeyes they had.
The hens were so fearless that when you opened the pen door they hopped up on
the door frame base and you could touch them. They always approached you when
you opened the doors. I remember thinking of them as the friendly chickens. I
do not see this trait in females anymore. It must have been bred out, which is
unfortunate. They are much more reticent now, but will still tame well.
Roosters have always been rather jumpy. Two years ago I got into a pen to treat
two brother Buckeyes for bugs. The one jumped up and broke his own neck. I was
horrified. Of course, compared to Single Comb Light Brown Leghorns, Buckeye
roosters are calm.
I
have nursed several Buckeye roosters who developed an ear imbalance and lost
the ability to walk because they were out of whack. They tame up very nicely
with regular handling. I have to say Buckeyes are probably my favorite chicken
variety. I love their look and their character.
We
had a lot of Buckeyes here, of course, when Dad and my brother were helping Don
Schrider with the ALBC. For a time, we even had Bantam Buckeyes. Now we just
have four roosters and one hen. We tried to hatch last year and got about 6
chicks, but all succumbed to Merrick's disease at different stages prior to
adulthood. The last male chick died when he was almost fully grown. We
obviously need some new blood, but have struggled after losing Dad to keep the
hobby going along. We sort of lost our heart for it, too, though we still have
about 75 birds of various varieties, and 30 pigeons and a white call duck hen.
We have some good local Buckeye contacts so will get a some females at some
point
On a
personal note, if any of your breeders knew my father, they can vouch that he
was a fine Christian man of upstanding character, and he loved poultry, but his
true reason, we are convinced, that he enjoyed the hobby so much was that he
loved the fine people he met in the poultry world, and enjoyed so much
communicating with them in person, by letter, by phone, and by e-mail.
Best regards for your endeavors, ma'am, and thanks for keeping the line Dad
worked so hard on going strong.
Jeffrey
Dennis Pearce
Stanwood, WA
-------------------------------------------------------
A few comments I wish to add regarding Mr. Dennis Pearce and his Buckeyes. In 2004, I first had contact with Mr. Pearce about his Buckeyes and he was very pleasant to deal with both over the phone and by a hand written letter (wish I still had that letter). I recieved some Buckeyes from Mr. Pearce and to this day still keep a seperate pen of "pure" Pearce Buckeyes from those original birds! He told me most of his Buckeyes came from D. Urch about 10 years prior to my contacting him and this would be in line with what his son Jeffrey states in the above email. I got the impression his true love or passion was for the Leghorn but something about the Buckeye caught his eye and he was keeping them true to the APA Standard.
Regarding the above comments about breeding out the characteristics or friendliness of the Buckeye I suspect keeping Buckeyes in close proximity to Leghorns might have more to do with the change in personality than actually "breeding out"! I've raised Buckeye chicks with other more "flighty" chicks and noticed some change in their personalities as well. It seems a breed like the Leghorn makes the Buckeye more "nervous" and this could be the case regarding Jeffrey's comments. The line of Pearce Buckeyes that I maintain act like any other Buckeye line I currently own. The biggest difference I have seen in the Pearce line has been better color (darker) and a bit larger size than the older Urch line. Obviously the Pearce line and the old Urch line make a good cross since they are essentially from the same family. It would be nice to know if Mr. Pearce used other Buckeye blood to improve his Buckeyes or if he simply used good selection techniques. This we may never know?!?!
I hope ABC members find this email as interesting as I did and I want to thank Jenn Andersen and Jeffrey Dennis Pearce for sharing it with us!
Regards,
Jeffrey Lay
Co-Founder
The American Buckeye Club
