The only American breed developed entirely by a woman. In the 1890s, in Warren, Ohio, Nettie Metcalf set out to breed a red chicken that would be both useful and pleasing to the eye. She crossed Barred Plymouth Rock hens to a Buff Cochin rooster. Mrs. Metcalf considered the resulting chickens to be too large and too lazy, so she bought a Black-breasted Red Game rooster and bred him to her Rock-Cochin pullets.

When Mrs. Metcalf learned of the development of the Rhode Island Red in the eastern states, she called her red chickens “Pea-combed Rhode Island Reds,” but later changed the name to Buckeyes, in honor of her home state.