show quality speckled sussex ??

[culler]

Ace, the USA SOP does not say anything about the close or open feathering for the SS. How open the feathering is depends on the Fluff amount on the feather. The Leghorns would be tight feathered. The Rocks are open feathered . I think the SS should be somewhere in the middle.

I don't think I grasp the difference between Open and Close feathering as well as I should.
Can you help me get a better understanding of these terms. . ..

 

[math ace]

Ace,

While the production is low by the current standard of production, how are your girls at free ranging?? Do they find much of their own food and in tha way produce an egg at a lower cost???

THe reason I'm asking is that I'm on the fence about where to get my next girls. I love the hens from MM that I currently have. Of the best foragers. Marans are v gd, SS just about as good. Thanks for sharing.

I will give the SS this - - They are excellent free rangers. On top of that, the ladies have built in camouflage for wooded or heavily leaved areas.
The marans love to be out and about, but the SS really are serious about the food hunt!

 

[math ace]

Ace, the USA SOP does not say anything about the close or open feathering for the SS. How open the feathering is depends on the Fluff amount on the feather. The Leghorns would be tight feathered. The Rocks are open feathered . I think the SS should be somewhere in the middle.

So What Fluff are we talking about - Butt Fluff, back cushion fluff, etc?

Should the Speckled sussex's fluff be more, less, or about the same as the Marans?

Should the SS fluff be more, less, or about the same as the delawares?

 

[culler]

The Fluff would be over the entire body. The lower part of the feather is where the fluff is located. The Marans would be something to look close to for comparrison. Not the Black copper from the lady in Florida as they have too much Fluff showing the Cochin influence.

So What Fluff are we talking about - Butt Fluff, back cushion fluff, etc?

Should the Speckled sussex's fluff be more, less, or about the same as the Marans?

Should the SS fluff be more, less, or about the same as the delawares?

 

[math ace]

The Fluff would be over the entire body. The lower part of the feather is where the fluff is located. The Marans would be something to look close to for comparrison. Not the Black copper from the lady in Florida as they have too much Fluff showing the Cochin influence.

Tomorrow, I will try to get out in my pens and grab some pics of Fluff from different breeds.
So, Fluff in the hackle area would be fine to look at ? ? ? ?

 

[3riverschick]

Tomorrow, I will try to get out in my pens and grab some pics of Fluff from different breeds.
So, Fluff in the hackle area would be fine to look at ? ? ? ?

Hi Lisa,
I think the verbage describing quantitiy of feathering is confusing for Americans because of the way the British describe it. I suspect it's a semantics problem. Americans think in terms of opposites. tight-loose; hard-soft. In Britain, they have termed the breeds Heavy and Light. Ok, no problem with that. However, they also have soft-feathered birds which can be either close-feathered or loose-feathered. And hard-feathered birds which are only close-feathered. So they call the Sussex a soft-feathered, close-feathered , heavy breed.
I think some of the US breeders are confusing soft-feathered with loose-feathered. soft=loose=fluffy. But when we read the old lit by the great poultrymen,

it all says without exception that the Sussex should be a closely feathered breed whose plumage should resemble neither the looser plumage of the Cochin nor the harder plumage of the game fowl. In his classic booklet on, "The Light Sussex", ( see below) .Broomhead gives us guidelines on close-feathering, stating, "It can best be described as feathering that will not be blown out of position by every puff of wind coming from behind.". .
This is such a great booklet! I printed out and reread these 9 pages twice times a week.

Best Regards,
Karen
http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009169678
The Light Sussex. (London, 1921), by William White Broomhead
(page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
email me if you have a problem with access.
----------------------------------------
Broomhead was widely known for his literary style in explaining the why's and how's
of breeding poultry in an "everyman" style. Like he did in this Light Sussex missive.
William White Broomhead was an internationally respected poultry-man in the
first half of the last century. He wrote greater part of the Light Sussex Standard.
He edited Volume 2, Part 4 of the 1901 edition of The Poultry club standards.
Here is a sketch about him done by renowned poultry-man William E. Rice.
http://tinyurl.com/84d7x62
National poultry magazine: Volume 9, Issue 9 - Page 49 - 1911 -
Sketches of British Judges
No. 1—Mr. William White Broomhead
Written by WM. E. RICE

 

[3riverschick]

Examples of types of feathering.

Light Sussex (done for 2010 APA SOP )
http://www.katherineplumer.com/closeups/poultry/SOP/LLightSussex.html
soft-feathered, close-feathered, heavy breed.
Note how the feathering is close enough to provide a "neat" outline to the bird.
No "bumps or bulges" in the silouette to distract the eye from the symmetry of the whole.
----------------------------------
Cochins (done for 2010 APA SOP )
http://www.katherineplumer.com/closeups/poultry/SOP/BColumbianCochins.html
http://www.katherineplumer.com/closeups/poultry/SOP/BBlueCochins.html
soft-feathered, loose-feathered , heavy breed. Note the bird is a series of "puffs".
One does not so much see the bird itself as how the symmetry of the "puffballs"
unite gracefully.
---------------------------------
Game fowl (done for 2010 APA SOP )
http://www.katherineplumer.com/closeups/poultry/SOP/LRedPyleModerns.html
http://www.katherineplumer.com/closeups/poultry/SOP/LBrownRedOEGs.html
hard-feathered and close-feathered. The feathers lay tight against
the frame of the bird. The silouette is starkly laid out to the viewer's eye.
Nothing is hidden from the viewer's gaze.

 

[Howhardcanitbe]

I was just wondering what your egg sizes are and how productive your hens are?

I have 3 different strains of SS hens. Both my McMurray and Sandhill birds are still laying pullet sized eggs (40-48g) at 7 and 6 months old respectively. Can't say for sure about rate because they are mixed in with other brown egg layers, but I'd say about 4-5 per week. My Mt. Healthy girls are 10 months old and are laying about 5 eggs per week. Their eggs are typically 50-58g. So large side of medium and large eggs coming from the Mt. Healthy stock. You should know I have them all lit from 4:30 to sunrise which is around 7 right now. I had been turning on the lights at 3:30 but they were starting to go broody, so I cut back an hour. So broodiness is still in the Mt. Healthy strain, if that matters to you.

 

[Howhardcanitbe]

Back to the topic of Show Quality Speckled Sussex....

Anybody weighed their older birds yet?

I weighed my 7 and 8 month old hens today. The weights were low, just like I was expecting.
How about the rest of you? Any one got hens and roosters that are weighiing in at the standard of

Standard Of Perfection.....
WEIGHTS: Hen 7 lbs, Pullet 6 lbs, Cock 9 lbs, Cockerel 7 1/2 lbs.

The APA recognizes Cocks and Hens as being OVER a year old, if I am not mistaken.

Techniqually, my birds are still pullets since they are less than an year old.
Out of my 9 pullets . .. . One was over the standard and two others were within a few ounces of the standard.
The other 6 pullets were a pound or more under the standard.

CHIME in and let me know if you are finding that your stock is meeting the standard weight wise....
IF so, WHERE did you stock come from ? ? ?

At 10 months, my largest pullets from Mt. Healthy were 5.8 - 6 pounds. Most are in the 4-5 pound range. My Mt. Healthy cockerel, also 10 months, tipped the scale at 9.8 pounds. So size wise, Mt. Healthy is definitely there. Their combs are all over the place, there are problems with too much white and there's a bent toe issue, but over all, this line is the closest I have to what I feel a SS should be. Big bird/good layer.

I have two McMurray cockerels at 8 months that are weighing 7 and 7.2 pounds. Nice combs, a lot of white in the primaries, and upright tails. The pullets, I don't have any specifics on but they are in the 4-5 pound range. No weights on the Sandhill stock.

 

[cowchick11]

Below see what Karen (3RiversChicks) posted on the other all Sussex type thread. Sorry, could not figure out how to quote to a different thread.

Thought it was really interesting even though it is mostly on bantams and the photos on the site below are awesome!!! I really appreciate the "body" illustrations that should transfer to LF even with the size difference. Please correct me if I'm wrong but that makes sense to me.
Thanks for posting that Karen!!

Pam (cowchick11)


Here is a study in superb Sussex struture and breed type. It doesn't matter of the fowl are large or bantam, this is the structure we wish to see.

http://www.skytopbantams.com/sussex.html
Skytop Bantam Speckled Sussex melded Rob Mongold and Gary Overton lines into their Skytop strain. Here we see the classic
"bottle-shaped" body ( think of the shape of bottle we consider when we think of the classic "ship-in-a-bottle" folk art).
Look at Cookie, she is ravishing. A study in classic Sussex hen breed type. Her tail set is nigh onto perfect. Almost level with her back.
As a result of their efforts, Skytop became APA Master Breeders of Bantam Speckled Sussex.
See the breast on Lily(bred by Gary Overton)? Lovely. Look at the heads on the hens. So refined, no coarseness. Dainty, yet not tiny.
See the long, long ,level back on Sprinkles and the lovely tail carried low.
Look at the long, level back and lower tail profile on "Chips", the rooster .
Now take a look at Confetti. The Sussex is a breed of graceful curves. See how her curves do a graceful ballet, one with another? The curve of the breast is offset by the lovely curve sweeping across the withers and up the back of the neck to a lovely, dainty arch of neck. at the crest of the skull.
The curve from the base of the tail to the point where the legs meet the body is offset by the graceful "S" curve starting from under the beak, flowing down the throat, out around the front of the breat.
The totality of the curves fill the eye, none of them so abrupt in angle that they distract from the whole.
The icing on the cake is the lovely patterning of the speckles.
It takes decades of severe dedication to create birds like these. They should never be crossed with utiltity or hatchery Sussex.
Best Regards,
Karen in western PA