The Sussex thread!

[SurfCityBumpkin]

Mine does look a lot like your girl! I have not heard of a Coronation Sussex but I can't wait to look into it! Do their markings stay this pale silver? I think she is beautiful.

 

[Faraday40]

Here she is now at 6 mo. A Gentle giant. She just started laying.

 

[3riverschick]

Hi all! I am hoping someone can tell me if they think my 12 week old pullet is a Silver Sussex. I purchased 2 fertile Sussex eggs for my broody Silkie to hatch and one was clearly a light Sussex roo and has been rehomed. (Not allowed to have Roos in my town). This girl has been slower to feather in and the color around her neck, wings and tail are very light silver.
I posted pics of her when she was younger and a few people thought that she was not a Sussex at all but a mix. Her legs were yellow, they said. They look white to me but I am a newbie.

Hi,
I know you are serious about the breed. So I am going to be blunt. In poultry, shape makes the breed. Color makes the variety within the breed. This bird is colored like a Silver Sussex. In Sussex, the shape is so closely allied with its production virtues that if it doesn't look like a Sussex, it literally isn't a Sussex. I am so happy for you this bird has given you a love for the breed. They are wonderful birds. But it is not a Sussex. It is a chicken with coronation colors. I am not trying to be mean, I am trying to explain the chicken world. Now here is what the ideal Sussex should look like ( breed type silhouette) in any color variety. This is the illustration used for the Light Sussex in the most recent American Poultry Association Standard of Perfection (2010 ) .
http://www.katherineplumer.com/closeups/poultry/SOP/LLightSussex.html
Sometimes our first birds' testament is their ability to help us select a breed. Not the excellence of the birds themselves. My first Marans were like that. Tho I eventually left the breed for the Sussex, I learned to love the Marans with my less than stellar, would-be Golden Salmon Marans. Tho I never was able to correct the color, the bird's temperament and production virtues really make me smile.
Grading up? It will take years and $$$ with this bird. Your best bet is to put this pullet in the egg flock and start again with better stock. Been there , done that. Your cock is more than 1/2 your flock, so you want to get the very best. Your females should be hatched by a hen which is a very good layer. Your cock should have a dam who is a very good layer as he will also pass this virtues to his daughters. A quality breeder will know these things.
Don't get over excited by the size of your birds. The cock should be 9 lbs. and the hens should be 7 lbs. These huge Australian birds cannot be showin in APA shows because they are automatically DQ'd for being over-size. Find an American strain which has incorporated the Cornonation color and kept the correct size in their birds. Silhouette, silhouette. Keep that uppermost in your mind. Also take another look the Plummer painting. See how you can see the thighs on the hen? We should always be able to see the outline definition of the thighs in spite of the feathers. If the bird is all fluff and pantaloons down there and all you can see is legs sticking out of the fluff, this is incorrect. The Coronation is just a Light Sussex with the Lavender gene instead of the Hackle Black gene. Happily, it is based on the eWh ( Wheaten) allele so there is no color balancing of the underfluff needed to get correct top color.
What does the APA SOP say about the Sussex and why are they constructed the way they are? How does their structure affect their production virtues? On BYC there is an older thread, now completed, called Chicken State University. It's function was to take breeds one at a time and analyze them for the "students". In posts 1093 thru 1108 https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/732985/csu-chicken-state-university-large-fowl-sop/1090 we discussed the Sussex. Dragonlady stepped in and shared some wonderful information. She has been breeding purebred poultry for over 50 years. It is very enlightening.

Here's some great reading on the breed.
This is a wonderful short expostion on the variety and the breed. Judge Whitehead was a judge for Sussex poulrty. One of three brothers who were famous in the poultry world, he went on to become President of the Poultry Club in Britian. I got back and read this over andover again. It is very enlightening.
The Light Sussex.
By Broomhead, William White
Pub. 1921 , 8 pages
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924003137332;view=1up;seq=5
The book below was written by a legendary Sussex breeder. Sharpe was also the creator of the Light Sussex. Lots of great information on all the varieties. The Coronation was not yet created when these 2 books werre written.
The Sussex fowl (1920
https://archive.org/details/cu31924003091398
Best Regards,
Karen

 

[SurfCityBumpkin]

Hi, 3riverschick. I admire your knowledge of proper breeding and Sussex body shape standards, but I must admit, I am a novice chicken enthusiast with only 5 chickens in my suburban backyard. I chose to buy a couple of fertilized eggs that were supposed to be Sussex because of what I had read about their general temperament and beautiful coloration. I have no aspirations to breed as I live in a town that does not allow for roosters, so although I would love to have a perfect breed standard Sussex, I will find the joy in taking care of this pretty little "mutt".

Seeing as it seems she not a true Sussex, any guess as what mix she might be? What other birds have this coloration? Can I really tell what "body type" she will have at this age? (12weeks)

 

[SurfCityBumpkin]

Perhaps I am in the wrong forum.

 

[SurfCityBumpkin]

Btw, Faraday, your girl is a beauty!

 

[alohachickens]

Hi everyone! I don't generally post over here, but I wanted to share some pics of my mixed Sussex flock!

I am working on a new breed, an American version of Swedish Flower, and I'm using several breeds including Exchequer Leghorn and New Hampshire Red, as well as Speckled Sussex.

I'm using the Sussex to improve size and bulk. I bought several Sussex eggs and hens from several sources, and because I'm working for a different goal, I have mixed Buff, Speckled, Red, and "Cinnamon" Sussex together. For those of you who haven't heard of that last one, Cinnamon Sussex, it was a project by "Paul's Rare Poultry" to bring the Dun gene into Light Sussex. The effect looks like Coronation Sussex but with a bit more of a brown tint than the Lavender shade seen on those. Because of that last addition, I've had some interesting new color effects that I thought some of you might enjoy looking at, even if they aren't APA approved colors.

This was a Cinnamon Sussex / Buff Sussex cross. Buff Sussex lines trace back to Greenfire imports, and the Cinnamon was from that PRP project:


You can see in these pics the more "brownish" tint to the neck and tail feathers.

Other chicks got the Buff Sussex color like this lovely hen:

Which is of course how a Buff Sussex is supposed to be colored.

Things got really interesting, though, on the ones that inherited the Buff color on their bodies, but also got the Dun color on the neck:



Pretty sure that's new?

This hen, I don't know if she's a Red Sussex (which Walt's Ark also has, and the gal I bought these from said he supposedly added a couple "bonus" Red Sussex?)
Or is she just an extremely dark Buff Sussex?


I also crossed some Meyer Hatchery Speckled Sussex with the Walt's Ark Buff Sussex rooster and this was the result:



You can see some "brightening" of the Mahogany color, and I'm hoping in the next generation to see some Mille Sussex.

I also can't wait to see what happens when we get a Speckled Sussex rooster over the Cinnamon Sussex hen. What would the black look like on a Speckled Sussex, if the color was replaced with the Dun gene?

Here is my Speckled Sussex / Buff Sussex cross rooster:

And these will be a couple of his girlfriends. Setting up breeder pen this week.


Anyway, just wanted to share! I'm not breeding for show, only having fun. In the end it's my hope to use these to improve size on my Alohas which are smaller, kind of Leghorn-sized hens.

They are super colorful but I really love the "roundness" of the Sussex!

I mean, how cute is this Sussex girl?

Hope y'all enjoy the weird colors! I'll update with new pics if I manage to get the Mille color, or the Dun Speckled Sussex later this year.

 

[Faraday40]

Those are some pretty chickens. My fav is the 1st. Are you trying to increase egg production as well as the colors?

 

[alohachickens]

If you like the first one, that's a straight-up "Cinnamon Sussex" (crossed with Buff Sussex - because that is what I had, but crossing with high quality Light Sussex would be even better!)

Eggs were being sold on here a while ago. I got my hatching eggs when he put some on Ebay and they sold lower than normal, like $25 for the dozen, I think? I didn't really need them but the price was so good I had to try. Only half the chicks will have the Dun markings. I got one rooster and one hen with the Dun gene.

I put the rooster in with my little spotty hens last year, to improve size and introduce the Dun gene:

You can see how huge this guy was! The spots went into hiding for this generation, but I did get a couple of Dun carrier Alohas that I'll cross back to a spotty rooster:

The Mottling should return in their babies.

Then I took the Cinnamon Sussex hen, and put her in with the Buff Sussex rooster, since I didn't want to cross her with her own brother:

If you search "Cinnamon Sussex" or "Paul's Rare Poultry" you can find his web site, though I don't know if they are still being sold? I haven't seen the eggs on Ebay since then. (About two years ago by now.)

 

[3riverschick]

Hi, 3riverschick. I admire your knowledge of proper breeding and Sussex body shape standards, but I must admit, I am a novice chicken enthusiast with only 5 chickens in my suburban backyard. I chose to buy a couple of fertilized eggs that were supposed to be Sussex because of what I had read about their general temperament and beautiful coloration. I have no aspirations to breed as I live in a town that does not allow for roosters, so although I would love to have a perfect breed standard Sussex, I will find the joy in taking care of this pretty little "mutt".

Seeing as it seems she not a true Sussex, any guess as what mix she might be? What other birds have this coloration? Can I really tell what "body type" she will have at this age? (12weeks)

Ok, genetically this bird is a Sussex. In color it is a Coronation Sussex. But in the eyes of the APA Standard, it is not a Sussex because it does not meet the breed body type. I am sure it will lay and behave like a Sussex so , yes, of course enjoy your birds as we all do. One thing you can do to bring out the best of your bird's genetics is to change the feed to a 20% to 22% crumble. These heritage large fowl like the Sussex do much better on increased protein. I had real good success with Agway Meatbird which is a sister product to Naturewise Meatbird ( both made by Cargill) . The difference was startling from the 16% crumble I had been feeding. .The birds fleshed out real nice and their feathers just shined so nice! I also did well with Southern States Meatbird. Historically, the Sussex was created as a meatbird. Also get some Gran-I-Grit Developer/Layer ( Agway or call Gran-I-Grit) . The proper size grit will help the birds grind their food better so they can digest more of the nutrients. Feeding the right size grit at the right age can result in as much as 20% more egg laying as an adult.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/products/gran-i-grit-insoluable-crushed-granite ( scroll down to feeding chart )
http://www.ncgranite.com/crushed-stone-surry-county/cut-stone-mt-airy-nc/gran-i-grit-products.html

Ah, here it is, the official Gran-I-Grit brochure I was looking for. 2 pages of great info. http://www.jupefeeds-sa.com/documents/GraniteGrit.pdf
Best Success,
Karen