Sussex

I have never had a hen, but my friend bought me one, who was crazy, and then all her chickens got stolen. Then she got another one for herself, and that girl is crazy, and then I got one for me, and he turned out to be a roo, which sucks, but he is crazy, too. I would only get this breed from a good, quality breeder.

The Speckled Sussexes I had were personal favorites because of their sweet temperaments. Unfortunately, the three hens I had were all picked on mercilessly by one roo and by the other hens. I came to wonder if something about the markings on the birds was the cause of this problem.

Got her with a few others at Coastal farm store as chicks. Never was friendly. Lays every 2 days or so. Avoids me unless there are treats. Got for the plumage, but just disappointed in the breed, at least the quality from Coastal farm.
Won't be purchasing again unfortunately.

I only have one Sussex but she is a massive bully. She picks on the two lowest birds in the run. The poor hamburg's tail is starting to look tattered. I am actually looking at rehoming her because she is sooo mean to smaller birds. And she has tried to bite my son's toes on the occasions when I have caried him into the run while opening the coop door( he was wearing footy pajamas which she did get a hold of and is just over a year old)

She does give us about four or five eggs a week. And she is a stunner looks wise.

I have one speckled sussex name Rosie. This is my first time raising this breed and I'm loving every minute of it! She is as curious as a chicken can get. She takes big risks, wanders off on her own, chases wild birds and rabbits, jumps around, runs everywhere, falls down a lot on account of her bolting and jumping, loves to sit on my shoulder and likes to try everything! Her eggs are very small. She also is very vocal. This breed is a great one! She was super affectionate as a chick and now still loves to cuddle. Crazy, cute and curious basically sums up Rosie! I would defiantly recommend this breed!

I have 1 Speckled Sussex, and out of all my chickens, she is the most timid around people. I can literally walk up and grab any one of my other hens, but not Babs. She is a good layer, and if I were ever interested in hatching eggs, she'd be a great sitter.

I guess it depends on what you want in a chicken. I prefer more friendly breeds, so I probably wouldn't get another one.

My alpha hen is a speckled sussex named Huevo. She clucks a lot and they're long and whiny. She pecks every single little thing and is very bossy but gives us beautiful light brown eggs with slight speckling.

I have now had a good variety of breeds in both bantam and standard size, and it is the Sussex that are always working so very hard to escape my run. Other than that, I think it is a very lovely breed. And they almost always look nice too.

I have 5 Speckled Sussex hens that are every one just as sweet and curious as the other. By far my favorite breed. If they hear my voice, they come running and have an uncanny way of making my day. I sit on the porch of my chicken house and they come eat out of my hand or crawl in my bucket. My little niece and grand baby just love to feed them and carry them around. Visitors are always wanting to buy them but I would never part with them. They make raising chickens an absolute pleasure.

Teriyaki is a very smart girl. She figured out early on that she can get out of her brooder box. And now she knows that if I let her roam the back yard I leave the back door open she will come inside the house and walk around in my kitchen and drink water out the cats food dish. and she will follow my cats around the house I actually caught her in the living room laying in the cats bed. LOL shes a great girl and highly recommend this breed.

The oldest hen in my flock right now is a Speckled Sussex simply named 'Special Chicken'. She has literally flown into my arms before and is VERY talkative along with the other SS hen. The rooster has become overprotective (although raised by hand) and does attack my back when it's turned. If he's in the coop and I'm changing out the feeder or waterer, he attacks my hand with his spurs (which is fun), and I have to grab him and play 'who likes hanging upside down' for a bit before tucking him under my arm and holding him like an American football for awhile. I like that he's so protective of his flock, but have learned to wear gloves. I may name him 'Bladerunner' because his comb (and part of a waddle) fell off this winter, despite my best efforts at dressing his comb with salve before really cold nights.

Overall, I like them. They were the last to start laying at 30 weeks, but average 6 eggs each per week now. Eggs are half the size of my sex link, calico, sapphire, etc. They don't fight or act flighty, but aren't really friendly either. They come up to me, but prefer a hands off interaction.

I have two of these pretty birds that I received from Cackle Hatchery this year. They aren't on top of the pecking order and they aren't last either which is surprising because I thought their speckles would make them more of a target for bullying but that doesn't seem to be the case. Riker (Number One) and Moe are often the first to come running when the treat bag comes out and have no shame about hopping into my lap or perching on my shoes while begging to get more treats than everyone else. They can be a little "grabby" when taking treats from the hand, sometimes catching a finger or your palm in the rush for food, but never viciously or deliberately pecking. And they're bold enough to come strolling into the house if the door is left open, even with two cats inside! So that is something to be aware of if you don't like your hens being overly personal, lol.

I love them for their funny, friendly personalities and docile nature, as well as their pretty speckles! If given half a chance, I'd always keep one or two of these well rounded birds in my backyard flock.

This is the breed I originally wanted to start my chicken rearing adventure with because after researching many breeds I felt they were a good fit due to their gentle and friendly nature. It didn't hurt that they are gorgeous birds as well. We did NOT get to start with them but I'm glad we were able to purchase some earlier this month. They took very little time to tame down in comparison with our RIRs and other than one "Alpha" hen who can be a bit obnoxious when it comes to hogging treats (which I take partial responsibility for) they have been very gentle and have an inquisitive nature. It didn't take them long to adapt to our schedule and my calls to "come get a treat" and "it's time to go to bed."

I bought a rooster from a different breeder and have been thrilled with how gentle he has been both with the hens and with our family. My three year old regularly feeds him by hand and I look forward to letting the first one to go broody hatch out some eggs for us.

Additionally, I have noticed they seem to be more predator wary than our other breeds (SPPR and RIR). They have done great free-ranging and more times than not we get a Jumbo creamy tan egg.

This breed is here to stay in our flock.

I have one speckled sussex that is a very good layer of 5-6 eggs a week. Mine happens to lay smaller eggs, but I know thats not standard for the breed and I have no problem tolerating it for such a friendly bird. She's the first to come running when the back door opens and will be the first to pick stuff out of my hand. The only cons I have for this bird is that she's a bit loud and the eggs are smaller but both of those vary bird to bird, so its not a con to the breed. If i had to pick one bird to build an entire flock around, this breed would definitely be in the running.

I have 7 Speckled Sussex chickens, a mixture of roosters and pullets. I purchased these birds as day old chicks and raised them indoors until they were big enough to go into their outdoor pen. I deliberately picked this breed out as I had seen that they were good duel purpose breeds and they were quite cold hardy (very important in a Manitoban winter!)
These birds have no issues with the cold and quite often go outside in the snow on milder days and by mild I mean usually down to -10'C.
They are great little foragers and are quite happy to scratch around outside all day if you will let them.
My Speckled Sussex roosters are the only ones to follow me around the yard while I do my chores, and it is not an uncommon sight to see them running after you with their wings frantically flapping in hopes that you have food.
They are very friendly birds and were the first to feel comfortable with human attention.
My only concern is that a few of the hens can be a bit mean to my smaller hen and the if any of the roosters are going to be fighting, it is a guarantee that it will be the Speckled Sussex. that being said, all the bullying and fighting is usually over in a few seconds and is never really too aggressive.
I would recommend this breed to any first time chicken handlers!

My chicken Otisette is one of the most sweetest chickens you will meet! She'll follow you around the yard and let you pick her up and she just started laying eggs and we're hatching some and I told my friend who actually somewhat named her "The Otisette population is growing! They will take over the world!" But my rooster Polo is really mean, he pecks Otisette and tries to attack me! But oh well over all they're a great breed!

We got 6 of these, and they were amazing birds! They were super friendly and fun to watch around, though they did like to pick on our Cochins and fight with some of the other ones. One of them ended up hiding away from us and brooding a batch of chicks, she had about 12 that hatched when we had found her, and we went ahead and moved her indoors and put her with some that were hatching the same day in our incubator (the luck!) and she raised all of them! We kept them all inside until the babies were about 4 weeks old, then built a little tractor outside for them, and mommy went outside with them and showed them to go into the coop at night, then one day just flew back over the fence to go hang out with the big hens, after her babies knew what to do at night and where to go whenever anybody sounded the alarm for predators! She was an awesome mom!

We got our Speckled Sussex by accident. We bought a Welsummer at the feed store and she ended up being a Sussex. Very slow to grow and feather out, but when she did she is a beautiful, heavy bird. She loves to free-range and wanders way out in the field by herself. We worry a predator will get her, but so far she has either been lucky or smarter than they are.

Eggs are very lightly tinted. Hen has laid consistently all winter, about 4 or 5 eggs per week. One of the main complaints I have is the eggs are small to medium in size. She is also a very vocal bird and extremely loud. I don't think she'd do well being confined all day because she was squawk all day long. Nice, friendly bird though. She enjoys being picked up and carried around the yard.

Despite the small egg size, we hatched four of them this winter and all the chick are doing great!