Hi Walt, I need some help. I am sadly confused.
OK, we know one of the breeds used to create the Light Sussex was the Light Brahma. That early elite Light Sussex breeders wrote (circa 1920-30's) to breed Light Sussex the same as the Light Brahma for color.
Books written, 95 to 135 yrs. ago, about breeding Light Brahma seem to me to give breeding advice that will create Light Sussex of the proper color. see Judge Card's book on "Breeding Laws" and this 1877 I.K. Fletch book: The amateur's manual; or, Specific mating of thoroughbred fowls (1877) http://archive.org/details/amateursmanualor00felc . ( Pages 1-16 and 28 thru 32 ) This would seem to confirm that both breeds were then on the same locus, ( eWh? which does not have black stippling on the saddle)
Now it is 2012. I see pics and read books that show Light Brahma with black saddle stippling and that they are based on eb Brown, even tho they are a black and white breed (yes, I see how an eb bird could be black and white). Now it seems, using currently advocated breeding techniques for Light Brahma will result in faulty coloring for Light Sussex ( i.e. black stippling on the saddle, etc.).
What is going on here? Have I made a mistake in my history study?
Have Light Brahma changed locus over the last century?
What do you think of that 1877 Fletch book as regards using the advice Fletch gives for breeding Light Brahma ...for breeding Light Sussex?
Why do Light Brahma have black stippling on the saddle now-a-days?
Could they still be eWh locus like the Light Sussex, yet fashion now decrees they have stippling on the saddle in spite of the fact eWh locus does not usually produce that effect?
I know it's important I understand which breeding method is correct for my Light Sussex or I am going to screw up the color matings.
Thanks so much for your help!
Happy New Year,
Karen
Hi Karen,
This made me go back and read Card again, specifically the section about Black, White and Black, and White birds. I don't have an answer for you, but I did take note of Card's advice not to use the stippled birds. If I understand what he wrote correctly, he says always use a bird with correct top feather even if the undercolor is less than desirable, and also took note of this on page 28:
almost invariably with the under-color bluish
white, or with fluff next to skin white and that
next to web blue or slate, the black points are
standard and the white points free from penciling
of black and brassiness or creaminess in undercolor.
I am not 100% sure this is considered the same as the markings you are seeing on the Light Brahma, but I read it over more than once and thought I'd quote it just in case

He also, as you know, repeatedly goes back to "like begets like" and the reminder that despite the most careful linebreeding or inbreeding, nothing is 100% pure, that there is always some percentage, no matter how infinitesimal, of other blood. Now I'm off to read your link.