Quote: I read the online sussex book that was wriiten by the first prez of the sussex club in Britain. Definitely a utility breed, for meat primarily, decent layers in their time. I know 3 riverschicks can speak to this far better than I can. BU my impression is that they were a highly sought after table fowl for derby day in England. SO pushed as a winter layer to be ready for the spring day of horse racing.
SS was a meat bird-- pressed for meat production during a time when the current commercial cornishx did not exist. Raised in SE England if I have my geography right. Cool, lots of green pastures. I think of OR as a similar climate.
Math Ace tried many sources, all disappointing, until she bought from either OVerton or the other fellow, sorry drawing a blank. Rietick, something similar. THese were the closed to what she thought the SS should be as a meat bird-- but they need a lot of work. A lot. IF I stay with the SSI hope to add some of her effort into my stock, Or cull my stock . THe latter would be very hard to do as I will have put some work into them.
ANyway-- back tothe book-- this bird took decades to develop. Decades before accepted intot he equivalent of the APA, and then 30 more years. WHat I did determine was that the shoe birds were not the utlity birds. WHat I am not clear about is was the show bird then used on the utility birds. Typically this is the method to alter the native stock to the new breed-- so I wonder if show stock was used on the farm stock. As I said I can only wonder. . . . nothing was specifically said about this.
Yeah it used to be a utility breed-- it is SOP or a layer now though. Can't cross in the other sussex because they were developed separately and grouped together as Sussex. I like them as layers so I start here.