Chicken Breed Focus - Sebright

[sumi]

The Sebright is a very small, beautiful, rose-combed bantam, usually with laced feathers. They are a purely ornamental breed, very popular as pets and with hobbyists as show birds. While usually quite friendly with people, they are very active and very good flyers and need to be confined. Sebrights are a 'true' bantam, not coming in a standard sized variety.

The Sebright is named after its creator, Sir John Saunders Sebright, who established the breed around 1810 and went on to form it’s breed club, making the Sebright the first chicken breed to have its own breed club and the only breed named after an individual.

Breeds that went into the makeup for the Sebright are thought to include the Hamburgh, Nankin, Polish and Rosecombs. Sebrights are one of the few breeds in which the males are hen feathered, that is they do not have the long, sickle shaped saddle, neck and tail feathers. The mutation responsible for the hen feathering makes them difficult to breed. They come in a variety of colors with the two most popular colors being Gold and Silver Laced.

It was recognized by the APA in 1874.

It is on The Livestock Conservancy's Watch list.

Details:

Breed purpose: Ornamental
Comb Type: Rose
Broodiness: Seldom
Climate Tolerance: Average
Weight: 22oz males, 20oz females
Egg Productivity: Poor
Egg Size: Small
Egg Color: White/tinted

Golden Sebright Hen picture @Lady Chickadee

Silver Sebright Rooster picture @FarmGirl01


Golden Sebright Hen by @Msbear


Silver Sebright chicks by @hawcer

BYC Breed reviews:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/products/sebright

General breed discussions & FAQ thread:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/348031/sebright-thread/0_30

Do you own Sebrights? Are you a Sebright breeder? If so, please reply to this thread with the your thoughts and experiences, including:

· What made you decide to get this breed?
· Do you own them for fun? Breeding? Some other purpose?
· What are your favorite characteristics about this breed?
· Post some pics of your birds; male/female, chicks, eggs, etc!


We have a bunch of other awesome breed-focus threads for you to enjoy. You can see all of them here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chicken-breed-focus-project.975504/

 

[uzisuzuki]

I ended up with my little Sebright rooster by accident. He showed up on my grandparents' front porch one day last October & after a week of looking for his owner to no avail, he came to live with me. He is definitely for fun since I've never had chickens before he showed up (now I have 11 + 3 peafowl). I mainly used taking care of him & his hens as my physical therapy for my handicap from a severe car accident I was in about 3 months before he found me. He is a little spitfire! I just love how much attitude he has & he cracks me up with how he thinks he's ten feet tall whenever my dogs come outside with me to take care of the flocks. He's definitely changed my life in a massive way.

 

[koolkyle08]

My son has shown his pair for 4H and I had a friend who's boys also showed theirs, what I know is that they look doe smaller birds here's photos of our pair they he showed which did well ( especially the rooster - we got them at a Poultry breeders show in Central Flo

rida

 

[delder2009]

I got in to Sebright's for show, breeding and personal enjoyment. My experience is that they are full of personality, a more of a look not touch little bird. They will jump up on you to see what you are doing (aways have something to say about what you are doing) but don't touch me. Out of all the breeds I have or had the hen's will crow the most (not as much as the rooster's). Their (hen and rooster's) crow is not the normal chicken crow ( more of a young rooster just learning to crow). As new chick's they need a little extra care (because of their tiny size). But once grown they definitely can hold their own. The hen's I have seen be quite aggressive to anything they find to be a threat (more so then the rooster's).

day old golden laced

5 month's old hen

5 month's old rooster.
In breeding and show breeding there are some flaws the comb (coloring the mulberry is starting to wash out to red) (shape alot have added other breeds trying to get new blood in their line. Resulting in single comb instead of the walnut comb that they should have). Toes sometimes can have some twist. And as with any breed their beaks can get crooked.
Over all they are a fun breed.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Really cute breed, got some of them from McMurray some years back. Kept a gold rooster, very friendly little guy, he's always running to meet you hoping for a handout, never had any aggression problems with him, and gets along fine with the other roosters. The girls are really talkative, they have quite an attitude also, not even the standard hens mess with them, they are pretty broody, like twice a year or so, fair layers over the summer otherwise.

 

[Faraday40]

· What made you decide to get this breed?
We didn't. My daughter's 4H science project required fertile eggs. i got an assortment from a local breeder, which included a couple bantam eggs. One little Sebright - "Trouble" - was amoung the hatch results. Trouble seems to hold her own, so we kept her - for now.

· Do you own them for fun? Breeding? Some other purpose?
She's only 8 wks old, so we're not sure if Trouble will stay on as a permanent flock member. (& We've already had an offer to buy.) Of course my DD's fav argument is that a sebright is so small, it doesn't even count as a chicken.

· What are your favorite characteristics about this breed?
We're used to Orpingtons. A nice, big, docile, non-flying, breed. The Sebright doesn't like to be picked up, but will perch like a parrot on my fingers, hand, arm, shoulder, & lap. Can't do that with an orp! We only have 4' fence, so my fear is that she'll fly to the neighbors' or decide not to come back to the coop at night. For now, we're working on training her to jump onto a hand when called & thankfully, she loves getting treats.

· Post some pics of your birds; male/female, chicks, eggs, etc!
This is Trouble at about 7 wks. I'm pretty sure a female.

 

[jtn42248]

Sammy and his girls...forgive the chain link

 

[Madison-Jamil]

What made you decide to get this breed? We were drawn to this breed due to its size, striking appearance and it's fascinating background regarding genetics. Do you own them for fun? Breeding? Some other purpose? We wanted our three girls to have a rooster. They are standard hens so we know he most likely can't get the job done when it comes to fertilizing eggs (although he tries!). Our alpha hen has relaxed a lot since we introduced him even though he just spends about an hour a day with the girls they seem to know he is near. We did not want to get a large rooster having a smaller size back yard and also did not want a large boy overmating our three hens and causing injury. We have really fallen in love with the breed so we are looking to add a Sebright girl to our flock next spring so our rooster will have a size appropriate girl. What are your favorite characteristics about this breed? He is absolutely a doll! He is a Mama's boy and always wants to be where I am, if he can't find me then he will seek out my husband and chill with him. He loves to chirp, chatter and flap his wings, just very animated. He is a devoted guardian of the home and runs to check out any door that opens. If he perceives a threat he will cry out and guard the doors. There is not a mean bone in his body when it comes to us, our cat or the hens. We keep him in the house and he has really turned into an amazing house pet. While visiting his girls he flirts with them, dust bathes and finds foraged food to share. As far as crowing goes he has about three bouts a day of uncontrollable cock-a-doodles, other then that he just quietly chatters or does alert cries if a bird flies by outside or the neighbors stupid Subaru ricer is shaking the house. After the girls go to bed he flies up on our shoulder and comes inside and heads to his cage to sleep for the night! Post some pics of your birds; male/female, chicks, eggs, etc! Here is our Stewart playing with my fabric scraps. He looks like he is ready for a party! Stewart loves to sit on the back of my sewing chair or the back of my husbands computer chair and observe.

 

[Faraday40]

Speaking of Trouble, yesterday I brought my camera out to take some flock pics. I got this interesting pic just as Trouble took to the air. It looks like she's in a strange chicken burlesque show.

Here are some of Trouble's flockmates:

my giant English orp hens (These were both Trouble's babies.)




My bantam orp & persistent broody hen


a CCL

Brick -our smaller roo ( a double barred choc cuckoo orpington)




Moose - our biggest roo, a lav orp (also raised by Trouble')


Past pic of Trouble raising her 3 "babies" Moose is the one laying in the grass.

 

[jtn42248]

I have five (3 Silver and 2 Golden) and I love them. They are quiet (except the Silver rooster how thinks he is supposed to chime the quarter hour). They are a bit flighty so consider that if you get some, a covered run helps. The only thing I would differ with in the description is that mine lay 4 eggs each day (one each) without fail. The females "egg song" sounds very much like the call of a peacock.