i've got some australian blood light sussex (the australians are bigger, from my understanding). my rooster's around 10-12 pounds, the hens aren't too much smaller.
the hens lay a medium-sized light brown egg every day, and easily go broody.
their chicks (i brought them in and brooded them myself, as i have zero losses that way) are quick growers whose crops are always full and they're always looking for food. nice, wide breasted birds, every at 4 weeks old. i've got several that i need to figure out how to weigh, to see where they're at. i'm probably going to use them as meat chickens next year, too. they're skin isn't very yellow, but i don't care, it's not a factor for me.
i know i sound like a rep from the company, the way i promote these things, but our freedom rangers have been awesome. we've got 9 that we didn't process at 12 weeks of age, due to time constraints. they're about 16 weeks now, and are still able to fly over a 4 foot gait and are now laying eggs. we really need to get these things done, they're getting huge. our smallest FR's at 12 weeks dressed out at over 5-1/2 pounds.
the gal i got them from had several freedom ranger roosters from last years batch walking around acting like normal chickens, just bigger
they may take a couple weeks longer, but they'll free range and live longer and without the problems of CX's.
we'll see how my light sussex do. even if they do well, i still may get more FR's next year. they are really nice meat birds
