Hi Doc,
I got mine from Walt Boese in Deer Lodge , MT. Color is real nice. I wish I could
move the hackle a bit further up the neck on my males, tho. Nice wraparound on my male's hackles,
Tux's almost meets under his chin. Eggs are smaller, hoping that will increase with son to mother cross.
Have a real nice outcross hen here that cost me in trade my foundation cock whose sire was a
3x APA Grand Champion. She's a show winner, but I worry about strain crossing. I have 2 nice sons
of my foundation cock here and will breed her to them. My foundation cock was very prepotent for
himself and stamped himself on his sons. Doncha know I will be doing staggered hatches and
zip tying the shanks to make sure the chicks don't get mislabeled. It will be interesting to see the
differences in development as our other breedings will be son to dam; 3/4 bro ex 3/4 sis and full bro ex full sis.
Gonna be a lot of record keeping being done this Spring. that is why I am getting fairly frantic to figure out just
what to record and when.
Happy New Year, Doc!
Best Regards,
Karen
Karen just record the results. Check them and mark them @ 8,12,16, and 24 wks. You will have your baseline and starting point established.
I am not a Sussex person, but I would guess that the later dates are the most relevant. They have always struck me as a fowl that they fattened for the market more than sold as young fryers. It seamed to be a fall market, and they were hatched in the spring.
Like Walt keeps saying, that all depends on how they are managed. You can push them, or hold them back. I like to get a feel for where my birds should be at a certain point. It takes me a year or two to get an idea. Then everything varies. We might stay cool longer, or get hot early. Might decide to rain every day for near a month, or be dry as a bone.
Often where my birds are at on any given point, has more to do with the environment and me. Just the location of a pen can effect the results of a batch compared to another.
The best I can do concerning selection is comparing birds in the same pen, that are the same age, and have the same conditions that year. I can feed them the same brand of feed from one year to another, but is the mix exactly the same? The parents might not be the same, and the weather could be vastly different.
Weather has more to do with the results than we often consider.
You probably have, but I wondered if you dug through any old English books on fattening fowl for the market? There are some re prints around.