Pusuant to which, can anyone with direct experience of the nice big huge British sussexes comment on their egglaying, hatchability, and hardiness of chicks?
Back home in Britain, I bred Sussex of many different qualities over the years. Light Sussex of reasonable, while not exhibition, type, being my first pure breed chickens.
Like with many breeds, with the exhibition types, it will depend upon line &, with those developed by a certain breeder over years, how much importance the breeder put upon utility characteristics like egg production. In UK some of the exhibition birds are known for being poor layers or for laying, uncharacteristly, small eggs.
There is a lot of difference between the best & the worst of any bred. While far & away the majority of Light Sussex in UK wouldn't be top exhibition quality, they are still good representatives of the breed, while also being very productive. They could be expected to lay a good number of large eggs, mature in a timely manner & yield a good sized carcass. By & large, IMO, these birds make the ideal smallholder's chicken.
Back in the day, before the commercial hybrids, Light Sussex were often used for laying flocks. Many excellent books were written about the choice of birds for laying while still keeping the birds representative of the breed & maintaining their meat qualities. These were the true, utility Light Sussex & many are still availble.
Unfortunately these days, any scrawny, untypey looking, Light Sussex will often be referred to as a "utility" bird. In reality these non typey birds do not lay any better than their more representative counterparts & do not have the meat qualities. The term, utility, in this case, is being used to sell inferior birds.
Back home in Britain, I bred Sussex of many different qualities over the years. Light Sussex of reasonable, while not exhibition, type, being my first pure breed chickens.
Like with many breeds, with the exhibition types, it will depend upon line &, with those developed by a certain breeder over years, how much importance the breeder put upon utility characteristics like egg production. In UK some of the exhibition birds are known for being poor layers or for laying, uncharacteristly, small eggs.
There is a lot of difference between the best & the worst of any bred. While far & away the majority of Light Sussex in UK wouldn't be top exhibition quality, they are still good representatives of the breed, while also being very productive. They could be expected to lay a good number of large eggs, mature in a timely manner & yield a good sized carcass. By & large, IMO, these birds make the ideal smallholder's chicken.
Back in the day, before the commercial hybrids, Light Sussex were often used for laying flocks. Many excellent books were written about the choice of birds for laying while still keeping the birds representative of the breed & maintaining their meat qualities. These were the true, utility Light Sussex & many are still availble.
Unfortunately these days, any scrawny, untypey looking, Light Sussex will often be referred to as a "utility" bird. In reality these non typey birds do not lay any better than their more representative counterparts & do not have the meat qualities. The term, utility, in this case, is being used to sell inferior birds.
