Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[Beeboid]

Welcome. You are not too far from dheltzel and can get some very nice breeds from him. Check his website: http://welbars.com/

Thanks! I might be stopping by his place soon for some new additions to the flock.

 

[Aalv]

New to the forum! I’m in Chester County PA. Anyone interested in Call Ducks?

 

[OneMountainAcres]

New to the forum! I’m in Chester County PA. Anyone interested in Call Ducks?

Welcome from Cambria County! I don't do ducks but maybe someone else will be interested. It's getting harder to find livestock swaps that allow poultry now too. There is one in Commodore PA but I have no clue how far that is from you.

 

[Zenmonkey]

Chester is hours away from Commodore.

@Aalv were you looking for calls or saying that you raise calls?

Well now I want to see your 75 cents and call.

 

[Aalv]

Chester is hours away from Commodore.

@Aalv were you looking for calls or saying that you raise calls?

Well now I want to see your 75 cents and call.

Hey, I have a couple and not necessarily interested in keeping them all. Have a few pairs I could get rid of. Black bibbed, snowy’s, blue fawns.

 

[MROO]

Is anyone interested in starting a Speckled Sussex breeding program? They're on The Livestock Conservancy's Priority Conservation List, so they can be difficult to find. I "fell into" a pair of pullets at TSC eight weeks ago ,,, but by the looks of their combs, I think I have an actual "pair," instead! Letting both pullet and cockerel go together, not just the male! I have very small bantams, so a Speckled Sussex rooster is WAY too big to safely keep in my flock. I'm in Maryland, in the PA/DE/MD "corner."

https://livestockconservancy.org/sussex-chicken/

EDIT in BOLD

 

[dheltzel]

Is anyone interested in starting a Speckled Sussex breeding program? They're on The Livestock Conservancy's Priority Conservation List, so they can be difficult to find. I "fell into" a pair of pullets at TSC eight weeks ago ,,, but by the looks of their combs, I think I have an actual "pair," instead! Letting both pullet and cockerel go together, not just the male! I have very small bantams, so a Speckled Sussex rooster is WAY too big to safely keep in my flock. I'm in Maryland, in the PA/DE/MD "corner."

https://livestockconservancy.org/sussex-chicken/

EDIT in BOLD

Most chicken breeds are on their "Priority Conservation List" and the status they assign is not even close to reality. I was a member briefly before I realized they gave very little attention to poultry. I don't blame them, they serve a niche with the larger animals, but the conservation efforts don't translate well to small, fast reproducing animals like poultry. I have seen estimates for some chicken breeds having less than 100 birds in the US. I could obtain a pair of those and within a year I could (quite literally) double the "known population" in the entire US. 2 years ago I obtained a trio of Tomaru from the only breeder I could locate anywhere in the US. His only rooster passed and for a time I likely had the only viable breeding group in the country (any only a trio, at that). I hatched and distributed dozens of chicks in 2024 and this year I am eating almost all their eggs because they are so prolific. This sort of fast population growth is not possible with large animals, even swine could never produce effectively a baby every day. So the lists make sense for the large animals, but not poultry.

Speckled Sussex are only rare because the demand is low for a light brown egg laying breed that is only an average egg producer. Many hatcheries maintain a flock of them to hatch all the chicks they need to meet the demand, then they dump the extras at TSC with all the other surplus chicks. I get a lot of requests for "hatchery breeds" that I don't raise (like Orpingtons, Rhode Island Reds, etc) but I don't recall anyone asking for Speckled Sussex, at least not in the last few years.

I would give away the rooster if you can't keep him and enjoy the pullet as a layer.