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

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MROO said:
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
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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.
 
dheltzel said:
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.
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I raise Nankin bantams - only recently moved up from Critically Endangered. Nobody around here knew what they were until DD started showing them in 4H. Her BIS rooster got enough attention that there are now several small flocks around.
The Livestock Conservancy is not "gospel." It's more like a barometer. Not every "rare" breed is covered, especially landraces, but the ten-year Poultry Census is fairly broad - and pretty interesting!
 

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