show quality speckled sussex ??

[GreenRiverHen]

Some of my birds--they are open for critique

These are three pullets I am planning to sell (they are just over 4 months) and my best mature breeder male.

I have others I plan to show --along with my girl in my previous post--and I will take some pics of them today.

 

[Fentress]

Hello again from the UK, I haven't posted here for a couple of years. Saw a picture of one of my old hens come up a couple of pages ago
Not sure how much better I have done with the SS, good colouring has been a struggle with the offspring and hoping my you lad fills out a little yet - have nice green iridescence on the black of his feathers though. The offspring look a little dumpy in the photos but have better shank in real life.
Old chucks:


Offspring, roughly 9 months old:



Sorry for the bad photos, once they see me in the run they always run over! They're too friendly for their own good
Critique is welcome, it's been hard trying to undo the damage of my first cross of the old birds to a very poor type and coloured male a few years ago. So would be interested in a second opinion on how the offspring look.

I' not familiar with this standard either, but they are well built birds, nice and wide, feet apart, full deep breast. How do they perform? How old are the pullets when they reach POL?

 

[GreenRiverHen]

Gorgeous heavy English birds! It's going to take me a lifetime to breed such sturdy birds

 

[GreenRiverHen]

What is different about my birds--as compared to the English birds?
I have a very bad feeling I am too focussed on colour. Although I did keep a heavier hen with an open tail and way too much white last year. Her offspring look promising but they're still young. I wish they could breed as quick as fruit flies sometimes!

 

[GreenRiverHen]

And just for interest's sake--the winning pullet and cockerel from last year's Ontario poultry breeders show. The Pullet won reserve champion of the show. Sorry they are not great pictures.
These are bred by Sandra Ross in Ontario.

 

[3riverschick]

Green River did you get these bird's descended from Brian's English River stock? They are just lovely. I am severely impressed.
Best,
Karen

 

[GreenRiverHen]

Green River did you get these bird's descended from  Brian's English River stock? They are just lovely. I am severely impressed.
 Best,
 Karen

No--did you see where I posted that Brian sold his whole flock last fall? I tried to make a deal with him because I had family obligations and couldn't make it to the auction. He agreed to save me his best birds--but later told me they were all gone--and I haven't been sble to find where they went. I really hope somebody is keeping them up!!

I don't think Brian ever had those birds for more than a couple of years and I suspect that the quality of his birds varied greatly--but I could be wrong about that.

It was very hard for me to find any SS in the beginning. I started searching 7 years ago. I gathered what I could for a couple of years--but they were terrible at first. Even poor for hatchery birds! I don't know why I didn't give up!

I got lucky four years ago and found an old farmer who hadn't shown his SS in 25-30 years but he had kept them around--although he had very few left. I'm sure he told me his grandfather had shown them before him. I bought hatching eggs from him --and I bought my big male in the picture. That male's mother was his prized bird and she had died before he was hatched.

To be honest--I didn't hatch out anything very impressive from those eggs but they were still a far cry from what I had. And I had side sprigs, wry tails and roach back all show up in that hatch!! I've only seen one side sprig since. And the hens turned out to be poor layers.

After that I mixed genetics as much as I possibly could just to try and get some vigour into my flock. It's been very exciting. I've watched them improve every year. I had the opportunity to add champion stock last year--and I decided against it. Snowbird suggested I keep working with what I have for now and I'm glad I did.

I'm showing them for the first time this year!! Yay!

Thank you for your comments
I do still have years of work ahead but I enjoy it. I am working on a bit more heft like those English birds have.

 

[GreenRiverHen]

Green River did you get these bird's descended from  Brian's English River stock? They are just lovely. I am severely impressed.
 Best,
 Karen

Unless you were talking about the winning birds I showed you :/
Those are not mine.--lol

 

[acemario]

Some of my birds--they are open for critique

These are three pullets I am planning to sell (they are just over 4 months) and my best mature breeder male.

I have others I plan to show --along with my girl in my previous post--and I will take some pics of them today.

I'm not a pro on the breed, (just starting out). Your flock looks similar to mine, so I'm excited to see what seasoned breeders think needs to be added to the flocks to bring them closer to SOP
.

 

[GreenRiverHen]

Let's see some pics