show quality speckled sussex ??

[math ace]

Quote:
The standard says ( pg 102 in the 2001 edition)

FEMALE TAIL:

Of medium length, fairly well spread, carried at an angle of 35 degrees above the horizontal.

The girls should have a tail angle that is slightly lower than the males. 35 degrees is not a very high angle. It will be close to what is illustrated in the Sewell print. This girl's tail angle should be a little higher.... but it just may be the way she was carring it at the time the picture was snapped.

The males are suppose to carry their tails at a 45 degree angle.


LOOK

at how evenly distributed the white speckles are on this girl.

Gallusfarm, did she win anything ?

 

[eeyore75]

Ok- I'm going to throw Mom's 6 1/2 -7 month old roo (born in Jan?) on for comment. He is not as big as her Wyandotte roo (who is 3 yrs old & huge) but for his age- he seems like he might get that big or close to it. Her hens are on the smaller side to me. They are not as big as her wyandotte hens. I did not weigh them or him. I'm curious about his type so far.

Her current birds all came from breeders (bred off hatchery stock down the line) her first few were just from hatcheries, but have been culled out due to age. She has them for egg (eatting) sales, as she does with all her egg layer breeds- we hatch out some of their eggs each year for keepers (last SS roo was sterile- so none from him) and mom likes to try to keep the better quality ones. We were considering getting a few show line roos to add in..... however talking to the judges at the chicken show- they said EQ birds lay few eggs & they are little eggs....... this is making us question if we will go that route- with the non Polish breeds- due to why she keeps the birds (eatting egg sales, never shows them) Sure we'd like them bigger- but since her sussex lay fewer eggs than the other egg layers- not sure we need bigger size if we'd loose egg production.

He is afraid of me- runs up to mom when called to be carried around....... but not after I was following him with the camera.

His dad is pic'd on pg 29, post # 281. Last pic named "Chief"

He is moulting too atm. I know he has a couple white feathers on one of his wings- and several 1/2 white, 1/2 colored on both wings & in the feathers under the tail (tail feathers look like no white is coming in). I think his comb/wattles are too big. His speckles seem to be moulting in more evenly distributed. The random white feathers he had seem to be being replaced with "correct" feathers. Not sure how the diamonds are.....

Head shot:

Lt wing:

Rt side:

Lt side:

Front shot 1:

Front shot 2:

"Back" Shot:

Legs:

The pullet that follows me around (other pullet hiding in back ground):

A few hen shots (my favorite hen- tail to high):

The broody hen:

Other hens:

The whiter ones of these just left:

2 Pics from 2 years ago w/ old roo (sterile):

Sorry- know I got side tracked from the roo- we really like this breed (got several friends into keeping them- including RIRJen- who we got the roo & 2 pullets from this year, her birds are from other breeders than the 2 we got most of ours from)

 

[math ace]

Quote:
What a shame this guy was sterile.... He looks like he had MONSTER width to his chest.
He had other faults - - White wing feathers and high tail angle, BUT that one picture portrays a really large chest.

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
What a shame this guy was sterile.... He looks like he a MONSTER width to his chest.
He had other faults - - White wing feathers and high tail angle, BUT that one picture portrays a really large chest.

Lisa, what do you think about the shank color ?

 

[eeyore75]

Quote:
Think (I know I'm not Lisa!!) it looks white & not yellow........... honestly most of the birds posted on this thread seem to have white & not yellow legs to me.

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
Think (I know I'm not Lisa!!) it looks white & not yellow........... honestly most of the birds posted on this thread seem to have white & not yellow legs to me.

No the color should be white and never yellow, I was referring to the young male in first part of the post. He has Slate legs in the pictures and that would be wrong also. White is fine and they can also have a little red blending in also.

 

[Orange Ribbon]

Thanks for the replies about the tail. I was just focusing on the hen in the Sewell print and not the rooster.

 

[eeyore75]

Quote:
Think (I know I'm not Lisa!!) it looks white & not yellow........... honestly most of the birds posted on this thread seem to have white & not yellow legs to me.

No the color should be white and never yellow, I was referring to the young male in first part of the post. He has Slate legs in the pictures and that would be wrong also. White is fine and they can also have a little red blending in also.

It might be the photo, shadow or the dust/dirt from chasing him about- he does have white/pinkish legs. Our Polish have slate legs.


*** editted to add: oops I looked at the DQ list when you asked the shank question to check what you meant. That's why I got stuck on yellow- Sorry***

 

[math ace]

Don,

I THINK this was the picture your were referring to. I think it might just be a shadow effecting the leg on the left.
It is amazing how good your eye is. You catch so many small details. Do you have glasses? I just got bifocals. They help, but I still miss things!
I've contemplated gettting a bigger computer screen to help out with the finer details.

I will advise EVERYONE to take pictures of their birds and then upload them. Things you NEVER saw before will suddenly appear before your eyes. Some of the photo software will allow you to zoom in on your photos too. I upload a lot more photos than I post on BYC. I probably take 10 photos for every one I post on BYC. I notice so much doing this that I would miss otherwise.

Quote:

 

[math ace]

Quote:
These are my two concerns . . . He seems to be carrying his wings too low AND he does not seem to be as full in the chest as I would hope at 6 - 7 months of age.
The chest issue could just be the angle of the photo.... The wing carriage could just be the heat.... but I would watch for these things based on the photos.

As far as the SOP .. . . . Don OR Walt, are the partial white wings a DQ? How are they judged?

As far as breeding goes, I am surprised to see a chest so BLACK and then have wings with so much white on them. I would of expected a dark / black chest to tie into black and dark coloring on the rest of the bird....