show quality speckled sussex ??

[Arielle]

CHECK OUT THE COLOR ON THIS CHICK!

Look at how each wing feather is white tipped...

OMG, I think the color is going to be wonderful on this chick. I hope I am not disappointed.

 

[math ace]

For those keeping track of weights....

My birds from Walt Reichert are just over 1 year old, 14 months old to be exact.

The rooster weighs in at . . . . 7 lbs 3 ounces
The two hens are weighing in at . . . 5 lbs 6 ounces

Once again, the birds are light. The coloring and shape are good, but weight is light.

Those of you working with the SS, what is the heaviest weight you are seeing in your mature roosters?

 

[Arielle]

Wow, I was expecting heavy weights. This is a bit surprising considering the source. I don't have weight on my one male. ANother thing to do.

 

[Folly's place]

I haven't posted in a while; had a disastrous daytime fox attack this spring, and lost 10 nice hens. The fox is gone, at least. I had already culled the rooster because of serious behavioral issues, so right now I have no SS at all, a very sad situation. Most of those birds were Meyers Hatchery 2012. They were actually pretty nice, and good weights. The rooster weighed 8.5 lbs, and hens were 6.5 to 7.5 lbs each. I miss them! Hope to get replacements soon. Mary

 

[Folly's place]

I haven't posted in a while; had a disastrous daytime fox attack this spring, and lost 10 nice hens. The fox is gone, at least. I had already culled the rooster because of serious behavioral issues, so right now I have no SS at all, a very sad situation. Most of those birds were Meyers Hatchery 2012. They were actually pretty nice, and good weights. The rooster weighed 8.5 lbs, and hens were 6.5 to 7.5 lbs each. I miss them! Hope to get replacements soon. Mary

 

[math ace]

Wow, I was expecting heavy weights. This is a bit surprising considering the source. I don't have weight on my one male. ANother thing to do.

Yes, me too. However, the color is the best I've seen and I think the type is pretty good. I think I can work with what I have and get size up in a few generations.

 

[math ace]

I haven't posted in a while; had a disastrous daytime fox attack this spring, and lost 10 nice hens. The fox is gone, at least. I had already culled the rooster because of serious behavioral issues, so right now I have no SS at all, a very sad situation. Most of those birds were Meyers Hatchery 2012. They were actually pretty nice, and good weights. The rooster weighed 8.5 lbs, and hens were 6.5 to 7.5 lbs each. I miss them! Hope to get replacements soon. Mary

Sorry to hear about the predator attacks. We have a fox, but almost never see it during the daytime. Yours must of been very hungry.

Behavior issues within this breed do seem to be a common theme with the roosters. The males seem to run the gambit of gentle as a lamb to obnoxious jerks.

Those were some spectacular weights... Good luck with the replacements Mary. I hope they turn out to be as big as the last group you had.

 

[Arielle]

Interesting point on the males. I only have one, so not much to judge the whole breed on.

He defends his girls and has a limp to show for it. I raised some of his girls with lots of one on one attention and he doesn't understand that I'm not going to hurt them. He attacks if I am too close sometimes, even if it was the hen that ran to me. Overall, he is tolerable because his efforts are not nearly as destructive as another non-SS I had and because the girls free range over a large area coyote are known to travel.

 

[Folly's place]

I have wondered if the genetics that produce sweet people friendly hens would also produce males that aren't properly respectful of those same humans. ??? I've so far kept three SS cockrels; two were jerks, and the polite boy weighed in at 6.5 lbs. He found a good home elsewhere, nice bird but way small. Mary

 

[snowbird]

I see a lot of Talk on the weights of SS. I would not worry a lot about going over the top weight at this point of the game. The popular breeders of today have been more interested in breeding a nice pretty SS and not worrying about the size. To increase the size we all are going to have to fing some large females somewhere or just start working on about a three year plan to raise some. Never ever breed a very small female if you want to bring the SS back to where they were 30 year ago. I have seen plenty of the proper size SS and know that it is possible to breed them.

One other thing is if you hatch late in the season the young will usually never reach the size of the early hatched fowl.