show quality speckled sussex ??

[Sunflowergirl]

Thank you, Karen, for all the informative help! I've got the SOP ordered. I will see if Tony will help with setting up the breeding.

 

[3riverschick]

Thank you, Karen, for all the informative help! I've got the SOP ordered.

I will see if Tony will help with setting up the breeding.

More than welcome. I am sure he will help, he's known as a nice person.
Best Success,
Karen

 

[gevshiba]

Is anyone raising the SS for meat purposes???? WOuld really like to see some carcasses, perhaps come fall someone will have pics.

I just butchered three 21 week old cockerels. I can't give you live weights, but I did get carcass weights. 2:10 3/4, 2:10 5/8 and 3:6 7/8. I skin mine, so that's without skin and organs. I'll have three more in a few weeks or so, if you're interested in hearing those weights. I'll leave them until they start causing problems. They are 4 weeks younger than the ones I processed today, but are much slower developing. I kept one from the older group and I'm keeping one from the younger group. Hope this helps. As for pictures, they are naked and scrawny, lol!

 

[gevshiba]

I just butchered three 21 week old cockerels. I can't give you live weights, but I did get carcass weights. 2:10 3/4, 2:10 5/8 and 3:6 7/8. I skin mine, so that's without skin and organs. I'll have three more in a few weeks or so, if you're interested in hearing those weights. I'll leave them until they start causing problems. They are 4 weeks younger than the ones I processed today, but are much slower developing. I kept one from the older group and I'm keeping one from the younger group. Hope this helps. As for pictures, they are naked and scrawny, lol!

One more thing, it tasted great!

 

[math ace]

Hi and welcome!
Here ya go:

If I could have only 8 books
in my Library they would be :

1. Genetics of Chicken Colours-The Basics
http://chickencolours.com/

2. Genetics of Chicken Extremities
http://chickencolours.com/

3. APA 2010 Standard of Perfection
http://www.amerpoultryassn.com/store.htm

4. The Sussex Fowl
By Sharpe 1920 .
Sharpe was one of the 3 great secrateries of the Sussex Poultry Club
in England. The other 2 were Leo Outram and Judge Clem Watson.
Sharpe was a legendary Sussex breeder and originated the
Light Sussex. This book is a classic. ( read online free)
http://newcatalog.library.cornell.edu/catalog/6721632

5. 21st Century Poultry Breeding
by Grant Brereton
http://poultrykeeper.com/book-reviews/21st-century-poultry-breeding-book-review
http://www.amazon.com/Century-Poultry-Breeding-Grant-Brereton/dp/0947870571

6. Laws governing the breeding of standard fowls. c.1
by Card, Wetherell Henry. Published 1912
This is a small 55 page book. A treasure of distilled knowledge.
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.087299559;view=1up;seq=5
(read online free)

7. The Light Sussex
by Broomhead, William White, 1875-
Published 1921
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924003137332;view=2up;seq=4
W.W. Broomhead was one of the three Broomhead brothers who were noted poultry men in England. He was a Sussex expert and Judge for the Sussex Poultry Club. He later went on to become President of the Poultry Club of Britain. This little 8 page gem is a classic because of the author's distinguished reputation and his insightful knowledge of the breed. W.W. Broomhead also edited one of the editions of the Poultry Club Standards as well as the Sussex Standard itself.
It matters not which variety one has, this brochure's study of breed type applies to all. Type is the breed. Blood tells. ( read free online )

8.
American Poultry Advocate - Volume 26 - Feb. 1918 - Page 202
The Proper Color of Speckled Sussex
An article written by Mr. A. J. Falkenstein,
the leading English breeder of Speckled Sussex,
A speech given in 1917 ( read free online)
books.google.com/books?id=jCtJAAAAYAAJ
During this period, many Speckled Sussex had a more ginger colored
ground color rather than the desired dark color. Mr. Falkenstein
popularized the darker color and, following his lead, the Sussex fancy
moved the Speckled Sussex to the lovely mahogany bay ground color
we see today. You can see the change in the tobacco cards issued:
1911 : http://tinyurl.com/ppo2ske
1930's : http://tinyurl.com/mo6aaw2
One of the interesting parts of this speech are the instructions on
selecting for proper color while the chick is in chick down.

And for deeper study

9. the 3 DVD set
by Danne Honour
which includes much rare lit on the "Art of Breeding".

10. Art and Science in Breeding : Creating Better Chickens
by Margaret E. Derry.
A fantastic book on the development of poultry breeding by a
talented author who writes on the various histories of animal breeding.
Ms. Derry has a wonderful turn of the pen when writing about
the history of animal breeding. She has had published a total
of 6 books. These 3 books are listed in order of year published:

Bred for Perfection: Shorthorn Cattle, Collies and Arabian Horses since 1800 (2003)
By Margaret E. Derry
http://www.poplarlane.net/books/ani...e-collies-and-arabian-horses-since-1800-2003/

Art and Science in Breeding: Creating Better Chickens
By Margaret E. Derry
http://www.utppublishing.com/Art-and-Science-in-Breeding-Creating-Better-Chickens.html

and coming in Nov. 2014:
Masterminding Nature: The Breeding of Animals, 1750-2010
By Margaret E. Derry
http://www.utppublishing.com/Masterminding-Nature-The-Breeding-of-Animals-1750-2010.html

Bookfinder is a massive mega booksearch database. Been around a long time.
http://www.bookfinder.com/
Some of these books may be available as used editions for a good price. Beware if you find SOP's tho. The APA never relinquished their copyright on the SOP. Some fly-by-night reprinters have taken the old pre-1926 editions and reprinted them illegally. Nabu Press is one of them. Often they are cheap OCR copies with many typos because of the cheap scanning.
Best Success,
Karen and the Light Sussex
in western PA, USA

Karen,

I have always loved how well read you are. Nice list... Thanks for the tip about bookfinder.

 

[math ace]

This is for anyone that would like to learn about SS. When trying to get a good breeding start with any kind of fowl it is usually best to single mate when we start. Mark all chicks and band them later. As they grow we need to cull any that have major Faults If using an incubator it should not be a problem hatching 25-30 chicks from one hen. If need be I have mated one male over six females. If you find you have a female that is producing better then any of the others Mated her best son back to her . Glad to answer Questions. Don

I will be doing this in the Fall. I have a really nice female...JUST ONE that I have been in love with for type and color.
I have three males to work with. It will be interesting to see if I can get anything to write home about.
I would of preferred it the other way around - 3 females and one male.... but you have to play the cards you are dealt.
My cards always seem to lean towards a truckload of males.

I will be breeding the female to one male at a time so that I can keep accurate records and know which pairing produced the best looking offspring.

 

[math ace]

Well, my flock is going from zero to 12 by the weekend! Chicks are due to hatch on Friday, so I will pick up on Saturday or Sunday! Looking forward to meeting and chatting with a long-time breeder of SS and picking his brain!

Math Ace, I'd love to see pics of your progress...even progress pics of your pens!

So glad this thread exists...I am a newbie and green, but very keen to learn. I feel comfortable asking "silly" questions here!

No pics on the SS progress since I haven't been able to do any hatching this year.
I've had some personal / family issues that have kept me too busy to do the things I love.
The first breeding pen is complete. The indoor brooder is 2/3's complete. I am working on a second breeding pen.
When it is complete, I will be ready to start hatching. I am thinking the end of October will be good timing.

I will happily post some pics. It has been a while since I uploaded some pics to BYC.
Let me get a few hours of sleep and I will try to post some pics of my projects.

 

[math ace]

Math Ace--- glad to see you are back!!

I have watched my chicks grow up and over wintered the lot of them. OVerall I am at an impass. As they are now, they are great layers, one a day , medium at best, very light tan, and the girls want to be out foraging for the entire day. YOu would think I would be happy with that. I struggle with how I feel about hte lack of meaty ness for a dual purpose bird. . . . .

I look at the width, and the coloring and

hatchery birds are very good layers . . . .

Lisa How are your birds, the breeder line that you are most recently working with?? HOw are they as meat birds? As Layers? as foragers? Still the best line you have had do far??

Still the best line that I have had so far.
I have not been very successful on hatching shipping eggs from the breeder.
I am thinking about a road trip in the Spring to go collect chicks from the source... I will make the decision after I see how my pairings / hatchings working out in a couple of months.

FORAGES - Mine were great foragers... With my current set-up (TOO MANY MALES) the girls don't get to forage because the males are in the forage areas.
Meat Birds- This has been my complaint with the breed from the get go! To few are meeting the SOP for weights. My marans and Delawares are bigger than the SS.
This is something that can be fixed, but it will take dedication in the culling department to get size up. Big Males and Big Females will have to be used. For a breed that has been around so long, it is amazing how far away from the SOP most have drifted. It is gone the way of an EE.... Just a cute back yard bird Little focus has been kept on their original purpose - MEAT BIRD.

 

[math ace]

This thread is so helpful. I am a complete newbie, but would love to learn!

I am sorry that I haven't been around to give you a warm welcome.
This thread has been set up to help learn about the SOP when it comes to SS.

This was intended to be a learning thread, but a friendly learning thread.
We've kept the chit chat to a minimum on this thread so that anyone new can go back to beginning and learn new things without reading a lot of social communications.
The early pages show a lot of pics with serious commentary.

Let's us know if you have any questions.

 

[honeykat1]

Just Purchased a speckled Sussex hen. I'm now looking for a rooster. The breeder told me she had too much white.