show quality speckled sussex ??

[3riverschick]

Wonderful news! Agree about the bro ex sis breedings. Cousins is better.
Congrats!
Karen

 

[GreenRiverHen]

I'm not sure if there is anyone still here to critique birds but if there is I would really appreciate your thoughts.

Second year rooster

Six month cockerel
Pullet

Pullets

 

[GreenRiverHen]

I had some more pictures but I'm having trouble adding them. I have a couple of pullets with more white and I wondered if breeding them to my dark Roos would be a good idea. I wonder if my darker pullets are too plain to breed to a dark roo. I do have a nice boy with too much white--but I don't want to introduce TOO much white. From what I have read here the roo has more influence over colour and hen over size. I'm not sure if that is true?

 

[GreenRiverHen]

Any comments or questions are welcome

 

[GreenRiverHen]

One more question--is this the sort of tail I should be aiming for? This girl is seven and she holds her tail too high-but should it be open like this?

 

[3riverschick]

I'm not sure if there is anyone still here to critique birds but if there is I would really appreciate your thoughts.

Second year rooster
Six month cockerel
Pullet
Pullets

Well I am simply in love with this hen! What a beauty! Lovely symmetry. You should show her.
Nice level back, strong yet feminine head points Nice breast. Good station. (not set too high
or low on her legs), proper tail shape, really nice speckling. Nice length of body and NO cushion!
Here is Katherine Plummer's ideal Sussex she drew for the 2010 American Poultry Association
Standard of Perfection. This is the Light Sussex but the body is the same for all color varieties.
In Sussex, the structure is so closely aligned with production virtues that if it doesn't look like
a Sussex in body virtues, it isn't a Sussex, regardless of it's heritage.
http://katherineplumer.com/images/SOP/KPlumerFLLtSussex.jpg Put this up side by side in
Windows with your hen. Pretty nice, huh?
Happy Holidays,
Karen

 

[GreenRiverHen]

Thank you Karen--her shape is really nice beside that drawing
Do you think the black marks on her wings are much of a problem? Would you recommend using her for breeding?
Would you pair her with my older roo?
Thanks so much for your help--I really appreciate it!

 

[GreenRiverHen]

One more quick question-what is a cushion? My SOP is on it's way for Christmas!

 

[Yellow House Farm]

I'm not sure if there is anyone still here to critique birds but if there is I would really appreciate your thoughts.

Second year rooster

One very nice thing about this male is that he seems to be blessedly clear of excess white, which can be a real problem with these. Also, he appears to have a substantial and deep breast.

His two biggest problems, which are actually rather important, is that his back is too short and he is way off balance. Notice how dramatically far back his legs are. It ruins the entire balance of the bird. He is no show bird.

Six month cockerel
Pullet
Pullets

Even bent over, the front pullet is much less of a bird than the one behind her. Then again it's hard to know what we're comparing here, how close are the in age (?), etc...

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Above, pullet? Nice ground color. No breast. She'd be soup.

The color of the female in the back right is interesting as a breeder if she's a pullet and if she has the deep breast that some of your birds do.



Any comments or questions are welcome

Remember, just because they're there doesn't mean you should hatch from them. I'm only seeing one cock, which is a dead end. Your best bet would be to take him and the two best females that best counterbalance his important faults and breed from them, keeping the females in separate pens when collecting hatching eggs and moving him between the two. From here you will be able to being working on a line.