Silver Sussex -- What's the story?

[Anne2000]

Hi,
I'm really curious about this beautiful variety/breed.
I see that Greenfire imported, sold some, but now have them listed as "permanently unavailable."
I've read a couple older posts about a few people that had obtained some from Greenfire, but apparently they were not all hatching out as Silver because Greenfire had out-crossed to Light Sussex?
Can anyone share the story on what the deal was/is? Is there a reliable line of these in the US today?
Thanks!

 

[EweSheep]

Can't say why? I didn't know they discontinued it.

 

[draye]

I went and saw that both the Silver and Coronation are "permanently unavailable."

 

[muddyhorse]

I have both and love them. I don't know why they don't have them. On pure speculation this is only a theory my guess would be that there are enough people with them now especially the coronation, that they are using that pen space for something more exotic and rare.

 

[Anne2000]

Hey Muddyhorse-
Have you hatched many from your Silver Sussex? If so, are they all breeding true, or is the light sussex influence showing up?

 

[3riverschick]

Personally, I think crossing the 2 colors was a mistake. In doing so, they also crossed locuses. CS are eWh. SS are ER. there are still some folk out there with pure Greenfield Silver Sussex. I saw one ad which claimed they had them breeding true. Just have to dig around on the Net. I don't remember who it was. They were in the South US. Might try search words like : Silver Sussex Greenfield "breed true" .
Best,
Karen

 

[Anne2000]

Thanks, Karen! What is this "silver" variety comparable to in other breeds? I understand that it's not silver laced, and does not appear to be silver penciled (as in PR's), but what exactly is it?

 

[nicalandia]

Personally, I think crossing the 2 colors was a mistake. In doing so, they also crossed locuses. CS are eWh. SS are ER. there are still some folk out there with pure Greenfield Silver Sussex. I saw one ad which claimed they had them breeding true. Just have to dig around on the Net. I don't remember who it was. They were in the South US. Might try search words like : Silver Sussex Greenfield "breed true" .
Best,
Karen

The reason was because ER is dominant over eWh and Co/co+ has little effect on the Birchen phenotype(look) some Black Copper marans also hide wheaten because some wheaten marans were crossed to BCM at one point in the past... why would any body do that? thats easy, as stated above ER is dominant over eWh and this cross would produce more Birchen ER looking birds enhancing the gene pool

 

[Anne2000]

If one attempted to get this color pattern into another breed, could it be taken to a solid bird (such as black) and eventually produce the silver sussex coloring?

 

[nicalandia]

If one attempted to get this color pattern into another breed, could it be taken to a solid bird (such as black) and eventually produce the silver sussex coloring?

while its possible to make a solid black breed(like black sumatra) look similar(close) to a silver Birchen color, it will never look quite like it. the best bet would be to get a silver Birchen bird and start from there