Speckled Sussex?

[SueT]

Blurry pic of my SS hen at 4 weeks. She'll be 3yrs in May.

 

[Alexandra33]

This may be irrelevant, but I find my roosters to make better pets than most hens. Anybody without affectionate boys hasn't lived life!

~Alex

 

[PNWJewele]

Here is my little SS, she'll be 1 year old in May. She was always the smallest of the group. She is now the 2nd largest of the group. She had a white chest as a chick so don't always believe the above statement.

Here she is with her mates, all the same age. She's quite a bit smaller and has the white chest...

View attachment 1685107

Here she is this past spring..

View attachment 1685108

Thank you! I just love the look of the SS hens. Greatly looking forward to having her look like your beautiful girl.

My SS feathered in white chested.....they're female, too. All my Spangled OEGBs (same color type) of both genders sport white breast regions.

I'm thinking there's still hope.

~Alex

Thank you too Alex. I had to look up the Spangled OEGBs and they do look very similar.

 

[SueT]

Those of you with roosters, there's a rooster crowing contest needing more entries:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ooster-crowing-show-ends-on-the-28th.1291432/
It's really interesting how different each rooster's crow is. I hope they get more entries!

 

[Gray Farms]

Here is my little SS, she'll be 1 year old in May. She was always the smallest of the group. She is now the 2nd largest of the group. She had a white chest as a chick so don't always believe the above statement.

Here she is with her mates, all the same age. She's quite a bit smaller and has the white chest...

View attachment 1685107

Here she is this past spring..

View attachment 1685108

Hatchery lines must differ greatly from exhibition lines then. My friend has raised show quality Speckled Sussex for a long time and his white chested chicks are almost always cockerels.

 

[duluthralphie]

Hatchery lines must differ greatly from exhibition lines then. My friend has raised show quality Speckled Sussex for a long time and his white chested chicks are almost always cockerels.

Mine are showbirds.. there really is no way to tell them apart without vent sexing or waiting for them to mature.

BTW many hatchery birds come from showbird lines.. the extra eggs are sold to hatcheries.

 

[Gray Farms]

Mine are showbirds.. there really is no way to tell them apart without vent sexing or waiting for them to mature.

BTW many hatchery birds come from showbird lines.. the extra eggs are sold to hatcheries.

I have a very hard time believing hatcheries are buying birds or eggs from show breeders. All the hatchery stock birds I've seen either in person or pictures barely fit the standard little lone show signs they are breeding towards the standard or improving their breeding stock. I'm not saying there aren't hatcheries out there that aren't improving their breeding stock. But the big ones are more interested in production "quantity" rather than quality.

Going back to my original statement. I stated that typically white chested SS are cockerels. I by no means meant to imply that this 100% guarantee. Typically or most is a very broad term and shouldn't be taken as "in all cases" type of meaning. In retrospect I should have said, in my experience white chested SS are typically cockerels.

 

[Trish44]

The middle one is a pullet SS.

 

[PNWJewele]

The middle one is a pullet SS.

Hope so!

 

[duluthralphie]

I have a very hard time believing hatcheries are buying birds or eggs from show breeders. All the hatchery stock birds I've seen either in person or pictures barely fit the standard little lone show signs they are breeding towards the standard or improving their breeding stock. I'm not saying there aren't hatcheries out there that aren't improving their breeding stock. But the big ones are more interested in production "quantity" rather than quality.

Going back to my original statement. I stated that typically white chested SS are cockerels. I by no means meant to imply that this 100% guarantee. Typically or most is a very broad term and shouldn't be taken as "in all cases" type of meaning. In retrospect I should have said, in my experience white chested SS are typically cockerels.

Hard to believe or not they will. I was entertaining the idea of selling White legbar eggs to a hatchery. I am NPIP so I can do this. They wanted 1,000 eggs at a time. I could not do this, during the time of the year they wanted them.

Living in Minnesota made shipping them a problem. I only had around 20 White legbar hens, 1,000 eggs would have taken me too long to accumulate also. BUT they would have bought them.

That is how most your heritage breeds and rare breeds are obtained. There are some places that have their own flocks, but most do not. They are hatcheries.

I am not saying you will get the best birds from a hatchery. Any breeder that shows will keep his best matches to themselves. BUT that said, if a chicken lays 150 eggs during hatching season are you really going to hatch them all?