So we are home from the show and this big guy took BV and RB which is wonderful for our first show. I learned a lot and am excited to work on this line over the winter months. I did talk to the judges after the show and the only thing they found wrong with him is he has 1 to many points on his comb, and I need to beef him up a bit more. I need to breed for comb improvement. They seemed to like everything else about him. His feathers are a bit yellow because I do allow him to range and be a chicken. It was only a month before the show that we decide to show him so there was no time to allow him to molt out his tinted feathers. Come spring, I hope to have a couple of his offspring that are nice enough to show as well. Does anyone have any input on what I should be looking for in hens to improve the combs and ticking in the offspring? I am def going to buy the books suggested. Genetics are soooo hard to understand.
If you all could believe this, the bird that took championship for the entire English variety was a speckled sussex hen. A friend of the owner said that the speckled hen came from a hatchery. I guess person that owns her has won many shows with that hatchery bird......Wish I could get that lucky...lol We spend a ton of $ on our stock from breeders. Congrats to them both!!! A beautiful hen indeed!
I have found that using the Tide with bleach alternative does great at getting the yellow sunstaining out of my light sussex. I pour a bit on the spot and work it through going with the flow of the feathers and let it sit for a minute or two, then rinse. I also make sure to do a rinse with some white vinegar in it to stop the action of the soap and then another rinse. On really bad spots, I'll do wash the sun stain a couple of times. Works great for my birds which have access to outside runs during the whole day
Out of 10 Sussex eggs we ended up with 1 Speckled Sussex that made it We helped 3 more hatch but they didn't make it 
The 2 dozen BPR eggs ended up with 8 & we had put in 1 Bantam egg from our hens & 1 egg from a red regular breed kind of hen bred by our American Game roo that hatched OK. No more incubator for us, we'll just use one of our Game hens since they seem to be constantly broody 
Since I don't know anything about Sussex's do the chicks have short looking wings compared to our AG's? The Barred Rock chicks went to the gentleman that gave us the incubator
They seem very healthy
