The Sussex thread!

[mountainvieworchards]

Andy,

Can y ou help my understanding of broad backs V. basketballs and how this translates in the body. Wider back is to also make the ribcage wider? Does this include increasing the muscle mass?

Pardon me as I am a newbie and have lots to learn.

Hi Arielle

The basketball is my own description of the speckled sussex roosters I have raised from US lines. I have obtained birds from three sources in USA (two from breeders and one from hatchery stock) and have not been happy with the type or size of the roosters from any of them. They don't make standard weight and they tend to be round and about the size of a basketball. Sussex have a broad flat back and deep body, these speckleds are short backed small and roundish. Sussex are bred to be a nice bird for the table.

Here are two examples of my birds from last year showing the contrast. The light sussex cockerel is 9 - 10 pounds and the speckled Sussex the same age is about 6 pounds and much smaller in all dimensions. The light sussex gives a nice roaster carcass, generous and meaty and the speckled is fryer size and skimpy.

I crossed the two varieties to improve my speckled sussex type, to borrow the type from the light sussex and keep the tri-color of the speckled Sussex. This year in my F2 I have bred a larger and better type speckled as well as gold mille fleur, but I still need work on back length and overall size.

My plan for this winter is to back cross my F2 speckleds back to some good type light Sussex again and then to cross the F1 next year and I am expecting the F2 from that backcross to be much better but of course those results are two years off. The results from this year show progress in size for both pullets and cockerels. This of course required producing lots of chicks to get back to speckeled Sussex possessing both homozygous for mottled and mahogany genes.

I have "heard" of some show lines of SS that have better size and type than what is commonly available, and I have seen some of the females, which were nice, but I have not seen the males and I would love to see some. I suppose I like reinventing the wheel if I can get a better wheel.

Andy

 

[Johnn]

I realllllllyyy want a Light Sussex after my Miley was killed last year, i think i might have to get one next year!, i love them!!

 

[warbirds]

Hi Karen

I have some of the Bradshaw (Green fire) line of light sussex and have been breeding this line for three years. My experience has been different to your description of the line. I have not had a rooster who was more than 11 pounds. I have been satisfied with their size which is typically 9 to 10 pounds. I breed my larger females in order to keep the male size up. I find that my excess cockerels make a nice roasters at about 6 pounds dressed weight. I have entered my birds in APA shows and have not had a DQ with this line, to the contrary my pullet won best English in an APA show. I purchased my Bradshaw line light sussex from two different sources, neither of which was Bradshaw, and they look pretty much the same. These birds have good sussex type and color and I have not found any of the problems with them that you described.

I am curious to hear from others who have actually worked with the Bradshaw line as to what their experiences have been.

I would like to see the speckled sussex in this country where roosters consistently reach 9 + pounds with broad flat backs, instead of the basketballs that most people are breeding.

Andy

Andy, I've been working with the Bradshaw line for about 3 years as well.
My biggest roo is just a few ounces over 10 pounds. The females are generally 7 to 8 pounds, although I do have an occasional gal pop up over 8 by about 1/2 a pound or so. I have found the Australian line to be very hardy, taking extreme heat and extreme cold very well, and very often laying right through those extremes. I have no complaints about rate of lay on my Aussie hens, they keep us all well fed. I do not see them with looser feathering than what should be according to the SOP. I have selected for all the correct SOP traits in every hatch.

One thing I have not had to deal with in these Aussies is horrid combs, unlike the other lines I have worked with. Or undersized birds. I have both Presley and Grisham lines in my American Lights, and they are what urged me to work with the Australian line................the hens would typically mature at 4 pounds, causing them to look more like bantams. Bred to an Aussie roo, size came right back up in the first hatchlings. Bred to a Canadian roo, same thing, got the correct size right away. But every time I breed those hens to a roo of their own line, size drops on the kids. I've been working with those for 5 years, and just now am getting the American lines to where size and type meet SOP. The American lines are usually the first to stop laying when the environment goes nuts, and take longer to molt, and take longer to get back to laying.

Now those Canadian roos................I've got two that each weigh in right at 13 and 14 pounds. They are Monsters!!! But they are the sweetest roos ever, and they treat their ladies very gently.

The size differences translate across the board when I use these different Light lines to beef up my Coronations. Breed to the American line, my coronations mature smaller than when using the Australian or Canadian lines. It's quite noticeable!

Doc

 

[warbirds]

Hey, does anyone know a lot about Coronation Sussex? I will be getting some tomorrow, and am considering breeding them.

I've been working with Coronations for almost as long as they've been available in the States.
Happy to help..............gotta keep nurturing Sussex lovers!

Doc

 

[mountainvieworchards]

Hi Doc

Thanks for your info on the Bradshaw birds, sounds similar to my own. I do not have any of the American lines you mentioned. I liked your description of your Canadian lines and think I would like to get some of that Canadian stock that you talk about. Have you crossed the Canadian and the Bradshaw lines?

I have heard the Coronations are of monstrous size, but have not ever had them. They were off the chart expensive when I first heard of them and I like the black-black of the lights more than the lavender. I have seen some people who are selling coronation eggs from birds carrying the blue gene instead of the lavender. This surprised me and I began to wonder if that is a homemade coronation, since I thought the Bradshaw line had lavender.

Andy

 

[Crazy Chicken Fever]

Ok, I am going to ask this question here because it is not getting any answers else where. I am crossing my light sussex rooster with speckled sussex hens. Does anyone have photos to share of what the offspring will look like? I read somewhere they will be sex linked, is that so?

 

[Pozees]

Doc, will you have any Speckled Sussex chicks, juveniles, or adults available in the spring? Or eggs if one of my girls goes broody?

 

[earlybird10842]

How often do sussex go broody?

 

[Pretty Poultry]

I love our speckeled sussex. They are one of the nicest chickens. These are only 4 months old. My grandson favorite is the sussex. I have over 9 different breeds. We originally had beautiful black and white speckled sussex but the fox got them. They were georgeous. T

 

[mountainvieworchards]

Ok, I am going to ask this question here because it is not getting any answers else where. I am crossing my light sussex rooster with speckled sussex hens. Does anyone have photos to share of what the offspring will look like? I read somewhere they will be sex linked, is that so?

Hi CCF

I have done this cross both ways.

A light sussex rooster over speckled hens will give you Columbian color like a light sussex but with some yellow bleed through in both the females and males. These will not be autosexing.

The silver gene is sex linked and the pullets get one copy of this gene but in this cross they get it from the sire and so are silver, the males get two copies and are heterozygous for silver and since silver is more dominant they are also silver but both will have some yellow showing through, at least this was the case in my birds.

In this cross Light sussex rooster is S/S and speckled sussex hens are s+/- and in the offspring males are S/s+ and offspring females are S/- both silver co

If you want autosexing chicks then you have to do the reverse breeding, that is you need to breed a speckled rooster to light hens.

The speckled roosters are s+/s+ and the light sussex hens are S/- and in the offspring the genotype of the males will be S/s+ and the females will be s+/ (gold). In this cross the phenotype of the males is columbian with yellow bleeding through on the shoulders and the females are buff to orange columbian somewhat like a buff sussex. The females are a little darker than a buff because they are also heterozygous for mahogany. The female progeny may have some white tipping on some feathers because they are heterozygous for the mottled gene, I think one out of five showed this tipping in my birds.

Hope this helps

Andy