white rock and light sussex cross question

[City Chicken]

has anyone done this? i did! the thing is, the chicks are large! they are big ol' things! they astound me. the white rock/sussex mix are all bigger, notably- than the pure sussex chicks are. i have two pure and 6 mix.

i am thinking that these will make excellent LARGE dual purpose birds. i plan to process the males at the end of dec, but i wonder if perhaps i should keep one for breeding.

just wondering if anyone has done this and what your experience is.
thanks.

 

[JHorn91180]

What kind of sussex did u use and do u have pics of the offspring?

 

[Fred's Hens]

Photos!!!! We'd love to see the birds. Please post again on this thread in 6-8 weeks! Keep this thread alive with reports on your project. It sounds fascinating.

 

[City Chicken]

i used light sussex. i will get some current photos today and post.
new hatchlings. this is 3 days i think.
here is the 'whole family' before breeding. the young cockerel on the right is the light sussex, the white rock being held is the hen. of course, when they were bred they were bigger, they were very young here. the older he got the more gorgeous he got and heavy! unfortunately a raccoon got all my original 3 light sussex. but i did get two chicks out of it.

 

[City Chicken]

pure white sussex chick 5 wks


white rock/light sussex 5 wks


the whole crew 5 wks




they have a really broad wingspan


the mix are notably bigger than the pure

 

[City Chicken]

just to update on this...
the pullets just started laying yesterday january 14th, 2013, which i'm happy with since i wasn't sure if i'd get anything until spring since they matured during winter.

i will post photos soon... but i'm happy with the cross and hope that i will have some fertile eggs to hatch soon. only one of the roo's made it- the other got eaten by a ... something, not sure. left a pile of guts an the head. i had planned on eating one roo, but the animal got it before we could. so i won't be eating any of these chickens.

i am considering keeping one of my smaller cornish X and seeing if i can get the roo to mate with her and work on another home meat breeding project. my kids LOVE having the cute chicks.

they are very attractive birds. most are the size of my white rock, some are slightly bigger. photos coming soon...

 

[City Chicken]

update of project. Hens are all larger than their white rock mother with little to no black feathers.
Laying nice brown med sized eggs.