Last updated
18 February 2012
Quest for the Good Life 
Breeding chickens -
We have now established Light Sussex as our main breed. We have re-
Light Sussex cockerel (Colin) and three hens (The Colettes)
The quartet (1 cockerel and 3 hens) will produce fertilised eggs. These fertilised
eggs will be hatched and the youngsters grown on for one of three possible uses:-
- Replacement egg laying hens (kept with no cockerel to produce eating eggs)
- Birds for the table (particularly young cockerels and spare hens)
- Selling birds where keepers and breeders need some new blood lines, or new chickens keepers want some hens.
So how do they compare to our hybrid hens?
Hybrid hens are bred purely for their egg laying abilities. They are cross breeds so if you put a cockerel (if you could find one) to a hen you have no idea what will be produced. It will reflect the ancestry of the birds but it would be a raffle as to whether they were good or bad.
Light Sussex are true breeds. The cockerel and hen will produce youngsters which are the same breed.
As hybrid hens get older, they need replacing. The only way to replace like with like is to buy more stock in from the commercial producers. Using true breeds like the Light Sussex, you can produce your own stock more cheaply.
A bit about Light Sussex
This breed has a long history and may go back several centuries, but the Light Sussex has come to the fore in the last century with a Sussex breed club being formed in 1903.
The Light Sussex was a dual purpose breed. Some birds were good at egg production, others for meat. To be good at either of these meant specialising in one or the other , a case of “jack of all trades, master of none” comes to mind. Stocks today seem to have been mixed up and perhaps less good at both roles. A cockerel should weigh about 9 pounds and a hen 7 pounds. For meat many of the current lines are not that good. With selective breeding it may be possible to bring some size and growth back to lines for meat, whilst keeping modest egg layers too. Time will tell.
You may be interested to read more on the Sussex hens website.
We have incubated some of our Light Sussex eggs this year and now have 13 young chickens which all look healthy.
We were very interested in the methods of sexing chicks by looking at the wing feather
arrangements. However we missed the chance in the first day or two and soon the
feathers were too well developed to tell.
Never mind, time will reveal how many cockerels we have. The intention is to either sell or eat them so growing them on is no hardship.
We are looking to try and improve our lines of Light Sussex. They are quite good and healthy already but we need to try and get them back to the size they used to be many years ago.