From Sussex County to Your Coop: A Short History of the Breed's Spread

Breeds do not spread by themselves. Someone ships birds, someone publishes a standard, a war changes demand, and a hatchery decides there is a market. The Sussex traveled further than most English chickens, and the route it took explains a lot about the birds you can buy today. This page follows the trail. For the dated timeline of recognition and standards, see our companion page on the breed's long history.

Stop One: The London Table Trade

The Livestock Conservancy's Sussex profile says that during the Victorian age, Sussex, Kent and Surrey were known as the best areas for raising chickens for the London market, and that the Sussex was felt to be the best of them. Mother Earth News adds that the Sussex was raised for market in larger numbers beginning in the first half of the nineteenth century, and that it was crossed with the Dorking, Cochin and Brahma to produce capons for a specialized poultry industry in Sussex, the capons being fattened on milk mixed with ground oats.

The Poultry Club adds that the breed formed the mainstay of the table poultry market in and around the Heathfield area. In other words, the first thing the Sussex exported was a reputation.

Stop Two: The Show Pen and the Breed Club

The 1845 London poultry show brought Old Sussex or Kent fowls to public attention, though the breed was not in the first standard of 1865. After the near loss of pure stock around 1900 and the formation of a breed club in 1903, a standard with three colors, light, red and speckled, was drawn up. Wikipedia dates the standard to 1902, a small mismatch with the club date that is typical of breed histories where paperwork and enthusiasm did not move in lockstep. Treat the exact order of those two events cautiously.

Stop Three: The United States

The Livestock Conservancy says the Sussex reached America about 1912 and that the American Poultry Association recognized the Speckled and Red varieties in 1914, with the Light following in 1929. A 1919 USDA bulletin, Standard Varieties of Chickens, describes the breed as famous in England for table qualities and says it had not been very well known in the United States until recently, but that in the last few years it had gained considerable favor and was found on numerous farms across the country. It also notes the white skin and legs counted against it somewhat as a market fowl here.

Mother Earth News makes the same point more bluntly, suggesting that white skin probably limited the Sussex's popularity in the United States. That is a useful reminder that markets shape breeds. An English table trade that preferred white skin was a poor fit for an American market that often preferred yellow.

Stop Four: Canada and the War Years

The same Mother Earth News profile says the Light Sussex was popular in Canada around the 1940s, and that birds were brought to Canada during World War II to aid the production of white-skinned market birds for the British market. It also says the Light was crossed with Rhode Island Reds to develop commercial strains in Canada. The Speckled did not travel on the same commercial path, which helps explain why the Light became the better-known variety in several countries.

Conservation work followed. The profile notes that since 1992 the Poultry Conservation Program at the Alberta Poultry Research Centre at the University of Alberta has conserved a strain of Light Sussex originally maintained at the University of Saskatchewan.

Stop Five: Replaced by Hybrids

Wikipedia says that in the early twentieth century, until the advent of commercial hybrid strains at about the time of the Second World War, the Sussex and the Rhode Island Red were the two principal meat breeds in the United Kingdom. After that, specialized hybrids took over the commercial meat and egg trade. That shift is the reason heritage breeds ended up on conservation lists. If you want to see what the modern meat-only side looks like, farm.fm's page on broiler chicken production is a quick comparison.

Stop Six: Utility and Exhibition Strains Split

Wikipedia also notes that utility strains of the Sussex were developed with better productive capabilities but smaller and less well marked than exhibition standards expected. This is why a Speckled Sussex from a show breeder and one from a production line can look and perform differently. If you are buying, ask which type the seller has bred.

Stop Seven: Your Backyard

Today the breed travels by hatchery catalog, swap meet and shared hatching eggs. Cackle Hatchery lists it as a heritage breed with APA recognition dating to 1914, offered as chicks, started pullets and, at certain times of year, fertile hatching eggs. The Livestock Conservancy lists the Sussex as Recovering on its priority list, a status we explain in our article on heritage breed conservation.

Stage	Driver	Effect on the breed
London table trade	Demand for quality poultry	Reputation for flavor and tenderness
Club and standard	Fanciers and farmers	Defined varieties, restored purity
US arrival	Importers, APA	Speckled and Red admitted in 1914
Canada in wartime	Demand for white-skinned table birds	Light strains and crosses
Hybrid era	Commercial strains	Heritage numbers fall
Backyard revival	Hobbyists, hatcheries	Recovering status

What This Means When You Buy Birds

• Source matters. The breed has passed through exhibition, utility and commercial hands, so ask where the stock comes from.
• Expect variation. Our page on why no two Speckled Sussex look alike explains part of it.
• Do not oversell the history. The record has gaps, and some popular claims about origins, such as links to Roman poultry, are speculation. The Livestock Conservancy itself says there is much speculation on the origins of the poultry of the region.

A Short Moral

The Sussex survived because people with different goals, farmers, fanciers, wartime planners and backyard keepers, each found a use for it. You are the latest link in that chain. For help locating breeders, clubs and extension offices, visit agriculture.directory.