Selecting Breeding Stock: Type, Speckling, and Temperament in Speckled Sussex

Anyone can hatch Speckled Sussex chicks. Hatching chicks that are better than their parents is the hard part, and it starts long before the incubator is plugged in. It starts with which birds you decide to breed. A flock that mates at random drifts toward whatever is easiest to hatch, while a flock managed with a plan can slowly improve in body shape, feather pattern and good manners. This guide walks through how to evaluate each of those three areas and how to combine them into a sensible breeding decision.

The independent sites in this network are not affiliated with any breed association, so check the current American Poultry Association Standard of Perfection for the official description. If you plan to buy additional stock, agriculture.directory can help you find farms and breeders in your area.

Start With Goals, Not Birds

Before you handle a single hen, write down what you want. A breeder aiming at the show table will weigh type and color heavily. A homesteader who wants hens that lay through the year and raise their own chicks will care more about hardiness and mothering. Most people want a bit of everything, and that is fine, as long as you rank the goals. One published account of heritage chicken breeding in Mother Earth News describes a breeder who listed priorities such as hardiness, foraging, mothering and winter laying and then selected against them, rather than breeding whatever looked best on a given day.

The same account makes a point worth repeating. Hatchery stock often falls short of the breed description, so measure your birds against the written standard instead of against each other. A flock where every bird is a little off still has a best bird, but that bird may not be good enough to breed from.

Judging Type

Type means the overall shape and build of the bird. Speckled Sussex are a dual-purpose breed developed in England, and the shape reflects it: a long, broad, rectangular body carried level, with a deep chest and close-fitting feathers. You can read the full description in our guide to reading the Standard of Perfection. In practice, evaluating type comes down to handling the bird.

• Back and breastbone. Run your hand along the spine and keel. Both should be straight. Crooked backs and dented or twisted breastbones are classic faults, and our article on show faults and disqualifications explains how judges treat them.
• Tail and wings. A tail carried to one side or a wing that hangs out of place counts against a bird, and these can recur in families.
• Comb and face. The Sussex carries a single comb. Look for an upright comb with an even set of points and no side sprigs or twists.
• Legs and feet. Straight toes, solid legs and the correct leg color for the breed. Check each foot.
• Size and substance. The standard weights for Sussex are substantial: a hen is listed at seven pounds and a cock at nine in the standard weights reported by Oklahoma State University's breed page. A bird well under the standard at full maturity is a poor choice for a breeder.

Judge birds when they are fully grown, not as chicks or half-grown pullets. Plenty of lovely youngsters turn out narrow, high on the leg or crooked in the keel once they finish growing.

Judging Speckling

The color pattern is the breed's signature, built from a mahogany ground, a black bar and a white tip on each feather. Our guide to Speckled Sussex color covers the details, including the fact that hens usually carry more white after each molt. That matters for selection, because a pullet that looks sparsely marked may become a beautifully speckled hen. Do not cull on speckling alone in the first season. Wait for at least one full molt if you can, and make notes on each bird as it changes.

When you do evaluate color, look for these things:

• A deep, even mahogany ground without brassy or washed-out patches.
• A clean black bar that separates the mahogany from the white tip.
• Tips that are distinct instead of smeared into the ground color.
• No peppering, meaning small dark flecks in the ground color.

It is tempting to breed two of the most heavily white birds together. Be careful. Too much white is a fault just as too little is, and what counts as ideal depends on the Standard and on the judge, so keep your target moderate.

Judging Temperament

Temperament is the least glamorous trait and probably the most valuable. The breed is generally described as alert, sociable and easy to handle, with hens that often go broody and make good mothers, which is how Oklahoma State summarizes it. Those are tendencies, not guarantees. Every flock has a nervous hen and an overbearing cockerel.

Test behavior in simple ways. Does the bird tolerate being caught and held? Does it recover quickly, or panic for ten minutes? How does it behave toward flock mates and toward you? A cockerel that goes after people is a hazard, and the trait can pass to his sons. Our article on pecking order, roosters and bullying explains how to tell normal flock politics from a problem bird. Be especially strict about males, because one cock influences every chick in the pen.

Health, Vigor and Fertility

None of the three headline traits matters if the bird is weak. Favor birds that have grown steadily, stayed healthy and kept good condition through molt and winter. Any bird showing signs of illness should come out of the breeding pen at once. Hens that lay well, go broody sensibly and bring up chicks are worth more than one that simply looks pretty. For more on pen ratios and egg handling, see roosters and fertility.

Keep Records and Cull Honestly

Band every bird you consider breeding. Record hatch date, parents, notes on type, color, temperament and any faults. Without records you will end up mating relatives by accident, and repeated close mating over several years can reduce vigor. The Mother Earth News piece stresses that meticulous records are essential and that unrelated birds should be mated. The Livestock Conservancy and similar organizations also keep breeder directories, which are a good place to find unrelated stock when your own flock gets too closely related.

Culling is the step most backyard keepers avoid. Plan for it from the start: keep the best of each hatch, and send the rest to the table or to pet homes. The more chicks you can raise, the stricter you can be. Small flocks have to keep a larger share of each hatch just to maintain numbers, and that limits how hard you can select. That is no reason to keep a bird with a crooked back, but it is a reason to be patient and to improve a little at a time.

A Simple Selection Routine

1. Write your goals and rank them.
2. Evaluate birds at maturity, by hand, against the Standard.
3. Score type, speckling and temperament separately, and add notes on health.
4. Keep only birds with no disqualifying faults and no serious temperament problem.
5. Choose unrelated pairs or pens, and record everything.
6. Review results after each hatch and adjust.

Selection is slow work, and the results show up over years rather than weeks. Still, nothing else you do in a breeding program matters as much. For a lighter look at the livestock show world that many breeders aim for, farm.fm covered one in its county livestock exhibition report.