The Speckled Sussex

Can Lay 240 to 260 eggs a yearMedium-Large Creamy Brown Eggs per year.
Will Lay in Winter
Single Comb
Can Be Broody / Good Mother
Large Fowl
Hen Weight: Aprox 7 Pounds
Friendly, Make good Pets Adapts well to Confinement

History

The Sussex originated in the county of Sussex, England. They were prized table birds more than 100 years ago. The original colours were brown, red and speckled. I have only seen the speckled for sale in the USA. Bred to be a dual purpose bird, it is very productive choice for small farms and homesteads. The hen will lay around 260 large eggs that are cream to light brown in colour. The Sussex is one of the oldest breeds from England that are still in existence today.

Behavior

The Sussex chicken is an alert but docile breed that can adapt to any surrounding easily. They are good foragers. Whilst they are quite happy to be free range, they will also be fine if kept in a confined space. They can occasionally but not very often go broody. The speckled is the most likely of the breed to do this.

Varieties
The colors found in Sussex chickens are brown buff, light red, speckled, silver and white. The Sussex chicken whatever its color should be graceful. The eyes are red in the darker varieties but are orange in the lighter ones. They have a medium sized single comb. The earlobes are red and the legs and skin are white in every variety. The brown and red varieties are rare now with the other colors being quite common.

The Speckled Sussex was most famous in England as a table fowl with pinkish white skin and long, deep body ideal for fattening. It is of medium size, in the heavy breed class, a layer of light brown or tinted eggs, and the hens will set. Its plumage color is a delight to the eye being of rich mahogany base color with individual feathers ending in a white tip separated from the rest of the feathers by a black bar. Baby chicks vary greatly in color from a creamy buff to dark chestnut and some also have alternate dark and light stripes lengthwise on the back. This variety combines beauty with utility, and is very nice to raise for showing. These birds are very friendly and handle winters in the northeast very well. I just love them. I have raised these now for 20 years. The one dark hen in the back on the left in this photo is a barred rock. The other birds are all Speckled Sussex. Note the comb on that handsome cock!

Happy Chickens

I think every family should have five hens or more running in the yard! Chickens love their lives free ranging on family farms under the kindly watch of good people.

Chicks Being Ground Up Alive Video

(AP) WASHINGTON — An undercover video shot by an animal rights group at an Iowa egg hatchery shows workers discarding unwanted chicks by sending them alive into a grinder, and other chicks falling through a sorting machine to die on the factory floor.

Chicago-based Mercy for Animals said it shot the video at Hy-Line North America's hatchery in Spencer, Iowa, over a two-week period in May and June. The video was obtained Monday by The Associated Press.


Hy-Line said in a statement it has started an investigation "of the entire situation," adding that it would have helped their investigation "had we been aware of the potential violation immediately after it occurred."

The video, shot with a hidden camera and microphone by a Mercy for Animals employee who got a job at the plant, shows a Hy-Line worker sorting through a conveyor belt of chirping chicks, flipping some of them into a chute like a poker dealer flips cards.

These chicks, which a narrator says are males, are then shown being dropped alive into a grinding machine.

In other parts of the video, a chick is shown dying on the factory floor amid a heap of egg shells after falling through a sorting machine. Another chick, also still alive, is seen lying on the floor after getting scalded by a wash cycle, according to the video narrator.

Hy-Line said the video "appears to show an inappropriate action and violation of our animal welfare policies," referring to chicks on the factory floor.

But the company also noted that "instantaneous euthanasia" – a reference to killing of male chicks by the grinder – is a standard practice supported by the animal veterinary and scientific community.



According to Mercy for Animals, male chicks are of no use to the industry because they can't lay eggs and don't grow large or quickly enough to be raised profitably for meat. That results in the killing of 200 million male chicks a year.

The United Egg Producers, a trade group for U.S. egg farmers, confirmed that figure and the practice behind it.

"There is, unfortunately, no way to breed eggs that only produce female hens," said the group's spokesman, Mitch Head. "If someone has a need for 200 million male chicks, we're happy to provide them to anyone who wants them. But we can find no market, no need."

Using a grinder, Head said, "is the most instantaneous way to euthanize chicks."

Hy-Line says on its Web site that its Iowa facility produces 33.4 million chicks. Based on that figure, Mercy for Animals estimates a similar number of male chicks are killed at the facility each year. Hy-Line did not comment on that estimate.

Mercy for Animals says it will call on the nation's 50 largest grocery chains to include labels on their eggs that say, "Warning: Male chicks are ground-up alive by the egg industry."

Head called that proposal "almost a joke," saying the group had no credible authority, and had questionable motives. "This is a group which espouses no egg consumption by anyone – so that is clearly their motive." The video does in fact end with a call for people to adopt a vegan diet, which eliminates all animal products – meat, eggs or dairy.

Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy for Animals, said most people would be shocked to learn that 200 million chicks are killed a year.

"Is this justifiable just for cheap eggs?" he said.

As to more humane alternatives to disposing of male chicks, Runkle said the whole system is inherently flawed.

"The entire industrial hatchery system subjects these birds to stress, fear and pain from the first day," he said.

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On the Web:

Mercy for Animals video: http://www.mercyforanimals.org/hatchery

Hy-Line International: http://www.hyline.com/




WARNING THIS IS HARD TO WATCH BUT PLEASE DO!

My hens are royalty to me and enjoy a wonderful life and they don't come from a commercial hatchery like this. I think every family should have five hens or more running in the yard! Chickens love their lives free ranging on family farms under the kindly watch of good people. Vegans may want to ban all egg production but that is no answer. I am a better person for having chickens and my chickens love thier lives here. None are debeaked and none are commercial breeds.



Some of my chickens

How life should be