The Poultry Yard

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 110, 30 July 1927, Page 26

The Poultry Yard

LIGHT SUSSEX Good All-Round Breed

By

GEO. H. AMBLER.

Poultry breeders in New Zealand are at last realising that in Light Sussex we have one of the best al-round breeds in existence. During the past show sea* A very strong club, with an enthusiastic president and secretary, was formed in Taranaki a couple of years ago. I had the honour of judging the club’s first annual show at New Plymouth and, from the number and quality of the exhibits staged, it was quite evident the breed lias come to stay. This year’s show, too, was a great success, and some of the exhibits were a credit to their owners. Fashions change in breeds of fowl as much as in dress; in fact, the breeds come and go like Bob Acre’s courage. The public are, however, getting more discriminating, and no breed can hold the popular favour for long without real utility merit behind it. This quality the Bight Sussex possess. As table fowl they have few equals, and certainly there is no breed of equal table quality that can lay like them. In fact, a team of Light Sussex won one of the leading laying tests in England just recently, whereas at the great poultry sales this breed made the highest prices and is occupying a position that the Rhode Island Reds did about seven years ago. The chicks are quite easy to rear, the growth rapid, and when finished they carry a good breast of white, delicious meat. Cockerels of the small breeds get dry and stringy by six months old. These Sussex keep the quality of the meat more like capons up to eight months old. A BREED WITH A FUTURE As a breed they are comparatively new, and are not free from faults. We

son the quality and number of exhibits at the shows was an eyeopener to those who had publicly stated there was no room in the Dominion for fresh breeds.

have no more beautiful fowl, the colour being the same as the old Light Brahma. The snow-white bodies contrast with the black striped neck hackle and the dark tail. The large wing feathers are also striped with black, but when the bird is walking these are folded up, and do not show. They are not particularly easy to breed, and I will give a few hints on mating which may be of service to i many. Like all new composite breeds, they have many faults yet to breed out, which will take time. Many strains turn yellow-legged ones. These should be ruthlessly discarded. These should how good in all other respects. The legs should be as white as possible, and a pink tinge should only be allowed in a bird of exceptional merit in all other points. This yellow leg suggests its Brahma ancestry. It is very curious how it comes out, and must be latent in them all. This year I have had only one out of numbers. I saw a curious case a few years ago. A woman had Light Sussex out of a strain that threw yellow legs freely. In a few years, by selection, she seemed to have about got rid of it. Next year I had not a single one with yellow legs, yet a cockerel from my yard mated to her white-legged hen threw 75 per cent, of yellow-legged ones. MORE FAULTS Another fault to avoid is split combs and side-springs, another relic from the Brahma pea comb. This is my bete noire, and another is white in earlobes. Buyers must not expect to get perfect birds for a small sum. I think half the birds have, more or less, one of these faults mentioned. Another point I dislike is the daw eye. A red eye is not only more beautiful, but I think shows constitution. Many may wonder why these small questions seem of so much importance. The Shire Horse man will tell you that he values the soft, silky hair at the back of his horses’ legs, not so much because he wants the hair, which is often a nuisance, but because it is an absolutely certain indication of quality underneath. There are certain points we look for in all stock birds of all breeds, and it is as well to mention them nere. A bird should have good style and carriage, should walk produly and with easy action. The medium-sized, compact ones are better sires than the over-grown ones. The legs should be set rather wide apart and be straight, of medium length, and free from any tendency toward in-hocks—as we should say in human bipeds, knockkneed. The toes should be straight and well spread, so that the birds can stand well upon them. The back should be fairly broad and flat, and any curvature of the spine is to be avoided. Another touch of Brahma ancestry shbws itself in any leg feather. There is very little in the breed, but there should be none. PLUMAGE DIFFICULTIES Now we get to the plumage we find there has been a difficulty for many years in keeping the black and white parts of the plumage distinct. A pure white bird and dark hackle is a thing of beauty and a joy for ever, but the trouble is to get the dark hackle in the cocks without the dark colour coming below the neck ring and running more or less through the back. It is much easier to get the two in tiie pullets, and I would not breed from a hen in which the dark of the liaekle continued more than two inches underneath the white of the shoulders. One with smutty undercolour all through should be discarded at all costs. In the cockerel a little more latitude may be allowed. I have never yet seen a cockerel pure white in undercolour from the neck ring that had not a light hackle. Such a bird might be mated to pullets with very dense hackle and a little dark undercolour. NO PAINS TOO GREAT It is a very good strain, indeed, when one can find 20 per cent, of the pullets fit to breed from. Sometimes a really bad strain may by accident throw a really good cockerel, but he has no breeding value. Better, by far, have a moderate bird out of a good strain. Some may question why all this care is necessary for laying hens and table cockerels. To the man who breeds all cockerels for sale as stock birds no pains can be too great. There is no reason why our best utility stock should not be as handsome- as purely show birds. The same meticulous care that is given to colour will manifest itself in all other directions. The first essential in utility stock is vigour and constitution, and this is attained by choice of birds for the breeding-pen and by best rearing and feeding, and not by trap-nesting. The latter is useful enough, but may be overdone.