Light Sussex

One breed I was really interested in was a "Light Sussex" orginally called a Columbian according to my book...Alot of people keep the Speckled Sussex from what I've been hearing...but not the "Light Sussex" I really liked the looks of that bird..Any Sussex fanciers out there that can enlighten me?

I know of a person with Light Sussex chickens, but she is not on this forum. If you pm me I can look up the contact information.

The sussex is a very nice breed of bird, single combed, so be wary of the temperature factor, but perhaps with your Hubby being electrically inclined, you could have heated coops. I particularly like the coronation sussex, to me that is the prettiest. There are a couple of breeders of light sussex in the Fraser Valley, and one that raises the Coronation sussex, beautiful birds, dual purpose, with huge bodies, good for eating as well. Check into it for sure. Have a most wonderful day, CynthiaM.

BC Hydro had 9200 customers without hydro in Kamloops yesterday so a backup generator or another source of heat would be a good idea. One thing we don't have is a power off alarm because we slept through the 5 hour outage that resulted in frozen bits here.

CynthiaM wrote:The sussex is a very nice breed of bird, single combed, so be wary of the temperature factor, but perhaps with your Hubby being electrically inclined, you could have heated coops. I particularly like the coronation sussex, to me that is the prettiest. There are a couple of breeders of light sussex in the Fraser Valley, and one that raises the Coronation sussex, beautiful birds, dual purpose, with huge bodies, good for eating as well. Check into it for sure. Have a most wonderful day, CynthiaM.

Yes....we planned to heat out coups for sure....but I am worried about the comb thing...don't want to cause the birds any distress...I'm an Electrician by trade as well, so we have the advantage of taking care of our Electrical issues with little cost...other than the electric bill

What is the difference between the Light Sussex and the Corination Sussex??I haven't heard of the latter.

Kim the coronation sussex looks just like the light sussex, except for the Columbian pattern on the bird is a light silvery-grey, very beautiful, look at Jonny's coronation sussex in this picture in his thread https://wcps.canadian-forum.com/t3354-coronation-sussex-hen . That is one very beautiful bird.

My friend back on the coast had some coronation sussex and let me tell you, it was all I could do to not want to bring that breed here, just something about how the light grey melds into the white, the very oh-so-white, huge, huge beautiful birds. I just do not have the room to entertain another breed. Oh if I had my way, a few more breeds would grace our farm, but for now, stickin' to the ones I got and be happy I can, smiling that big smile. Have a most awesome day, CynthiaM.

Hi Kim,

the best person for you to talk to in BC re Light Sussex is Emily Robertson outside Vancouver. She has great birds and VAST knowledge of the breed. Email:emily@robertsonenvironmental.com

Hi Kim

Emily is TruNorth on ACE. She is the person that I suggested and you have contacted.

Yes, I only wish I was close enough to get some of those birds from Trunorth.

Hi Kim,

I have got to say that the Light Sussex are indeed a gorgeous breed. My father originally brought in some light sussex to raise a flock as per a request of my grandfather. He wanted to see a flock of them, as that is what my great grandmother raised when he was a young lad. Back then they would buy chicks for a nickel in the spring and sell them for a quarter in the fall, or so my Grandfather told me as did my father.

We are by no means Sussex Experts, but very passionate about the breed.

We have come to love the light sussex, only issue we have encountered over here in Alberta, with our flock and the lines we have gotten, is the size and body type. They are not "up to par" and noticeably on the smaller size. We are currently starting to incorparate our newly aquirred Coronation Sussex hens, which are they right type, and improve our Light Sussex flock, it will be a rather interesting project. We incorporated some new lines of Light Sussex, from Coopslave, they are very handsome boys, two Light Sussex one is a Rooster, the other is still a young cockerel.

I must admit, my father owns our flock of Sussex, I help take care of them.

Here are some pics of previous years and different flocks

Coronation Sussex




Light Sussex

I'm no expert at this point...but they look like a fine example of a Light Sussex,like the one in my chicken book...So I guess the trick is to try and get birds from 2 different lineages to keep the breed strong? Is that even possible?? What are some traits to look for when buying a Light Sussex? If just buying chicks..is it fair to ask to see the Parents?

I have been in contact with Emily of TruNorth...thanks for the tip...

That would have been awesome had you kept the orginal line going back to you're Grandfather...EH?

Kim from Kamloops wrote:That would have been awesome had you kept the orginal line going back to you're Grandfather...EH?

I know, he mentioned the size of the birds that we had now were much smaller then the ones he remembers.

When I was at the show I had the chance to speak with the Judge about my Coronation Sussex, and she informed me that if I was to switch out the colour, my Coronation Sussex is exactly what the Light Sussex should be like as far as type markings and so one, This also goes she mentioned for the Speckled Sussex, overall the Coro that I showed is the Ideal body type for the Sussex as a whole, not just the colour.

I have seen them side by side in the past when we still had LS hens, and they almost looked like bantams next to our Coronations. Mind you those lines were from the UofA here in Edmonton.

I am now playing with Coronation Sussex Hens from, PrettyFeather in Chilliwack, and was able to get two very nice Light Sussex Roosters from Coopslave, I have seen a drastic improvement from the quality of the LS Roos we had when we first started to what we have acquired from Coopslave...... it's nice to kick off this project again and to start off with Quality birds. Thanks to both Coopslave and PrettyFeathers for feeding my addiction.

Not to bash the UofA lines, but man they have some tiny Light Sussex hens, and Roosters not sure if they are more of a egg production, but even then they lay a small egg. Don't get it?

Rooster from UofA lines, notice the horrible hackle markings...


UofA light Sussex Hen

These two were tiny



Rooster from Coopslave, Notice his nice markings on his hackle... I think at least.


So more or less the Coronation hens we currently have in our flock are right on the Money, as for what the breed should be like, the goal now is to work with these Gals to improve upon the Light Sussex. To get them back to the right type.

So from all my research and information I have picked up along my ventures, and I should mention a lot of it is a huge part from Tsamis. We are starting on a developed breeding plan to improve the over all quality of our Sussex as a whole.
This is a project to bring us together, father and son, and improve and bring back The Sussex starting with Lights and Coro's.

In the future we are also planning on improving our Buff Sussex lines, but that is later down the road.

This is our own little project, something we hope to one day share with others!

Cheers!

Very nice birds Jonny! And what a nice project, too

Im just sooooo excited right now I just got off the phone with Emily from the lower mainland...I'm going to be getting 25 of her light Sussex in June And she hopes to be bringing in other strains from overseas...she's working on the quarantine thing. I can provide me with Roosters from other lines to breed...