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Light Sussex Bantams
The Sussex chicken is an alert, docile breed that can adapt to any surrounding, they are comfortable in both free range or confined spaces and in the presence of humans. The breed sometimes (but not very often) goes broody, the speckled version is most likely to do so.
They are good foragers The Sussex chicken is a dual purpose breed that originating in England around the time of the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43 that is a popular backyard chicken in many countries. They come in eight colors (with a couple more being developed) and have a bantam version at 1/4 size; the bantams may be any of the eight colors.
The colors found in Sussex chickens are: Brown, Buff, Light, Red, Speckled, Silver, White and Coronation. The Sussex chicken, whatever color, should be graceful with a long, broad, flat back and a rectangular build, the tail should be at a 45 degree angle from the body. The eyes should be red in the darker varieties but orange in the lighter one and they sport a medium sized, single, erect comb. The earlobes are red and the legs and skin white in every variety. Cocks should weigh approx 9 lbs, and the hens (females) 7 lbs. The Brown and red varieties are rare but the others are more common.
Cockerels have a large comb on their heads
The light Sussex has a white body with a black tail and black wing tips. Its neck is white, striped with black and has a very striking appearance. The buff is ginger where the light is white. If showing the bird, a person must be careful to keep it out of strong sunlight, as the color will fade. The Silver Sussex has a similar neck to the previous two variants, except that the body is black and the majority of the feathers on the body have silver lacing.
The Sussex was bred to be a dual purpose bird and is one of the most productive breeds of poultry. They lay large eggs that are cream to light brown in colour. A person owning a hen of this breed should expect approximately 240 to 260 eggs a year, although the light and white varieties are the best choice for layers. Recently there has been an olive green coloured egg introduced to some Light Sussex breeds, although these green egg layers are very rare.
Sussex chickens are believed to have been first bred in Britain (in the area that was to become England) around the time of the Roman invasion of AD 43 making them one of the oldest known breeds. Originally bred as a table bird the Sussex has since become a dual-purpose bird, working for both meat and egg production.The original colours were the Brown, Red and Speckled, and the Silver is the latest variety. The breed was prized as table fowl more than one-hundred years ago and, more recently, the Light Sussex was very popular for the laying trials of the 30s.
Today they are a popular breed for exhibitions as well as a backyard breed. The breed has made a huge contribution to the poultry industry and is even an ancestor to the modern broiler.
At Happy Keeper we only specialise in the Light Sussex Bantams bred from our show winning stock
At Happy Keeper we have our own selectively bred birds and have available for sale hatching eggs, pullets, stags, cocks and hens.
Please email for current stock before buying through our shop.
Click on the hatching egg to go through to our shop for prices
Live birds can be delivered by courier (again please call for delivery costs prior to purchase). Hatching eggs can be delivered by post.
Fertitility from our birds is very high as we hatch our own birds off but as we cannot be in control of the incubation criteria we cannot be held responsible for your hatch rates.
If you use one of the better quality fully automatic incubators (temp & humidity) you should have very good results.