Everyone Has A Team...I'm Team Speckled All The Way

I married into a football loving family. This girl could care less. Believe me, I’ve tried. Sure, I like the Chiefs…I guess…I’m from Missouri, that is what you are supposed to do. Especially because that means Travis Kelce. So I’m Team Chiefs. Add in TayTay and I’m definitely in. One thing I have learned marrying into a football loving family is that people are super loyal to their favorite team. 

In the chicken world, we have teams too. But it’s breeds. Y’all have your favorite football teams. We chicken owners have our favorite chicken breeds. And everyone is different. Me. I’m Team Speckled Sussex. Speckled Sussex isn’t well known if you aren’t a chicken owner. Just known by their beautiful colors. Not like Rhode Island Red, Barred Rock, White Leghorn. But by god once you see a Speckled Sussex you will remember it. They are stunning. Absolutely gorgeous birds. 

I got my first chickens from my momma and Orschelns so I had the common breeds you would find at Chick Days…Easter Eggers, Barred Rock, Silver Laced Wyandotte, etc. In high school we had white leg horns. It wasn’t until I fell down the rabbit hole of chicken owning and researching breeds that I found a picture of a beautiful, speckled chicken called…you guessed it…a Speckled Sussex. And it got put on my ‘wish list’ of chicks. Like a man drawn to a pin up girl I looked up those chickens and I was enthralled. Fell in love. Speckled Sussex aren’t usually ones you find at a farm store as chicks. So we didn’t get any in our batch of Spring 2021 chicks. But luck was on my side when I was looking for babies in summer of 2021 a lady in Moberly had some SS chicks.

Enter Margaret and Frankie to our farm. Our MASH babies. We actually were worried for a while we had Margaret (Hot Lips) and Frank, and we were ok with that. Stunning, beautiful babies. Adorable. And these babies hated me. Loathed me. Wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. No babies on this farm hated me. But these sure did. No matter how much time I spent with them or cuddled them.

Fast forward to December 2021. I was getting ready to head out of town for the night to a concert with some friends. I took a shower and ran up to the barn to do chores. As I bent down to clean out a feeder, Margaret jumped on my shoulder. And wouldn’t leave. I was so happy. It is a moment that is forever etched in my mind. I was just so happy that one of those little speckled brats wanted me to hold her. It wasn’t a few days later both girls started to lay eggs. And they have been my shadows ever since. All it took was puberty to hit and they became my besties. At my feet, cackling at every move I make, wanting to be touched or held.

Early 2022 I ordered some chicks from Cackle Hatchery and knew I had to have a couple more gorgeous SS. At this point I’ve tried to keep up with our MASH or Grey’s names but also try and be alliterative with their breed in case we can't tell them apart. So in February of that year Sadie Sue and Sydney joined our flock. These girls were the same, both of them being two of the unfriendliest chicks I have ever owned. But dang were they pretty babies. As they got older these girls also became the most curious, loudest hens I’ve ever had. They got into everything and wanted in the middle of everything I was doing.

The only downside to Speckled girls is they love to go broody. All. The. Time. I feel like a lot of my life is trying to break a SS from her broodiness. However, I’ve seen how mean some people’s hens can be when they are broody and I can say I’ve hit the jackpot. Yeah, my girls can be brats but they aren’t horrible. Never have they hurt me when I collect the eggs. And usually, it only takes a week or so of pulling one off the nest two times a day to break her of that broodiness.

In Spring of 2022 my girl Margaret decided to go broody. I don’t know what hit me but I decided to let her just go for it. I let her lay on her eggs for a few days in the coop. We were all good until she started stealing eggs from the other nesting boxes. So I moved her into the garage in her own nesting box on eggs. Unfortunately only one of the eggs were viable. We came home from mowing a friend's house one afternoon to find a tiny little chick peeking out from Margaret's feathers.  We decided to name her Baby Blake as we didn't know her sex yet.  She/He/It would either be named after Colonel Blake on MASH or one of my favorite actresses Blake Lively.  Side note- after months of keeping us guessing, Baby Blake turned out to be a beautiful hen.  Due to Blake being an only child, I went to Orschelns and picked up two chicks to be with her.  All attempts to put them under Mama Margaret were unsuccessful. So I made the hard decision to separate Margie from Baby Blake and put her back in the barn so the three chicks could grow up together.  While Margie was with Blake she was a fantastic mom. It was a lot of fun watching her teach the chick how to peck and scratch. We really aren't sure Blake's lineage except her daddy is definitely Hawkeye.  She doesn't have the personality of a Speckled Sussex at all.  She is very quiet, skittish, and not at all a fan of me.  

 

In my world when you lose a chicken  you buy at least one or two more. So after losing a hen in the Fall of 2022 we contacted our ‘chicken dealer’ in Moberly and got another Speckled Sussex. We call her Amelia from Grey’s Anatomy. She was about 8 months old when we got her and she absolutely hated me. But once she got used to me, well that’s all she wrote. Like the other speckled girls in my pack, she has been a curious, sweet, loving hen. 

We have lost one of our beautiful SS to pendulous crop disorder- our poor Sadie 'Squishy' Sue- but the others are going strong. They are great layers, albeit broody girls. They are my most inquisitive, sweetest, cuddliest hens. They are the first girls to meet me at the gate every morning and evening and underneath my feet the entire time I’m in the barn. This breed quickly became my #1 breed and probably will stay in that spot. Here are a few facts about the Speckled Sussex:

• Speckled Sussex originated in England. 
• They are a dual purpose bird, meaning they can be used for meat or eggs.
• They lay medium size light to medium light brown eggs.
• Speckled Sussex lay between 200-240 eggs a year.
• Speckled Sussex are actually a color variant of the Sussex Breed which white, silver, buff, speckled, red, light, and brown. 
• Speckled Sussex do well in both MO heat and cold.

So Team Speckled Sussex for this girl.  All the way.