Sussex

Descendants of the ancient fowl brought to England by Roman invaders, the Sussex chicken emerged as a distinct breed in Sussex County, England almost two hundred years ago. The breed became standardized in 1903.  They are a dual-purpose breed; prolific egg layers and a fine meat bird. Sussex hens lay upwards of 250 large, off-white colored eggs each year. With their pearlescent legs, these huge birds have a striking and regal appearance in the barnyard. Their behavior, too, is remarkable. More than any chicken breed we’ve seen, Sussex exude a quiet confidence and an open curiosity about humans. Even as chicks, while other breeds scramble to be distant from their human caretakers, Sussex actually approach humans with a frank inquisitiveness that is as endearing as it is unusual.

There are eight color varieties of Sussex, several of which are not found in America. Prior to 2007, four color varieties were represented here:  light, red, speckled, and buff. But, in the summer of that year, Greenfire Farms imported new Sussex bloodlines from championship stock in Australia. (Imports have been banned from England because of avian flu in that country.) These birds included two new Sussex varieties that may have never existed in America:  silver Sussex and the subtly beautiful coronation Sussex.  Videos of our Sussex are posted on our blog.  The photos don't really capture the size of these birds.  You will be amazed when you see them for the first time.

Silver Sussex look like a bird designed by Jackson Pollock during his black and silver period. With wild splashes of silver and white over their large black bodies, with their bright red combs they leave a lasting visual impression. 

Coronation Sussex were bred in to honor the reign of King George—one of the King Georges, anyway—and have a simple, classic beauty that in their own way is every bit as impressive as the wildly abstract beauty of the silvers.  With a lilac mane and bright white bodies, the coronation Sussex look as if they were formed in a porcelain mould. It’s our goal to use these birds as the seed stock to help establish Sussex as an important element of small farm poultry operations in the United States.    

We also breed the strikingly elegant light Sussex and the buff Sussex.  These, too, are huge birds and tend to be larger than the bloodlines that already existed in this country. 

How rare are these varieties of Sussex in the United States?  Light Sussex were legally imported from England a number of years ago, and it's our understanding that before we imported there were already two bloodlines in America.  We also understand that buff Sussex had been smuggled in from Canada, and there are buffs now available from other sources in this country.  We've heard rumors that coronations were in America --allegedly in Colorado and Georgia-- but we've never seen any evidence to support those claims and we doubt they were true.  And, we've never even heard rumors that silvers were in this country.  So, at this point, to the best of our knowledge the only original imports of coronations and silvers are from Greenfire Farms.  If you have information about other bloodlines of these birds already existing in America, we'd love to hear about them.