Speckled Sussex and Golden Comets
This week, our first 25 chickens became a year old. This means the 24 females are now hens, as opposed to pullets, and the lone male is officially a rooster. All are doing very well. The hens began laying in August and have provided us and many friends and family with a bountiful 2,993 delicious eggs to date.
Kurt, the rooster, and a few of his hens have also provided 5 offspring. We have an additional 4 Easter Egg pullets and 1 Cockerel and a younger mixed-breed chick, now 4 weeks old (see previous post).
Of course, chicken keeping is addictive and I couldn’t let a new spring roll around without a few additions to the flock. This week six Speckled Sussex and six Golden Comet chicks joined the others.
Speckled Sussex chickens are an old, English breed and are noted for their beautiful plumage. Dark mahogany feathers are specked with white tips, making them look as if they’d been spattered with paint. I look forward to watching them mature.
The Golden Comets are a hybrid bird made of a New Hampshire Red rooster crossed with a White Leghorn hen. They are supposed to be a very friendly and docile chicken and are considered great layers of large brown eggs. Comets are what’s known as “sexed link” chickens, meaning the baby males and females can be easily identified by color; male chicks are white, females buff or golden. This guarantees there are no little cockerels in the bunch.
