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For over a thousand years Sussex,
Surrey and Kent fowl were well known to farmers and the public as the
best of birds. Eventually two distinct strains evolved the five toed
Dorking and the four toed Sussex. For the table the heavier Dorking was
the supreme bird and the Sussex the dual purpouse champion.
Unfortunately the Dorking was ruined by bad breeding to produce a stumpy
horizontal type bird that is useless for anything but show. The Sussex
was luckier and became the basis of the Sussex fowl and Surrey capons
that were raised in the two counties and sent to London by their
thousands where they fetched premium prices. In the 1870's one carrier
alone was sending over 200 tonnes of chicken by rail from Hailsham
to London. This trade eventually ceased in WW2 due to lack of feed for
the chickens and was not restarted as most of the expertise had gone by
the time adequate cereal supplies were available again. The birds were
mainly produced by small farms and cottagers but almost all by the same
system. The birds were fed a special diet for the first five weeks then
put to pasture with cereals. At about 16-20 weeks they were then
transfered to cages for finishing again on a special diet.
Whilst researching this it became obvious that
this system and the diet were the same as that used on the famous Bresse
chicken. Liking a challenge we decided to resurrect the Sussex chicken
with as similar a system as possible. There are a few differences being
mainly that we would not cage the birds but yard them instead and we
wont force feed which a lot of birds were.
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in that the Sussex had by this time become a minor breed at the
mercy of breeders who would rather have good markings than eggs or
meat. Most of the old breeders used the Speckled Sussex which was
the original Sussex based on the farmyard birds from Sussex and
Kent. The only real survivor of the Sussex breed is the Light which
is a later introduction using Brahma genes to give it its black
feathering. The British never cease
to amaze in that no other nation would let such a good bird degrade
like we do. The French have made the Bresse a national institution
with AOC protection since the 1950's. Fortunately for us the French
also quietly recognise greatness in other nations assets and one
breeder there had kept a pool of Sussex genes which we have tapped
into. So using French and English genes we are once again producing
very high quality and very different birds.
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1930's Light Sussex cock |
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We produce over
90% of the diet on farm based on oats, wheat and beans and the birds
never leave the farm with our own abbatoir and processing
facilities. Each one will be individually marked to ensure 100%
traceability and complete provenance. We will be producing limited
number of these birds on a first come first served basis and will be
available Sussex style or oven ready. Please enquire for pricing.
01342893967 |
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