Historie

In 2014 I was in the USA to visit family, friends and to make a trip, so that was for a long period. After visiting family for over a week, we decided to start our trip. (this was not my first time to be in the USA, visit for over 26 years)

During my vacation I got bad news from the home front that my Sussex hen ‘’ChaBoo’’ had passed away. Those things are not nice messages in your vacation.

On the way I was looking on the internet to see if I could get to Sussex again, when I saw a beautiful color variety here in the USA, which I had never seen before in Europe.

So let's see if we could see a breeder, if possible. Asked via a Facebook group "American Poultry", who had this color variety. Few reactions came back tome. After more than a week I finally got in touch with a breeder, he was a member of a special Sussex association, only this breeder was 15 hours away from us.

We had just passed Elk City, Oklahoma. The breeder was willing to help me with brood eggs. We changed our route to the region of the breeder, we literally turned around, to look and if necessary to take hatching eggs of this color with me.

Of course we had been delayed by roadworks. Which is normal in the USA by the way. With a trip of 15 hours and a 5 hour delay, we finally arrived at the hotel, at a reasonable distance from the breeder. At the hotel I tried to reach the breeder by phone, but couldn't get in touch with him. After some hard searching on the internet, I was able to find the address. The next day we just drove there to meet the breeder of these Sussex birds

His wife was on a mower and asked us what we came to do at their property, she didn't seem to be very friendly but when I told her that we were from the Netherlands and that her husband knew about the appointment, the not so friendly lady, become friendly ;-) and all was ok.

After some catching up, we went to see the Sussex chickens. The breeder took a big bucket of food with him and told us to wait at the big gate.

He walked to the stable a little bit further, he opened the stable doors. I don't know how many chickens came out of that stable, but the Sussex chickens followed the breeder. I estimated that about 50 chickens was following him, it could have been more.

It gave me such a great impression on the spot, I spontaneously fell in love with this breed, with this beautiful Lavender color.

Then we walked up a small mountain, where the breeder still had an old smaller house, where he had his breeding birds. These were the adults, they were so beautiful to me! I noticed that these Sussex birds were much larger than my Chaboo. But that didn't matter to me at all, I was already in love anyway.

It was quite pleasant there, but gradually it was time that we had to move on, because the return trip to the north took at least another 24 hours.

The hatching eggs were placed in a cool box between the front seats. We had already bought some ice cubes and water bottles, so that the hatching eggs could put on here to keep them cool. The trip went right back to the family in northern Michigan. It is always busy around the big cities, especially in Detroit.

Once back at our destination, I confiscated the fridge in the garage ;-) to keep the hatching eggs cool. Everything what was necessary has been done to get those eggs home to The Netherlands. Safe and sound. Bought 2 thermos flasks from Wal-Mart and some foam. I wrapped each egg with in foam and to put about 5 eggs in each thermos flasks.

Then I put thermos flasks in the middle of my suitcase, with a lot of clothes around it. Of course I left a message in the thermos flasks, in case they were opened. We had a nice and safe flight back to the Netherlands. When the suitcases were in the car, the first thing I did was get the thermos out of my suitcase so I could supervise the eggs

When I got home I let the thermos flasks rest for hours, then slowly I opened the thermos flasks, little by little. In the evening I could take out the hatching eggs. Everything looked fine, not broken or torned. So we set to work in good spirits. The hatching eggs had to rest for another 24 hours before they were put into the incubator. Soon I found out that it was going completely wrong. After-wards it turned out that the breeder did not collect his eggs every day. These had already started at his place, unsuccessful action, which is very unfortunate. Often other people-/breeders do not even realize that a lot of effort and time has been invested in bringing the hatching eggs with them in this way. Then I don't even want to talk about it what it all cost.

After a lot of searching on the internet it turned out that this color variety did not occur in Europe. So my search started again. I posted another message in that same group. But now with the question, who could send me hatching eggs from the Sussex Coronation Lavender based?

Now I got some messages, but the problem was, the long distance and the flight. The shipment took 7 to 10 days, which meant that the eggs had to be shipped very fresh. Collect eggs and ship them the same day, otherwise the journey will take too long to hatch these eggs.

To make a very long story short, there have been in total 9 shipments, non of the hatching eggs did hatched at all. Some breeders don't even know how to pack eggs when they have to go on a long journey. Sure there were some breeders who told the strangest stories why eggs could not be shipped. I think I've had them all in America.

After almost 18 months of searching and asking various breeders, a special person has come into my life. I told her my story over the phone, the conversation took about 4 hours. My wish for this color variety of having the Sussex Coronation Lavender Based from the USA in my backyard was very clear to her after my story.

She could not believe that breeders from her country were so difficult. This touched her deeply, she told me. I'm gonna do it for you, I'm gonna arrange it for you !. In the meantime I already sent her the special shipping box to send the hatching eggs.

September 2015, a few weeks later, she made an appointment with a breeder and collected the hatching eggs. These hatching eggs were fresh and were well packed with foam rubber, then in a styrofoam box. She still had to be driven for a while to drop the box with hatching eggs to the post office. We were able to follow the entire process, from Chicago to the Netherlands.

After 10 days I saw through the FedEx website that the hatching eggs had arrived in the Netherlands, but I had to wait another 24 hours until they were released by customs.

Things like this are very exciting. The next day I received hatching eggs. HOERA !!! They are there !! These hatching eggs looked very good. Now they had to rest for another 24 hours and recover from the journey before they could go into the incubator. A total of 9 hatching eggs were going in. Now we have to wait 10 days if there is anything to see. 6 of the 9 eggs were fertilized. I waited anxiously until the 15th day. On the 15th day, there was enough life to be seen in the eggs. Only 6 days to go.

Then it became the 21st day: The chicks in the eggs didn't really feel like hatching. All appointments I had has been canceled, so I could be right next to the incubator.

The 22nd day had arrived, there was still not much to see on the outside of the hatching eggs. I wanted to know if there was still life in the eggs, very carefully with a stethoscope I could hear sounds in the eggs. They kept the tension going. But in the evening I finally saw some life in the incubator, there were small holes !!

The 23rd day: 5 chicks of the 6 eggs had hatched. In 1 egg there was no more life to be heard, it remained silent. The last chick in that egg has it not made it. I continue with 5 wonderful chicks.
With great joy there were 5 beautiful chicks of the Sussex Coronation Lavender Based, which grew up well.

One chick had some start-up problems, this received some extra care and nutrition. Fortunately, she re-covered. After a week she could be placed with the other chicks, she had even been given a name, Miss Little.

After a few weeks they had already grown quite large and space had to be made in the cabin. We got to work, in a few days a nice place was made for the 5 chicks. They had a good time there.

In Jan 2016. The chicks were now a few months old and continued to grow nicely.

They could walk on the field under supervision. At the be-ginning of an evening I went to have a look at the chicks. One young rooster was unwell and stayed on the floor. After investigation it turned out to have an open wound on its wing. I called the vet and we were able to come immediately. The vet told me that an open wound on the wing is difficult or impossible to heal.
There was always a risk of many complications with an amputation of the wing. There was still consultation with a veterinarian from the University of Animal Medicine in Utrecht, who also told the same story.

We decided to put him to sleep. We drove back home with a young dead rooster in my arms. It is suspected that while spreading the wing, another chick jumped on top of it. This is not surprising due to the weight of the young birds. Now we have to continue with 4 chicks, 2 roosters and 2 hens.

At the end of February 2016, Little was not feeling well and I called for the vet. He gave her medication, but it did not work, it turned out not to work sufficiently. After a few hours her sister also started having problems. Both pullets did not make it, they die. After a few days it be-came clear to me, there has been a wrong estimate by the vet regarding the medication. Because of this, my study also started to treating my chickens by myself.

I didn't want to let this happen again. In retrospect it took me 18 months to get back to where I was at that time.

We had to continue with 2 roosters. I then posted a message on facebook, that I was looking for 3 Sussex Light hens and that they had to be of an age that they were laying. After a few weeks I had the right ladies for my roosters. They had to be large Sussex hens, of good size.

May 2016, The young animals went out through the doorway, while they had a their own walking out door. While changing the water, one of the roosters fell to the surface. I dropped every-thing and ran to the rooster. It began to foam from out of his mouth.

My suspicion was a heart attack. By sitting quietly with him and keeping his airways clean, as best I could, I got him back on his feet again. In the afternoon he just went on as if nothing had happened that morning. However 2 days later, I entered the cabin just a couple minutes to late and he had just passed away.

I had to continue with one rooster, which had now also been given a name, Mr C. (He owes this to the name Coronation Sussex ). In the meantime the 3 new Sussex Light hens had passed the quarantine- period of 8 weeks. They had a number of cures, so I was sure they had no illness. The rooster Mr C was crossed with the Sussex Light hens, the offspring would look like Sussex Light, but they inherit the Lavender color for 50%.

Because 2 different bloodlines were used, which had no relatives with the others, I immediately got 2 new bloodlines. Fertilization was bad, so I had to put around 150 hatching eggs in the incubator, to get only 9 chicks. 4 chicks from the 1st pullet and 5 chicks from the 2nd pullet. Fortunately there were 2 roosters and 7 hens. With this I continued to breed better quality. In total there are now 10 bloodlines. (No more Chickens from outside are needed to continue. I can create my own bloodlines.)

On Nov 21, 2017 I had the last Sussex Coronation Lavender Based rooster (Mr C) from 2015 euthanized,

I treated him for 18 months to get through his life as well as possible. In consultation with a poultry Vet, it has been decided to put an end to his life. An autopsy was done on Mr C, so that I could find out what was actually going on.

Research showed that Mr C had a connective tissue growth on the heart valves, which always left him with a gurgling breath. He also looked at his male organs, because the fertilization was very poor. It turned out that his male organs (testicles) were far too small for such a large rooster. That’s why he had an poor fertilization. Fortunately I was able to breed a few offsprings from him, that I could continue with.

Because there were many setbacks with the Sussex Coronation Lavender Based, my friend Janet from England send me 6 hatching eggs from the Sussex Coronation Blue Based to the Netherlands in 2016 as a surprise. Out of these eggs, i got 3 beautiful chicks that hatched, later it turned out that there was no rooster.

I asked friends in England if they wanted to look for a large Sussex Coronation Blue Based, but above all a good quality rooster and this was not done just like that. I was told, this was going to take months. This is because in England they have a problem with keeping the real big Sussex birds. The other option was to generate one of myself. I could do, to put together the right of a color combination, so that the 3 Sussex Coronation Blue Based ladies got a rooster, with their own color variety.

In 2017 I had 2 Sussex Coronation Blue Based Roosters at my last hatch. One of the roosters was used in 2018 to generate more Sussex Coronation Blue Based birds. So that this new color could go for recognition in the Netherlands. The last option was successful. There is one beautiful rooster left. His name is Mr Daniel.

Now the question was, does this rooster (Mr Daniel) also give me Splash in his offspring. Mr Daniel and his ladies were put in the breeding group for 2018.

The question was, is this combination going to give a splash, it would mean that he really contains the blue genes. I waited anxiously for the chicks that had to hatch. In the beginning you see nothing, only fluffy butts ;-). After 2 weeks the chicks got some colors, White Black, White Blue and White chicks. I expected something different from this splash. The white chicks were later indeed Splash. So that means that Mr Daniel is fully Sussex Coronation Blue Based and created by my own.

The offspring of Mr. Daniel

With the last chicks that I hatched there were also beautiful Sussex Coronation Blue Based birds, I decided to send these birds to the Midden Drenthe Show in Beilen 2018 for recognition.

After more than 3 years of breeding at the Sussex Coronation Lavender Based and the Sussex Coronation Blue Based, the birds are now ready to show the birds to the public for the first time.

Midden Drenthe Show 2018 Sussex Wit Parelgrijs Columbia