by Amy Fletcher

Created on: November 10, 2009

The Sebright Chicken Breed

There are hundreds of breeds of chickens. Some are known for their prolific egg laying. Others are known for their great meat. Some yet are for showing. Sebright's are known and raised for their show qualities.

The Sebright chicken is a British bird. They were developed by crossing a common bantam and a polish fowl by a man named Sir John Sebright, in 1800. Now there are two varieties, the golden and the silver. They are a true bantam breed. There is no corresponding full size variety of this bird. Mr. Sebright was trying to and succeeded in creating a show bird.

They do not lay many eggs, generally only one egg per week. The eggs they lay are very small. In comparison, the prolific egg layer breeds will generally lay one per day. They are also known for strutting around, are very active but friendly. The males are not usually very aggressive. Most who raise this breed will confine them because of their high rate of flight. These bantam birds can be very entertaining and are kept mainly for show, not generally for their meat or egg laying abilities.

The Sebright are a difficult breed to raise. Chicks have a high mortality rate, and the adults are prone to Marek's disease. Marek's disease is a highly contagious, viral neoplastic disease, which is often fatal. Female Sebrights do not generally go broody. This can be good if you are not trying to hatch your own chicks, because they will not want to sit on them. They would rather free range and be busy.

The female generally weighs around 20 ounces and the males around 22 ounces. They aren't very large creatures. But they have beautiful showy feathers. Unlike some bantam breeds they do not have feathers on their feet. The male and the female have identical feathering. When both male and female have the same feathering it is called hen feathered. Their plumage is laced around evenly with black. But they come in silver or gold color.The feet and legs are a blue color. The males comb is a rose in color. Their bodies are angular in shape, and jaunty. The combs, wattles and earlobes are now red in color but started out as purple.

My information came from the following websites.

Www.omelet.us

www.wikipedia.org

www.feathersite.com

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