What the chicks of a Speckled Sussex and a Welsummer look like and lay, worked out from both breeds' standards.
A Speckled Sussex hen crossed with a Welsummer rooster gives you what keepers call a first-generation (F1) cross. The pullets should lay brown eggs: there is no blue gene in this cross. Every chick gets a single comb. Expect a medium bird, a good layer, hand-tame, the average of the two parents.
Preset to a Speckled Sussex hen and a Welsummer rooster. Change either side to see how the blue gene and the brown coat move the shell colour.
He never lays, so his blue gene is read from his mother's eggs.
Too uncertain to call: 0–100% blue-based (Green if it is, otherwise Cream/tinted). Add lineage to narrow it.
Brown shade shifts with a hen's age, diet and stress, so identical genes still lay a little differently. Speckling and bloom are cosmetic and not modelled.
| Trait | Speckled Sussex hen | Welsummer rooster | Chicks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comb type | Single | Single | Single |
| Barring | Not barred | Not barred | Not barred |
| Fibromelanosis | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| Skin color | White | Yellow | White 50% · Yellow 50%yellow depends on a hidden carrier, so it could be 0%; a hatch or a known genotype can confirm (uncertain) |
| Feather pattern | Mottled | Partridge | varies: polygenic, parents differ |
| Leg color | White | Yellow | varies: polygenic, parents differ |
| Trait | Speckled Sussex | Welsummer | Chicks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frame height | medium | medium | medium |
| Egg production | good layer | good layer | good layer |
| Broodiness | sometimes broody | rarely broody | sometimes broody |
| Docility | hand-tame | calm | hand-tame |
| Bone density | medium | medium | medium |
| Foraging skill | good forager | excellent forager | excellent forager |
| Cold hardiness | cold-hardy | cold-hardy | cold-hardy |
Chicks land near the average of the two parents for these traits. Reaching one parent's extreme takes another generation of selection.
This is the breed-standard version. Add your flock, set a breeding goal, and the pairing engine ranks every hen and rooster you own against it. Free for up to 15 birds.
Checked September 2026. Hybrids and breeds no reference covers are marked approximate. Egg colour on these pages follows one rule: Brown is any shade a buyer would call brown; Cream/tinted is off-white.