Sioux River Sebrights·Thursday, April 30, 2020·
Cloe Swanson has always loved, tamed, rescued and saved ALL animals - but especially loved chickens. When she was about 7, a neighbor had a hen nearly pecked to death - Cloe’s grandma was visiting and saw it laying in a kennel and the neighbor said it was dying...Well, Grandma couldn’t have that so she brought it home to see if Cloe could save it. We
could not even tell what breed it was. She named her “Chicky” and Cloe nurtured her back to health. That bird loved Cloe beyond words. A friend, Amy V., visited one day and told Cloe that Chicky was a perfect Golden Laced Wyandotte, and that Cloe should show her. Knowing nothing about 4H chicken shows - Amy helped Cloe learn everything. Not only did we think Chicky was awesome, the judges did, too, several judges said it was the most perfect example of the breed they had ever seen. Her feathering colors were perfect. To this day, we have never seen a Golden Wyandotte as perfect as Chicky. Cloe began a winning streak of Showmanship with her super tame birds. She even had a pet guinea - who won the county show and Best Game Champion at State Fair. Chicky just passed away in 2019 - she was over TEN years old! Cloe bought a Standard of Perfection book and furthered her love of chickens. She fell in love with pictures of Golden Sebrights so we began looking for them about 2013. The only birds she could find were MILES away and very expensive. Finally - at the South Dakota State Fair in 2017, an older gentleman brought and showed Golden Sebrights! We could not believe it...Cloe tracked him down, and worked out a deal to buy 2 hens and a roo that fall after the fair. They were older birds, but he assured her they were still laying. She nurtured those birds all winter, and learned about incubating, care, etc of chicks and how HARD Sebrights are to raise. Sadly, one morning in the spring, she went out to do chores, and her roo was dead. He was not a young bird, but Cloe was devastated. We got online and begin searching for a roo for sale...NO ONE had any. Finally, a gentleman breeder in Oregon heard Cloe’s story and sold her a roo he had held back for his own breeding. He suggested she buy a young hen as well, since shipping was the same for 1 or 2 birds. She had no choice in the roo, but picked a hen from pictures...It was SO EXCITING the day they arrived by plane then at the post office! After their quarantine, they were introduced to the two older hens and made a happy pen of breeding stock. Cloe’s first chicks hatched that fall. Sebright chicks are TINY. They have no will to live and their main goal once hatched is to die! However - once you get past the first week or two...they are wonderful and quite hardy. She mainly only sells birds to 4H kids to show. Her goal with breeding program is to preserve this breed with quality birds and encourage other young kids to love these birds. Sir John Sebright worked so hard to create and promote this breed. Sebrights are one of the only true bantam with no full size bird counterpart. Roosters are HEN-FEATHERED. Legs are NOT supposed to be long. Wings should be laced evenly and have nice drop. They have rose combs, that should have some sun exposure so they turn a lovely mulberry for showing time...
Sebrights are super personable little birds. They are gentle birds that make great pets. Their curiosity is hilarious. Cloe has had ‘house’ chickens that wear diapers...we can’t say enough about this wonderful breed.
