The Dorking Breeders thread

[ki4got]

Since that's a dominant gene can I breed it out? Is it sex linked?

yes, easily... if you breed to non-melanized, you'll get about 50/50, if you breed the 2 together you'll get about 25% non-melanized, 25% heavily and the other 50% like mom & pop... (if you get heavily melanized, I might want some...)

 

[Chestnut]

yes, easily... if you breed to non-melanized, you'll get about 50/50, if you breed the 2 together you'll get about 25% non-melanized, 25% heavily and the other 50% like mom & pop... (if you get heavily melanized, I might want some...)

Yes, but would it just be a hidden allele or can it be removed entirely? Sounds like it would be a hidden trait waiting to pop up later if the combination is right.

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
dominant traits can't hide... it's either there or it isn't.

 

[Chestnut]

dominant traits can't hide...  it's either there or it isn't.

Oh yeah. Duh. I guess that means the hens would have to be heterozygos. I thought when I picked them up you only had red and SGD?

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
I have red, sg and colored. but I thought I marked all my colored at hatch, it appears I missed a few as a couple of my silver grey boys are apparently colored also. LOL they didn't get the melanizing since they're not out of that one hen, I had another oddly colored dorking "tannish" in that pen also. it appears she had a hand in these boys.

This is one of the colored boys out of tannish and goldy (the colored rooster)




pic of tannish and blitz together


and the other colored boy, out of Blitz.

 

[AnthNDacula]

Hi Everyone,

I'm an experienced farmer in Georgia but all my work has been with pork and beef. As I get older (51 now) I'm thinking about ways to keep farming that isn't quite as physically daunting... I'm nursing a big, pig bite on my leg at the moment to add to my collection of livestock battle scars.

and would love to work with animals a little smaller than 500 pounds. I had a few Coloured Dorkings many years ago that were wonderful chickens but am interested in attempting a capon project with White Dorkings. I'm looking to meet people with breeding stock and hopefully some experience they are willing to share. I've found a local slaughter house willing to work with me and am beginning to build my infrastructure. I'd like to start this coming spring with one to three lines of standard bred birds. Ideally I'd get 25 day old chicks of each line to cull from and begin to see what I could expect to have for sale next Christmas. I've watched the online discussions long enough to know that may be difficult to find, but I'm able to be flexible and work with everything from hatching eggs to adult breeding stock. If you plan on having White Dorkings available in the spring please introduce yourself.

Happy Grazing,
Anthony

 

[Dirt Farmer]

Hi Everyone,

I'm an experienced farmer in Georgia but all my work has been with pork and beef. As I get older (51 now) I'm thinking about ways to keep farming that isn't quite as physically daunting... I'm nursing a big, pig bite on my leg at the moment to add to my collection of livestock battle scars.

and would love to work with animals a little smaller than 500 pounds. I had a few Coloured Dorkings many years ago that were wonderful chickens but am interested in attempting a capon project with White Dorkings. I'm looking to meet people with breeding stock and hopefully some experience they are willing to share. I've found a local slaughter house willing to work with me and am beginning to build my infrastructure. I'd like to start this coming spring with one to three lines of standard bred birds. Ideally I'd get 25 day old chicks of each line to cull from and begin to see what I could expect to have for sale next Christmas. I've watched the online discussions long enough to know that may be difficult to find, but I'm able to be flexible and work with everything from hatching eggs to adult breeding stock. If you plan on having White Dorkings available in the spring please introduce yourself.

Happy Grazing,
Anthony

This is the only place I know of currently where you can get White Dorking in any numbers. I brought Rocks from him in 2012 and they were very good. http://www.xwpoultryranch.com/

 

[Dirt Farmer]

This is the only place I know of currently where you can get White Dorking in any numbers. I brought Rocks from him in 2012 and they were very good. http://www.xwpoultryranch.com/

And welcome to BYC.

 

[ki4got]

Hi Everyone,

I'm an experienced farmer in Georgia but all my work has been with pork and beef. As I get older (51 now) I'm thinking about ways to keep farming that isn't quite as physically daunting... I'm nursing a big, pig bite on my leg at the moment to add to my collection of livestock battle scars.

and would love to work with animals a little smaller than 500 pounds. I had a few Coloured Dorkings many years ago that were wonderful chickens but am interested in attempting a capon project with White Dorkings. I'm looking to meet people with breeding stock and hopefully some experience they are willing to share. I've found a local slaughter house willing to work with me and am beginning to build my infrastructure. I'd like to start this coming spring with one to three lines of standard bred birds. Ideally I'd get 25 day old chicks of each line to cull from and begin to see what I could expect to have for sale next Christmas. I've watched the online discussions long enough to know that may be difficult to find, but I'm able to be flexible and work with everything from hatching eggs to adult breeding stock. If you plan on having White Dorkings available in the spring please introduce yourself.

Happy Grazing,
Anthony

the primary problem is, there aren't many breeders of the white out there, and I'm not sure they would be able to provide those kinds of numbers. when Joe (Yellow House Farm) was selling, me might have, and he would have been my first go-to person for the variety, but last I heard he wasn't selling any more. you might contact him tho and see. a couple other people had gotten whites from his lines as well, I believe.
Good Luck! (I have silver greys and reds)

 

[Sydney Acres]

Hi Everyone,

I'm an experienced farmer in Georgia but all my work has been with pork and beef. As I get older (51 now) I'm thinking about ways to keep farming that isn't quite as physically daunting... I'm nursing a big, pig bite on my leg at the moment to add to my collection of livestock battle scars.

and would love to work with animals a little smaller than 500 pounds. I had a few Coloured Dorkings many years ago that were wonderful chickens but am interested in attempting a capon project with White Dorkings. I'm looking to meet people with breeding stock and hopefully some experience they are willing to share. I've found a local slaughter house willing to work with me and am beginning to build my infrastructure. I'd like to start this coming spring with one to three lines of standard bred birds. Ideally I'd get 25 day old chicks of each line to cull from and begin to see what I could expect to have for sale next Christmas. I've watched the online discussions long enough to know that may be difficult to find, but I'm able to be flexible and work with everything from hatching eggs to adult breeding stock. If you plan on having White Dorkings available in the spring please introduce yourself.

Happy Grazing,
Anthony

Have you considered their extremely slow growth rate? Dorkings are excellent meat birds, but when you consider the extremely slow growth rate and the feed conversion ratio over that long growth period, I wouldn't think that Dorkings would be profitable from a business standpoint. But maybe as capons they will grow fast enough for profitability. If you do this, please keep weight records and let us know their weight curves, whether it ends up being profitable or not.