Well, my Dorking project isn't going quite as I'd expected. I ordered hatching eggs from two separate Silver Gray Dorking (SGD) breeders, one from eBay and one from here on the BYC. The eBay eggs had an awesome 90% hatch rate....but several of the birds have rose combs and white or colored feathers, suggesting they're not pure SGDs. The BYC breeder did a HORRIBLE job packaging the eggs and and several were broken and oozed out over the remaining eggs. Only one of those eggs developed through ten days of incubation with all but four of them failing to even show signs of having been fertilized. So disappointing! So I've got only one SGD hatching from that group.
Here are photos of my first SGD hatch. They're pretty birds...but I've got a lot of work ahead of me.
They are adorable! I've gotten into salmon faverolles. I had really good luck from an ebayer. He packed the eggs in chipped up foam. Like woodchips ... but foam. Out of 13, two were clear and one stopped. I had a few chick deaths because of a respiratory thing and probably just attrition, but I have two pullets that I love. I got 11 (9 girls, 2 boys) from McMurray. I've got a few nice hens, although their wheaten coloring is slightly darker, and one cockerel I really like. I read that Faverolles are from Dorking stock.
I would like a Dorking, perhaps just so I could say it. It would be even better if I could find a Scots Dumpy and say "I have Dorkings and Dumpies."
