B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[X2Farm]

My eggs from Mr Hart started hatching last night!!! One WD chick upon inspection this mornin, and a Colored chick hatched an hour ago. I hope the rest of them hatch out

The eggs did very well considering the scorching heat they were shipped in.

 

[Oldhound]

I think they need to be breed with egg laying in mind. I would guess they used to lay better than the ones we have today. I couldn't imagine the old time farmers having much patience with chickens that don't lay. I gave mine to a local school who is working on the breed but my girls were excellent winter layers and layed up until May then stopped. With selective breeding, I think we could improve that significantly.

I say this but as I continue to play in the rare heritage breeds, and we discuss improving the breed for show quality, I've begun to wonder more and more if we shouldn't work on utility first then toward the perfect look later. By utility, I mean egg laying, difficulty laying (vent health), and other such things. When we get those up to par then look at coloration, comb size etc and so on...

Just my thoughts...

Dave




I could not agree more. The Heritage Utility Breeds were bred to be useful not to be ornaments.

Bill

 

[TOL Chick]

Quote:
Hear hear! Totally agree! I've been in Arabian Horses for 25+ years, and I am tired of horses that can win a halter class, that you could not ride thru the woods on a trail ride or enjoy having in your backyard.

I am of the SAME mind set with the Dorkings. They need to be useful and hardy - PERIOD. I love the pretty colors, and the standards give us something to shoot for - but please remember - a blue ribbon is what one person (or persons) think of your horse, bird, etc. on a given day

ENJOY your Dorkings! If they are not your companions and friends, what is the point? My guys follow me around in the yard, "help" in the garden, and come when they are called - that is worth a 1000 blue ribbons to me

Just my 2 cents, now I'll be quiet

 

[Urbanfarmerkc]

In a perfect world, we could divide a breed amongst a series of breeders. One breeder would focus on egg laying, one on body shape, one on visual aspects and one to put them all together. Actually in a perfect world we would have several breeders doing the same thing and then them combining the results into the perfect birds...

I wish sometimes we lived more like when I was a kid and everyone around had chickens. It would have been easy then. It is much harder when we are spread out all over the world.

Anyway, I would be game to join a group that wanted to coop our efforts in what I mentioned above. I think it would be at least a 5 year commitment and then the ladder person the "putting them together" person would have to be committed for another few years after that. What we'd come up with in the end would be some pretty awesome birds. Anyone have thoughts on this?

Dave

 

[TOL Chick]

Quote:
Dave - Linds and I are setting ourselves up to do just that. Happy to work with you on it

 

[Mrs MIA]

Cracked open a dorking egg for breakfast yesterday, and to my surprise, it looks fertile!!

After an entire year of infertile eggs, now that the incubator is officially turned off for the season, they're fertile.

(I'm going to throw a couple in anyway, just to see....

) I REALLY want chicks from Junior!!

 

[capayvalleychick]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

Cracked open a dorking egg for breakfast yesterday, and to my surprise, it looks fertile!!

After an entire year of infertile eggs, now that the incubator is officially turned off for the season, they're fertile.

(I'm going to throw a couple in anyway, just to see....

) I REALLY want chicks from Junior!!

I wish you luck!

Kim​

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Greetings! Breeding for vigor, productivity, as well as to the Standard should all be possible. What it comes down to is numbers. In order to take a breed to the limit, especially a rare breed, it is necessary to hatch in numbers in order to insure a broad base of selection.

For better or for worse, the only way is focus and discipline. If you look at all of the primary show-stoppers and production staples--White Runners, Barred and White Rocks, Brown and White Leghorns, Buff Orpingtons, Black Autralorps, Pekins, RI Reds, etc... they all have in common that they have been bred exclusively and continuosly by breeders and farmers for whom they are the signature. If one wishes to have half a dozen breeds, or even varieties of one breed, one will have nothing in comparison to that which is to be had by those who narrow their scope and go deep as opposed to shallow.

I don't think that people always like to hear this. I know that when I began to breed poultry again, I didn't want it to be true. Nevertheless, it is, and the experience of generations of breeders emphasize this. It is a numbers game. If you can only hatch fifty to a hundred chicks, and you want to have top quality stock, you need to restrict your efforts to one breed and variety, or you will not arrive at your goal.

I know that at first it sounds circumscribing--how could I possibly live with only one breed (!!!), but, when you're focused on one breed per, say, 100 chicks hatched, you are then free to cull with profligacy. Picture it: you need five cockerels for the following breeding season. Of your 100 to 150 chicks hatched you have 50 to 75 cockerels. You only need five. You go through your cockerel pen and get rid of 30 males in an afternoon because they're too small, and you still have dozens to choose from. Furthermore, for those thinking you don't have the space, you don't have to raise them all to adulthood, when you have many cockerels, you can start to cull significantly at, say, eight weeks--they're great spatchcocked--12 weeks is even better if you have the space to wait.

If you only want to raise fifty chicks a year, but you need three breeds, you'll always only have hatchery stock, and none of the breeds will improve markedly under your care. Consider the Buckeye, about which everyone now raves, a decade ago it was nowhere. Five years of concentrated breeding completely turned it around, an absolute about face. Buckeyes are lucky; they only exist on one color variety. From a certain point of view, Dorkings suffer by being available in too many color varieties such that no one focuses sufficiently.

In their deep history, Dorkings are definitely White and speculatively Red. Around the middle of the 1800's Siver Greys and Coloreds become important. All of these varieties exist historically in both rose and single comb. Early on, the Whites started to lean heavily toward the rose comb. All of the other color varieties--cuckoo, black, dark grey, etc...--are marginal in population and cultural importance, which does not mean that I disrespect them. It is their simple historicity.

The Dorking Standard is written well, indeed, very well. It is written for a productive, meaty, and hardy bird, which is something for which we as Dorking breeders can be grateful, as I don't think this is true of all written Standards.

Think about this for a while, and then consider the stock you have. No matter which variety you choose, it is going to be several years before it's solidly up to the standard. That's OK, but your continued efforts will bear fruit.

Hardiness will come as each generation of your birds is built on your land. Suffer no illness. If a bird shows sign of illness, cull it immediately. You will literally cull sickness out of your flock. Indelible hardiness in a line comes from a standard of culling against which there are no excuses.

Purebred and Standard-bred Dorkings--hardy and productive--are true Dorkings, and little by little we can get them to that point.

Cheers!

 

[Mrs MIA]

Of course, it really helps if you can HATCH chicks...

 

[Yellow House Farm]

When were your breeders hatched? How old are they?