B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[RedBugPoultry]

I have another question to interject here -- People are saying they cull for feet to start with. In my red Dorkings I am seeing some with their 4th toe(between the 5th and third) missing the toe nail. On these birds the 4th toe is not real well developed(shorter) but I am also seeing that these birds are shorter legged, and longer and bigger breasted--they look like they are the ones with the best body type. Now I am only seeing this in the hens for my birds and on my darker reds. So if I want to use these birds to maintain body type would not putting them with my best males, with well defined 4th toes at least give me some good birds? Body type first right? All still have the 4th toe just not well defined. Now I have some birds with pretty nice defined feet but they are looking long in the leg and short in the body. I guess I am asking what people are finding from breeding a bird with not real defined toes....

 

[ki4got]

I have another question to interject here -- People are saying they cull for feet to start with. In my red Dorkings I am seeing some with their 4th toe(between the 5th and third) missing the toe nail. On these birds the 4th toe is not real well developed(shorter) but I am also seeing that these birds are shorter legged, and longer and bigger breasted--they look like they are the ones with the best body type. Now I am only seeing this in the hens for my birds and on my darker reds. So if I want to use these birds to maintain body type would not putting them with my best males, with well defined 4th toes at least give me some good birds? Body type first right? All still have the 4th toe just not well defined. Now I have some birds with pretty nice defined feet but they are looking long in the leg and short in the body. I guess I am asking what people are finding from breeding a bird with not real defined toes....

choose your breeders based on type and size FIRST! then if you have too many birds and need to thin a bit, then you can choose by foot conformation.

and look at a 'regular' chicken's 4th toe. there isn't all that much going on. so as long as there's at least a toe there, run with it.

as for missing toenails, that seems to be inherited. i have a couple cochins missing a toenail here and there, but for the most part their chicks are fine (one now and then, but i don't count a missing toenail as a serious fault if everything else is good). and yes, breeding a good roo with better feet will usually improve the offspring.

size and type are the hard parts to get. fixing foot issues will come with time and hatching lots of chicks so you have plenty to pick thru.

 

[RedBugPoultry]

choose your breeders based on type and size FIRST! then if you have too many birds and need to thin a bit, then you can choose by foot conformation.

and look at a 'regular' chicken's 4th toe. there isn't all that much going on. so as long as there's at least a toe there, run with it.

as for missing toenails, that seems to be inherited. i have a couple cochins missing a toenail here and there, but for the most part their chicks are fine (one now and then, but i don't count a missing toenail as a serious fault if everything else is good). and yes, breeding a good roo with better feet will usually improve the offspring.

size and type are the hard parts to get. fixing foot issues will come with time and hatching lots of chicks so you have plenty to pick thru.

Thank you for your help and time on this! I do wish I had better roos but maybe with time....

 

[capayvalleychick]

McMurray must send their best stock to the East, judging by the nice pics posted by dorkings and ki4got!

I ordered SGDs from them earlier this year. Most died either on the way or within a day. Their replacement chicks also died en route. I ended up with 5 surviving cockerels. I've been watching them grow out.

I feel like I'm making some progress with my strain, in the females, but the males are much more of a challenge. I need improvement with everything but especially length & size to improve their overall type.

I started out with McM birds, years ago. I made the mistake of mixing in every strain that I could find. Phil Bartz calls it "hodge podgegenetics".

So this year, I decided to stick with my own strain and just work on improving what I've got. Except the cockerels just never seem to get any better. I made the order from McMurray, hoping it would be ok, since my original birds were from there. I'll use these in one breeding group. My other breeding group will be completely birds from my own strain. A third group will use a concept that I read about from Bob Blosl. The cock in this group is from a friend who bought SGDs from me, years ago. They are the same lines as my birds, but they've been raised in a different area and her selection was different than mine. This is supposed to be a way of improving vigor without mixing strains. We'll see. That male had good size but lacks the length and improvements to type that I need in the males.

Back to my current group of McM cockerels... I've been studying them with high hopes that one would have some traits that I need. One cockerel looked to have a better length of back. Unfortunately his back still narrows as it meets the tail, something else I need to improve. His tailset was definitely lower, something I need. In the grow out pen, he looked pretty good, so I was feeling positive about him. I pulled him out and decided to let him grow some more out in the pasture coop, where he won't have competition from the other more dominant males.

I took pictures of him, yesterday. He's 25 weeks old. When I looked at the photos, I was really disappointed. He doesn't look as long in the back, as when I was comparing him to the other cockerels in the bachelor pen. He's still the best of the McM group, just not as good as I thought.

I really needed to vent, I guess. I think about my birds every day and progress is so slow. My husband thinks it's nuts. My friends don't even like chickens. Hence my rambling on a Saturday morning. Here are pics of the McMurray cockerel:




Kim

 

[Rockashelle]

Kim,

I'm in the same shoes! No friends with chickens and my family thinks I'm nuts! I have a hodge podge too and know it will be years before they are where I want them. Just thought I would let you know... I understand!

Until then, I will enjoy what I have, study them, & eat well! (this, the family understands)

Hang in there!

Amy

 

[capayvalleychick]

Thanks Amy. Best wishes to you, also.

Kim

 

[ki4got]

McMurray must send their best stock to the East, judging by the nice pics posted by dorkings and ki4got!

I ordered SGDs from them earlier this year. Most died either on the way or within a day. Their replacement chicks also died en route. I ended up with 5 surviving cockerels. I've been watching them grow out.

I feel like I'm making some progress with my strain, in the females, but the males are much more of a challenge. I need improvement with everything but especially length & size to improve their overall type.

I started out with McM birds, years ago. I made the mistake of mixing in every strain that I could find. Phil Bartz calls it "hodge podgegenetics".

So this year, I decided to stick with my own strain and just work on improving what I've got. Except the cockerels just never seem to get any better. I made the order from McMurray, hoping it would be ok, since my original birds were from there. I'll use these in one breeding group. My other breeding group will be completely birds from my own strain. A third group will use a concept that I read about from Bob Blosl. The cock in this group is from a friend who bought SGDs from me, years ago. They are the same lines as my birds, but they've been raised in a different area and her selection was different than mine. This is supposed to be a way of improving vigor without mixing strains. We'll see. That male had good size but lacks the length and improvements to type that I need in the males.

Back to my current group of McM cockerels... I've been studying them with high hopes that one would have some traits that I need. One cockerel looked to have a better length of back. Unfortunately his back still narrows as it meets the tail, something else I need to improve. His tailset was definitely lower, something I need. In the grow out pen, he looked pretty good, so I was feeling positive about him. I pulled him out and decided to let him grow some more out in the pasture coop, where he won't have competition from the other more dominant males.

I took pictures of him, yesterday. He's 25 weeks old. When I looked at the photos, I was really disappointed. He doesn't look as long in the back, as when I was comparing him to the other cockerels in the bachelor pen. He's still the best of the McM group, just not as good as I thought.

I really needed to vent, I guess. I think about my birds every day and progress is so slow. My husband thinks it's nuts. My friends don't even like chickens. Hence my rambling on a Saturday morning. Here are pics of the McMurray cockerel:




Kim

I tend to think i just got lucky Kim... I can't take credit for breeding my big guy or his girls, or any of the other girls (offspring of the trio) i've kept so far really, since they were the only dorkings available. no choices involved there. but now comes the challenge - to see if i kept back the best birds to use for breeding from now on. and i agree, it seems to be much easier to get good pullets/hens, it's the cockerels that are the challenge.

i've sold WAY more cockerels than i've kept, to the 'rooster man' at our local swaps. he'll give $5 ea. for any/all roosters you want to sell, fatten them up a week or 2 and put them in the freezer. and at this point it's worth it for me to sell a 3-4 month old cockerel for $5, than to feed him for another month or 2 and put him in the freezer myself.

I want to use Junior (only cockerel kept from the original trio), but he's being lazy or something, and doesn't show any interest in the girls much. so for now he can remain a free range roo and get some more growing in before i try to rely on him again... he'll be a year old early december, and if i remember, the big guy didn't have it 'all together' much until he was near a year also...

so I'll be putting 4 - 5 girls back in the pen soon, with the big guy, and hatching everything i can from them. and once my red sandhill pullets start laying then i'll put them with my craig russell red roo too. he's a bit 'off' IMO, body could be a tad longer and less upright, but he's still fully recognizable as a dorking. and again, he's what's available.

I do have to say though, i had plenty of chicks to pick from to get the 3 reds i did keep. so in another month or 2 I should be able to start hatching some reds and see where we go from there. I'm still bummed that i lost all of my 'rudy chicks'... I think that would have helped my plan a lot more than craig's guy, but for now i'll just keep chugging along and hope that maybe someone will have a decent red cockerel they're willing to part with down the road. (if you do, PM me).

 

[blessedacre]

HELP Needed

Went out to coop today and one of my 7 month old buffs was pale and standing in the corner, noticed a puddle of liquidy stuff with blood in it, I also found several other bloody poo piles ( I have removed them from the area) I seperated her and began my research.
I live in florida and we have had RAIN EVERY Day for about a month now. my coop is on a hill and drains off well. I did not use medicated feed and still don't. After reasearch I think it might be coccidiosis, although my dorkings are 10 wks old I would have thought they would have been the ones to get it first. I am treating with Corid, have seperated her from the flock

she is :
1. not eating or drinking.
2. she will get up and walk around every now and then
3. Her eyes are very clear
4. giving corid water by dropper and she takes it little bits at a time.
5. her boul movements do have alot of blood and are very liquidy.
6. She laid an egg this morning but it is VERY pale in color compared to what is normally laid. No blood on the egg.

Of course I am guessing that the pale one come from her but we have never had one that color. Egg production has not dropped at all, and I read that is a sign of cocci. I have only 6 egg layers and I get 5-6 eggs every day!!

The other birds are doing fine, eating and drinking (for now!!).

One more thing...... about a week ago I had another buff with what I thought/think is fowl pox. I wasn't suprised with all the rain and I live in florida. I chose not to vaccinate and I believe it is/was the dry pox not the wet. I did however begin to put a vitamin and electrolyte mix in the water to boost health and fight possible secondary infections in the sores. No other chickens broke out and she never really got any worse and I applied a salve to the sores and she still has just a few sores but never got as bad as the pics I have seen posted. I include all this because I have been told that coccideiosis feeds on Vit B and that while trying to boost their immune I might have given the coccidiosis the oppurtunity it needed. Anyone know if this is true? I have checked the mouth of the bloody stool chicken for signs of wet pox and all is clear.

I have stopped the vit and electolyte mix and

Question:
1. could this be any thing else? or do you agree with the coccidiosis diagnosis?
2. should I be doing something else?

Thank yall so much for any feed back
Blessings
Lisa

 

[capayvalleychick]

Lisa, I don't have any experience with this to help you. Post on the Emergencies/Diseases section or ask on the old timer's thread Chickens for 10-20 Years or More. Hopefully someone will have some helpful advice.
Sorry!
Kim

 

[Kibi78704]

A bit off topic, but someone on the Facebook Ameraucana Chickens group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/65816532358/) posted a picture of an EE pullet that looks to my uneducated eye like a blue silver, maybe a lavender silver, but somehow very unlike the SG Dorking pattern. Until I noticed the rosy breast, it looked like a lavender to me.

Anyone heard of any of these before? What would cause this phenotype? The genetics that my uneducated brain is imagining are twisting my head.

I'm using black patterned silver duckwing on the chicken calculator (http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html) to look at crosses to see how one might breed a similar genotype. (Not that I would; my curiosity is peaked, though.) BTW - are SGs the same as black patterned silver duckwings? If not, specifically how not?

Ignoring the slight lacing...

What would you call a silver with the dilution gene? (Blbl+) A blue silver? A silver blue? A blue patterned silver duckwing? Something else entirely?
How about a silver with lavender/self-blue genes? (lavlav) Silver lavender? A lavender silver? A lavender patterned silver duckwing?
If it had both blue (Blbl+) and lavender (lavlav) genes, would it be almost white, e.g. pearl? Or does the lavender override the blue?

What would a splash (lavlav) or splash? (Lav+lav) silver duckwing look like? Would it be all white with black /blue/lavender splashes? If it were a split lavender silver (Lav+lav), would the black be diluted at all? Or would it be a splash all over? Or just where a black patterned silver duckwing is black?