B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[bethbug74]

Does anyone have experience with how Dorking roos REALLY (like IRL) do with other roosters around? Showgirls are silkie like with their dispositions, and aren't usually to interested in scuffling in general, and so I have also heard about Dorkings. Any RL experiences out there? I am planning on raising my own Paint Showgirl cock, so this boy will have the opportunity to have a long and slow acclimation process with a youngster. Said youngster will always be about half his size, however. They will have to live together, roosting with all the adult girls at night.

 

[pysankigirl]

my one experience with my Dorking roo is that he was fine around our other two roos, but they were bigger than him (massive marans and a barnevelder.


never had any small fowl.

 

[bethbug74]

I don't think their combs look all that pale for the dead of winter. I am jealous, and wish I had them.
I don't know if it fits your paradigm of chicken husbandry, but there was a thread on rescuing neglected chickens that were afflicted with internal and external parasites, started by username Beekissed. (The road less traveled...back to good health! They have lice, mites, scale mites, worms, anemia,...) She tried several things that might be applicable to your rescued Dorkings.
Again, I wish I had something like that in my barn.
Angela

I think I have a handle on their recovery...this pic was also after about three days of good higher protein feed and lots of vitamins. They were pretty sorry looking when they first arrived, bt seem to be bouncing back quickly, so I doubt they have any underlying serious health issues other than malnourishment. I am very happy to have found them...but I really can't conscionably send anyone to buy anything from the lady I got these from. It's pretty apparent that she is one of those who has things that are "just chickens," and doesn't care to do much research, even to know what to feed young birds. "They shouldn't have lice" particularly irritated me, lol.

How do you know that they "shouldn't," if you never physically check them, even when selling birds? Because the label of a chemical bottle says "they shouldn't" have parasites after you purchase it?

I showed the big fat lice to her and she proceeded to talk about how "mites are normal." Even though she didn't know what the bug I showed her really was.

This was her F1 from her hatchery birds, so she didn't have the chance to do more damage to conformation than the chick factories already have...though I have heard that Ideal actually has pretty decent quality Dorkings. I'm really happy that these guys found a better home, and I'm also glad that the lady didn't get as much money as she thought she was going to get after binging me unhealthy birds. It's pretty common, in this area, for people to "know" all sorts of wrong things about bird care, and to adamandtly refuse to change their husbandry practices - especially if it costs money. Oh well. That's what quarantine is for...

 

[capayvalleychick]

Does anyone have experience with how Dorking roos REALLY (like IRL) do with other roosters around? Showgirls are silkie like with their dispositions, and aren't usually to interested in scuffling in general, and so I have also heard about Dorkings. Any RL experiences out there? I am planning on raising my own Paint Showgirl cock, so this boy will have the opportunity to have a long and slow acclimation process with a youngster. Said youngster will always be about half his size, however. They will have to live together, roosting with all the adult girls at night.

IME Dorking roosters are more passive than other breeds. hey are usually the ones to get beat up if there is any competition.
A lot depends upon if they were raised together, etc.

 

[bethbug74]

I can always move this boy after I hatch a good # of eggs from this pair, then raise them alongside a batch of good paint showgirls, ending up with boys who grew up together, if necessary.

 

[ki4got]

Does anyone have experience with how Dorking roos REALLY (like IRL) do with other roosters around? Showgirls are silkie like with their dispositions, and aren't usually to interested in scuffling in general, and so I have also heard about Dorkings. Any RL experiences out there? I am planning on raising my own Paint Showgirl cock, so this boy will have the opportunity to have a long and slow acclimation process with a youngster. Said youngster will always be about half his size, however. They will have to live together, roosting with all the adult girls at night.

does this say much?


in this pic you see blue laced red wyandotte (bottom) red dorking (top), silver grey dorkings (2 just in front of the mini), another blrw lower right, and red cochins (one just under the first blrw, 2 more top right). those are all the roosters that lived together at the time, plus an EE roo who doesn't pose well.
but currently for roos, i have the 2 blrw (bantam and lf), the ee roo, 5 dorking roos (2 red 3 sg), and a bunch of baby bantam cochins between 4 and 8 weeks old now. then again they've got 10 sg girls, 3 red, 3 colored, 2 lf blrw, 1 bantam blrw, 4 ee, 3 buff orps, and even more baby girls (4-8 weeks old).

everyone free ranges tho i do scatter food for them when i feed the horses, and the babies' feeder gets filled once a day.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Bethbug, that pair will be fine. Just a little TLC for the bugs. They'll be an interesting beginning. Just line breed them, and you'll be good for several years.

As far as raising them with show-girls....well, I don't know about that. All I can say is that, in your stead, if at all avoidable, I wouldn't.

 

[katiemdenne]

I had four dorking hens and two roosters. One by one, my dorkings hens are becoming ill. The first looked as if mites was her issue, I treated her, and she disappeared the next day. The second and third hen seem to be sick as can be: very faded comb, thin, wobbly, wilted comb. We culled one and now the other is just as bad. The forth is very healthy and laying an egg a day. I have 24 other hens, Australorps and Orpingtons, and not one of them is ill. Are dorking hens susceptible to something? Is my third sick dorking due for culling or can she be saved? They are 7.5 months old. The roosters are healthy. I live in rainy but not too cold Vancouver Island,Canada.

 

[ashandvine]

does this say much?

I love this pic.

I have been looking through recent photos of Dorkings in here and I don't know if my birds aren't hatchery. They were sold from a breeder but we all know that means squat. they are young and I hoped that was why they weren't filled out as I expected (yes I know heritage takes longer) but the girls are laying now and still... not sure. I will go out in the arctic air and take pics asap... or as soon as I can get the courage again.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

I had four dorking hens and two roosters. One by one, my dorkings hens are becoming ill. The first looked as if mites was her issue, I treated her, and she disappeared the next day. The second and third hen seem to be sick as can be: very faded comb, thin, wobbly, wilted comb. We culled one and now the other is just as bad. The forth is very healthy and laying an egg a day. I have 24 other hens, Australorps and Orpingtons, and not one of them is ill. Are dorking hens susceptible to something? Is my third sick dorking due for culling or can she be saved? They are 7.5 months old. The roosters are healthy. I live in rainy but not too cold Vancouver Island,Canada.

Things like this aren't about a breed; there about the birds you have, out of the strain you have. Very few things outside of Standard requirements are actually breed specific; most are strain specific and have to do with the environment from which they've come and where they are.