B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[ashandvine]

Ashandvive, where did your Dorking stock originate. Several years back, for couple of years in a row, we had SG Dorkings sipped from Ideal and MMcM. The latter were fine, but we found the former to be loonier than a coot.

Sorry all. Busy. I can't recall where. The woman I bought from I believe got them from another woman who got her stock from somewhere and I can't recall. I think I might be done here for a while anyway. SO is going off like a hen about to lay an egg only he is squacking about the cost. I DO have a few too many birds for the winter, I know, but not more than 40.... is that bad? I planned to downsize this spring but wanted to make it through the winter and see how different breeds handled the cold.

I got some words of wisdom from a judge this weekend and it has me thinking. He said the point of being a breeder and of showing was to always be trying to improve. My heart isn't in that with the Dorkings. I got them for meat and history, not showing. What he said has me rethinking a lot. I have three breeds here I really love. After that some of them are just... pet like, or eggers. I like decorating their eggs-- the Welsummers are some of my favorites for that. The Dorkings have also stopped laying now that their cockerel is in isolation. I know that I don't feel like continuing with these girls. They are slowly coming around from 'bat crazy' to tolerant of me, but if I am going to breed for meat then I think I should love the breed. And convince SO. I know which task is more difficult Thoughts?

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Sorry all. Busy. I can't recall where. The woman I bought from I believe got them from another woman who got her stock from somewhere and I can't recall. I think I might be done here for a while anyway. SO is going off like a hen about to lay an egg only he is squacking about the cost. I DO have a few too many birds for the winter, I know, but not more than 40.... is that bad? I planned to downsize this spring but wanted to make it through the winter and see how different breeds handled the cold.

I got some words of wisdom from a judge this weekend and it has me thinking. He said the point of being a breeder and of showing was to always be trying to improve. My heart isn't in that with the Dorkings. I got them for meat and history, not showing. What he said has me rethinking a lot. I have three breeds here I really love. After that some of them are just... pet like, or eggers. I like decorating their eggs-- the Welsummers are some of my favorites for that. The Dorkings have also stopped laying now that their cockerel is in isolation. I know that I don't feel like continuing with these girls. They are slowly coming around from 'bat crazy' to tolerant of me, but if I am going to breed for meat then I think I should love the breed. And convince SO. I know which task is more difficult Thoughts?

To be honest, it sounds like you need to pick one. Your judge friend is right, and improvement is the goal. It's also what makes it fun. It's not cheap, though, be it in feed or in eventual necessary infrastructure. I think most of us are best with one breed, if we really want to see improvement. When you select one breed, you really won't need to carry more than a dozen through the winter, and it won't feel like striving.

A note on your breed, follow your heart. It sounds like you need to cross the Dorking off your list. That's cool. It's nice to whittle down the list. You live in a place, i.e. New England, where there are lots of shows and where there is a fun poultry community. In your stead, I'd choose one breed and then join the circuit of breeders and exhibitors in our region. The folk are nice, and there's absolutely nothing as good to strengthen you as a breeder than attending shows and slowly getting to know breeders who will teach you everything you need. To that end, I'd really recommend selecting a breed that is part of the SOP. I know that you've mentioned the Orloff, but the chances of the Orloff actually making it through the standards committee aren't great, and you risk years of effort coming to no end and going to shows being kind of on the outside looking in. There are so many breeds of recognized SOP fowl, and I believe you've mentioned a couple. Perhaps, the deserve a double nod.

Best to you in your decision making.

J

 

[cukooformarans]

[SIZE=11pt]I have only had Dorkings a couple seasons and have not yet butchered an “OLD” Dorking.  However - I have dressed out a few youngsters and one “young” roo (18 mos.).  I also raise Dominiques and, comparing two breeds, I was amazed at the differences.  First, the Dorks were much easier to pluck and dress out!  This surprised me!  The finished product was clean and meaty, even on the youngest birds (~16 wks. old).  The roo was also a surprise, since at his “advanced” age (18 mos.) he was full bodied (nice white breast meat and dark meat that did not have as much tough connective tissue as a Dom at that age), lots of internal fat and he cooked up nice and tender!  I prepared him in a slow cooker, but wished afterward that I had tried to slow roast him instead.  I am now champing at the bit to get out there and dress-out a couple more, when weather permits![/SIZE]

Thank you for your reply! Your post is exciting me even more about this breed! Do you have any idea about what they weighed at 16 weeks?

 

[Rockashelle]

Thank you for your reply! Your post is exciting me even more about this breed! Do you have any idea about what they weighed at 16 weeks?

I have to agree that they are the best tasting chicken ever! In my experience, mine did better fattening up free ranging than the ones I locked up to fatten. My last Colored cockerel was 4.5 lbs @ four months free ranged. On average my experience with CD's is 3.5 lbs-4lbs. (The birds I tried to fatten) . Would love to hear others averages at 16 wks & 20 wks of age as well. I can't recall but I'm certain it was talked about before.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Well, to date, I've eaten 17 breeds of chicken. The Dorkings and the La Fleche are the tastiest by my estimation.

 

[cukooformarans]

YHF, you strike me as one who would keep up with weights. In fact, I have read a lot of your material and I think one of your deciding points on culling was based on weighing the chickens in low light conditions. But I have looked and looked, and forgive me if I have missed it, but can you tell me what weights you are looking for and a ballpark of what you are getting? Thanks everyone with your patience especially if this has been covered and I have missed it!

 

[cukooformarans]

And thank you soooooo much dalalune and rockashelle for relating you experiences! Both of you have made me even more excited about getting my birds in!

 

[Yellow House Farm]

YHF, you strike me as one who would keep up with weights. In fact, I have read a lot of your material and I think one of your deciding points on culling was based on weighing the chickens in low light conditions. But I have looked and looked, and forgive me if I have missed it, but can you tell me what weights you are looking for and a ballpark of what you are getting? Thanks everyone with your patience especially if this has been covered and I have missed it!

I used to weigh them more actively over the course of their growing up, but then the eye gets trained, if you would, and your eyes and hands begin to see and feel the weight without having to pull out the scale. Doing it in the dark with a red headlamp was a way of not being distracted by other qualities, but eventually what occurred was that I become so grounded in weight that I don't need to do that anymore.

I currently weigh before slaughter, in order to decide you gets to try for the second cut. Then a second timme--just about now--to see who made it. I line the show cages up. I hang a killing cone from a produce scale, and I begin. If they're not up to snuff, into the cull pen (males) or broody pen (pullets) they go. Then I look at those that made the weight cut and move forward from there in the eliminating process.

 

[cukooformarans]

YHF wrote :
"I currently weigh before slaughter, in order to decide you gets to try for the second cut. Then a second timme--just about now--to see who made it. I line the show cages up. I hang a killing cone from a produce scale, and I begin. If they're not up to snuff, into the cull pen (males) or broody pen (pullets) they go. Then I look at those that made the weight cut and move forward from there in the eliminating process."

This is the kind of thing I am interested in. When you say you are looking for who made the cut, what is the cut? And at what age are you weighing at these two points? Surely it is not fully mature sop weight before you process because I think I have read that that takes about two years and that would provide only stewing fowl, right?? Forgive me, but since I am a novice to this breed, I won't be able to trust my eyes for quite a while. Plus I stink at eye balling things. My mind just does not work that way.

 

[cukooformarans]

And I am sure that the cut depends on what I will have to work with to begin with and that it varies strain to strain. I am just curious about a ballpark figure. Hopefully by the end of the year I will be picking which birds make the cut on our little backyard farm!