B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[greenhorn]

Hi Greenhorn,
Three beautiful white roosters! I'm still trying to development some judgement about this breed, so I was wondering specifically what features of roosters 1, 2, and 3 put them in that order.

The blacks are amazing to see. The white ear lobes and legs on a black bird are stunning. Thank you for posting that video.
--April

Hi April. You and everybody are welcome... Been needing to do this for a while. Have some more video's I need to upload and more have been posted to YouTube. Those aren't really relative to this thread so I haven't posted a link at BYC. This thread and the fodder thread are what I usually read here and haven't been to the fodder thread in a while.

Anyway back to the birds.... The reason I like the number one bird best is because he has the best over all shape and size. He's got the cinder block shape and doesn't taper much. He's not as big as #3 but he's close. His comb isn't as big and doesn't stand as tall as #3. His breast from the front view is wide but tapers slightly. #1 is always taking care of his hens too, he really seems to like the ladies if ya know what I mean.... His chicks come out pure white with nice thick heads and necks.

The #2 bird has shape close to #1 but lacks size. His rose comb is nicer than #1 but size is the biggest issue with the Dorking breed from my understanding. Thing is #2 was kept in a smaller coop and run than #1 so the environment provided for #2 may have effected his finish size. He is only 1 year old and not finished growing from my understanding but still not likely to catch up to #1 or #3.

#3 is all about size and comb. His color isn't pure and his chicks don't always come out pure white. He has some black in his tail and some greyish coloring here and there along the bottom of his sides. He tapers downward in the front and is pinched in the back. He does have a blocky shape from a side view and his breast is quite wide at the top from his front view.

These are our very first dorkings and are beyond elated in having the opportunity to work with the whites. Can never thank Joseph enough for this. We are deep into it now. Have my new home made hatcher built and dialed in. Ready to pump out some serious numbers once we get a good number of breeding hens. We are using 4 hens. The hen with #3 is there to keep him company while he waits his turn to make some hatching eggs with the best hens. Same with #2 but he is with a large group of cull hens. Couldn't kill the cull hens this year, needed them for eggs as our egg birds quit laying last autumn. He probably has too many hens but he seems happy lol.

What we have is a good start now that we have some good white dorkings and a 5 pen breeding coop. A year ago we didn't have a breeding coop or single Dorking on the farm. Been a lot of hard work but very worth it.

 

[SandiDent]

Ps: Murry McMurry

 

[capayvalleychick]

Hi Greenhorn,

If you are on Facebook, someone in the Dorking group there is looking for Whites.

I watched your videos on both forums. Since I'm not a judge, I don't feel qualified to make many comments. I do wish you well and I can tell that you are working hard at this.

 

[greenhorn]

Hi Kim,

Thank you, yes we are working hard, just got in from feeding the birds which has become quite a morning ritual. Filtering the water from fermented grains and chick feed, preparing and rinsing the fodder and wheat seeds (have to rinse the 7 stages of fodder 3-4 times a day). Then I evenly distribute the table scraps and whatever else is ready. This morning I gave them boiled dud hatching eggs. Actually the ones that were infertile at day 7. Haven't been able to figure out how to tell if an egg is fertile b4 then so.... haha.

No the eggs aren't gross really. They smelled a tad stronger than a hard boiled egg and the birds eat 'em right up. Hard for me to waste that extra protein and I really enjoy providing a well rounded diet to our birds. Caught a possum in the live trap last night, guess where he's gonna end up? We don't waste a thing. Can't let him go, he wants our chickens and their eggs.

Anyway it's not important if you are a judge or not. If you understand what the Dorking breed is supposed to look like that's good enough for me. Just appreciate it to be constructive.

Been hoping YellowHouse might pipe in but I imagine he is more busy than I with his breeding projects.

Nope not on the FB group yet. Kind of a bit personal really, don't want to share my whole life with everybody.... Maybe you could send them my way...

 

[capayvalleychick]

I told them that Greenhorn on BYC had Whites. I don't know if they are on BYC and I don't know your real name.

Have you weighed your cock birds? They all look to be of good size. I like their width. Length of back looks good on #1. Good feet/toes on #2. I like the shorter legs on #3. Although his chest is not as rounded as it could be, it seems to extend out more than the others. JMO. I noticed one of your Blacks, I think the one in #3 had nice short legs, also.

Just like mine, I think you need to keep an eye on the tail angle and length of leg. Try to get the most rounded, deep chests. Compare to YH's photo.

It's really interesting for me to look at Whites, since it removes the whole color issue that I'm used to seeing. I also don't know a thing about those combs.

Best wishes,

 

[greenhorn]

Thanks for your input it is appreciated. I agree. I think all the birds have long legs for their breed but the blacks do seem to have shorter legs than our whites right now.

If you took the best qualities from our 3 white roosters you could make a pretty nice bird. So far I've chosen the best roosters but lost one and culled another that I wish I hadn't now. Had 2 real nice ones from that particular clan and the one i kept is the one i lost.....

For now we have to make due with what we have. Yes tail angle is an issue I was noticing with our hens. The ones with the best angle aren't the biggest so once again I selected toward size but did keep all the hens so if need be we may be able to work back to the hens with the closest angle to the standard.

I hope to get another 25 birds from Joseph next year. Should have this year but was overwhelmed with hatching and didn't realize how fast he was going to sell out. Like he said though, the genetics are there we just have to work with them. Hopefully we will get some more breeding birds from this years hatch. They are looking quite nice so far.

As far as the rose combs I'm really not sure how they are supposed to look either... I do know size is our biggest obstacle so it seems to me we need to breed toward size while we try to maintain the good qualities we have right now. I can see leg length is going to be another issue with the whites. I guess all we can do is hatch as many chicks as we can with the few eggs we get and hope for the best...

 

[ki4got]

the problem for easily getting any white dorkings to canada, is they'd have to be smuggled across the border. to be legally done is not easy or cheap...

 

[greenhorn]

the problem for easily getting any white dorkings to canada, is they'd have to be smuggled across the border. to be legally done is not easy or cheap...

Yes, but hatching eggs now that's a different matter. I have brought my own farm raised eggs to Canada on camping/fishing trips. I'm also very close to the Canada border. It might be possible to persuade me.......

 

[Rockashelle]

Greenhorn, I sent you her contact info via PM

 

[greenhorn]

Oh, thanks, didn't know we were talking about the same person lol. Wow I'm so with it, guess I should try and get some sleep but like they say. "I can rest when they bury me".....