B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[pysankigirl]

I just spoke to Craig Russell about his coloreds and what a great guy! Unfortunately lost a bunch of chickens this year to predation, something got into his barn. but he hopes to have the coloreds back up enough to sell some by next year. and he has a line on someone with some colored males that she's getting rid of that he was doing a great job of convincing me I should put with my SG girls. he said that the outcrossing is good for developing the size on both sides and evidently the way you make coloreds in the first place is by crossing a dark red with a dark grey. it might take a couple of crosses for mine to start really looking like coloreds but he was very enthusiastic. I am willing to try it anyway. He said that most coloreds will throw reds on occasion.

but I really need to learn more about the different chicken color genes before I talk to him again. I was really trying to follow him, but I hope it wasn't obvious how lost I was.

 

[countrygoddess]

Question about Dorking pullets (or any pullet/hen known to be easily and especially broody). I have 6 SG Dorking pullets, all about 33 weeks old. They've been laying pretty well, but the last few days laying has dropped off (3 a day, on average). I've also noticed these last few days that they seem to spend an inordinate amount of time circling the inside of the coop, going under the nesting boxes, peeking into corners, climbing into each of the 4 nesting boxes, grabbing a quick bite to eat, then starting the whole circuit again. They were doing this this evening when I went out to give them their second meal of the day, and after all the day's eggs had been gathered.

I stood there watching them going in their circles while my Cuckoo Marans girls just calmly filled their crops at the dinner dish and I began to wonder if they were searching for their eggs. Can this be? Or am I just being anthropomorphistic? I've never had pullets/hens who are known for their highly broody tendencies and excellent mothering. Is this what they do, get all worked up when their eggs disappear each afternoon?

 

[pysankigirl]

Mine were definitely acting like that and trying to find other places to lay where their eggs were not going to disappear. I had to start replacing eggs with golf balls.

I honestly think they are looking for their eggs.

 

[ki4got]

Question about Dorking pullets (or any pullet/hen known to be easily and especially broody). I have 6 SG Dorking pullets, all about 33 weeks old. They've been laying pretty well, but the last few days laying has dropped off (3 a day, on average). I've also noticed these last few days that they seem to spend an inordinate amount of time circling the inside of the coop, going under the nesting boxes, peeking into corners, climbing into each of the 4 nesting boxes, grabbing a quick bite to eat, then starting the whole circuit again. They were doing this this evening when I went out to give them their second meal of the day, and after all the day's eggs had been gathered.

I stood there watching them going in their circles while my Cuckoo Marans girls just calmly filled their crops at the dinner dish and I began to wonder if they were searching for their eggs. Can this be? Or am I just being anthropomorphistic? I've never had pullets/hens who are known for their highly broody tendencies and excellent mothering. Is this what they do, get all worked up when their eggs disappear each afternoon?

if a bird can be OCD about anything, i think the dorkings are OCD about their eggs. if they can't find the eggs, they look. if they don't find them, and have the chance, they'll hide them some place new. if they can find them, they'll be broody.

 

[RedBugPoultry]

if a bird can be OCD about anything, i think the dorkings are OCD about their eggs. if they can't find the eggs, they look. if they don't find them, and have the chance, they'll hide them some place new. if they can find them, they'll be broody.

This is right and remember with Dorkings putting that golf ball in there gives them something to set on. I stopped putting any kind of fake egg in my Dorking pen because it seems to give the girls a reason to go broody. Of course I understand where those of you have free range girls and you need to find the eggs but if they think that egg is setting there too long it need to be hatched! I have several girls right now clucking but not yet setting-- just milling around the food pan clucking....

 

[Bentley]

You are very right in your assessment about the golf balls giving the hens a reason to go broody. One of the main things that stimulate a hen to go broody is the tactile stimulation on the breast that comes from eggs touching their breast flesh while sitting in the nest. So when they sit in a nest is full of eggs, or golf balls, that stimulation of the 'eggs' tell them they have a nest full and it's time to hatch these babies. So, in order to 'try' and prevent hens from going broody you need to get the 'eggs' out. On the flip side, golf balls, or other fake eggs, are often very successfully used to try and draw the hens to the nests you want them to use.

 

[countrygoddess]

This is right and remember with Dorkings putting that golf ball in there gives them something to set on. I stopped putting any kind of fake egg in my Dorking pen because it seems to give the girls a reason to go broody. Of course I understand where those of you have free range girls and you need to find the eggs but if they think that egg is setting there too long it need to be hatched! I have several girls right now clucking but not yet setting-- just milling around the food pan clucking....

Yes, this is something I thought about, but discarded as a way to help them with their anxiety about missing eggs. I don't want them going broody until spring, if I can help it. This morning I went out and three of the Dorking girls were calm and acting normal. Three were trying to squeeze themselves into the tiny space made by the wall, the milk crate the waterer is on, and the galvanized can containing their oyster shell supply. I believe they are trying to create a hidden space in which to lay eggs so they won't be tampered with. Well, I got news for you, girls! =D

Recently, I saw a grey bottom up in the air down in between two of the bales of straw up against the outside of their hoop coop. I wondered if the chicken the bottom belonged to was stuck, but was suspicious that she was not. I was right! I pulled her out of there and found a little clutch of frozen and cracked eggs. Silly girl!

 

[Framac]

12 Red Dorkings to arrive in Mid Feburary.

I am eagerly awaiting their arrival.

Framac

 

[pysankigirl]

I do freerange and unfortunately need the golf balls...for now.
they were never laying the same place twice because I was stealing all their eggs!
but I only put a couple in there, so maybe they will be okay for a while.

I actually do want one to go broody in the spring...I want babies!!!!

 

[RedBugPoultry]

Sharing!! This is yesterdays hatch!

Just in this picture I think there are 3 girls and a boy--not counting the Dominiques....