B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[Rockashelle]

eet Buffy, our new Dorking pullet chick!

Love those babies... Congrats!

 

[Yellow House Farm]

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.

 

[BlackPanther]

So when Spike (our SG roo) died last month, I stuck a couple of eggs under a Broody hen. Only one made it. this is our very first hatchling and his only progeny.


meet Buffy, our new Dorking pullet chick!

She's sweet!

I'm curious -- how does one tell the difference between male and female Dorking chicks?

 

[pysankigirl]

on the SG's its really easy. the girls have a really distinct "v" of brown on the top of their heads and dark eyeliner. the boys have more washed out coloring...

is it as easy with the other colors?

 

[Rockashelle]

on the SG's its really easy.  the girls have a really distinct "v" of brown on the top of their heads and dark eyeliner.  the boys have more washed out coloring...

is it as easy with the other colors?

I'm finding that its the opposite for the Coloreds. The girls tend to have a dark head. So bizarre! I'll try to post a picture. There are 5 in the picture. 4 cockerel and 1 pullet from last April. The pullet is the top right . Ignore the grey chick, that's an orp. The other 4 turned out to all be cockerels. The one with the rust colored "v" is my avatar. The dark (head)pullet is pictured below.

 

[Rockashelle]

Has anyone else experienced the same with CD chicks? This year I'll know for certain. I've already hatc a few and have a lot more on the way. Would love more input on this.

 

[pysankigirl]

I always suspected that the reason it was so easy to tell on the silver greys was because they say the silver gene is dominant on the males. only partially dominant on the females.

 

[nicalandia]

I always suspected that the reason it was so easy to tell on the silver greys was because they say the silver gene is dominant on the males. only partially dominant on the females.

its the other way around. the Silver gene is incompletely dominant over gold(S/s+) and you will get golden(S/s+) males with a yellow color instead of red or silver. BUT females can ONLY be Silver or gold. they cant be both. they can only have one copy of each gene.

 

[ki4got]

Quote: I go by the shape of the markings more than color... the pullets tend to have a wider V with more defined edges while the roos tend to be a bit narrower, and/or the edges aren't very well defined and look kind of jagged. i do agree tho, the one above does look like a pullet.

this has followed true for me for all my dorkings, sg red and colored, but not for crosses with other breeds.

 

[ki4got]

Quote: if you're working with pure silver greys, they're all going to be silver grey. (S/S on roos and S/- on hens) in which case, chicks all look alike.

and the sex linked chick thing only works if the sire is silver and momma's red. then you'll get silver pullets and S/s+ cockerels. but even then they're hard to tell apart when they're new IMO. the head markings still allow me to tell even on color crosses, way before body coloration. especially with the colored, since they are all over the place, some looking red some looking silver, some inbetween.