B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[welly]

Alisar
Sorry for your loss

 

[ki4got]

So I was kinda depressed about losing my Dorking Roo, but I knew that silver-grey wasn’t where my heart was…it was just all I could find last spring when I started looking for Dorkings. Several Weeks ago when someone on here said that Craig Russell had colored Dorkings, I decided to call him.

The guy has huge enthusiasm. He had lost most of his stock from a varmint of some kind . But he was so willing to help me find some stock and as of a Month ago, agreed to bring down some Red Roosters on his way by for some show.

Well he called me again today and said he found a couple of typey hens for me too! He was talking about all kinds of colors I’ve never even heard of…different types of reds: Evidently the Stippled red that everyone knows and loves is not the only one. There is a “clay” red (no stippling) and the dark red (with the melanized borders around the feathers?) and there are different greys, too. A slate gray that sounded really pretty. And combinations. So it sounds like there are a lot more different color genes out there to play with in dorkings than I realized. Whatever he ends up bringing me will determine which way I go from here, but I was psyched to find out how many variations still (& already) exist without the need for outcrossing.

there are a bunch of colors out there, craig has a number of them. but only the standardized, stippled red is SOP... and that is what i'm working on are SOP recognized varieties, silver grey and red. (my colored project is my own making)

IMO, we need to concentrate on the SOP varieties and get them back up to where they should be, before branching out to all the other varieties that may or may not be historically valid. i give craig a lot of credit for what he's done with his birds tho. but seems every year he's had problems with predation... i got the same from him last spring, but did get my roo from him...

 

[pysankigirl]

Yeah, I would agree that working on the current colors to be more typey and bigger is a great thing. But we don't need to concentrate on them so much that we lose all the other genes except the ones for Silver Grey and Red... because then there would be no way back without outcrossing and those genes would be forever lost.

I dunno. I guess I am still really new to this, so take my statements with a grain of salt. I was just happy to find that there were still genes to work with. all I had been finding were SG and red and white for sale. and the sandhill coloreds.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Actually, as long as there are Reds, SG's and Whites, all things are possible. Infact I think that all of the colors just pop up, as I have indeed witnessed, when you crosse these three. People just decide to keep the mixed offspring and name them. Dark Greys, Cuckoos, etc... all of them can be had with a SG/White cross.

And as a whoel, and this goes for lots of breeds, if we don't get them back up to snuff, they won't be worth the colors they wear.

 

[dalalune]

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!

 

[dalalune]

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!

This was supposed to a reply to the earlier post questioning the meatqualities of the Dorking breed

 

[CFellows]

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!

This makes my super excited!!! I cant wait to get my first Dorkings.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

I think Dick Horstman ships 12....I know he has red dorkings, not sure about SG's

Mr. Horstman has Silver Gray and Reds and will ship as few as 12 chicks if you pay for a heat pack (min of 20 without the heat pack): I think the chicks are $6 each. I have some of his Reds and out of all my chickens they are my favorites. Very good looking birds that are full of personality.

 

[welly]

MrsM
Thank you I will look him up

 

[welly]

MrsM
Thank you I will look him up