B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[countrygoddess]

Ah...the joys of chicken OCD, it can keep you up at night. Dr. Carefoot, a foremost British poultry geneticists says that, for the best breeders, it's an obsession.

I have a chance to move into a department at work that I've wanted to do forever: the operating room. But doing the internship will mean long days and mandatory full-time for 8 months--a schedule that will keep me away from my flock. After much pondering and self-debate, I'm realizing that I think I'd much rather be a crazy chicken lady than an OR nurse. LOL

 

[countrygoddess]

You can try the trap nesting cuckoo mentioned.. or you can also check their vents.. a bird that is not laying or who has just started with have a small closed up dry vent
A bird that is in full production or who is just coming off of it will have a much more open moist vent.

the spacing between the pubic bones is also a tell tale sign. You will be able to place more fingers between them on a laying bird than one who is not laying

Oh, yes, the trap nests--I have looked at those threads quite some time ago. I should give that more thought.

When my girls stopped laying after our cold snap, and then I started finding one egg every three days, I wondered which girl had recovered so quickly. I checked all the vents: all very wide, all very moist. And of course, since they're all of laying age, all their pubic bones are wide (that's something I kept an eye on as they were getting towards laying age). So, the moral of the story, I suppose, is that you can't always count on the vent to provide the answers you need... But thank you, yinepu!

 

[yinepu]

Oh, yes, the trap nests--I have looked at those threads quite some time ago. I should give that more thought.

When my girls stopped laying after our cold snap, and then I started finding one egg every three days, I wondered which girl had recovered so quickly. I checked all the vents: all very wide, all very moist. And of course, since they're all of laying age, all their pubic bones are wide (that's something I kept an eye on as they were getting towards laying age). So, the moral of the story, I suppose, is that you can't always count on the vent to provide the answers you need... But thank you, yinepu!

Lol.. it takes some time for the vents to close back up and for the pubic bones to move back together..

The same when a chicken starts laying.. it takes time for everything to stretch out

But when presented with a flock of chickens where you need to check to see which birds have been laying and which have quit long ago vent checking is a sure fire way to tell who is not producing Another plus is that it can be done in minutes when sorting birds out to see who gets culled from the layer flock

It's also one of the methods we used when judging laying hens.. just cause a hen looked nice didn't get her an automatic win.. the production birds also had to be producing and not just taking up space.

 

[dalalune]

Will she protect the chicks?

In my 20 years of keeping chickens, last year a young Red Dorking hen did something that NONE of my Dominiques could ever pull off.... She successfully hatched a clutch of eggs, on the ground! She had her very protective rooster in the pen with her too. In this neck of the woods, a nest on the ground is just another meal for the local black snakes (some getting up to 9 feet long!). She and her "hubby" were both very mean and wirery. I felt that if I tried to move her, she would break up the nest (and kick my *** in the process). So I let her have a go at it. She pulled it off and hatched 3 beautiful little pullets! Of course, I had to catch her and her brood so she and hubby still got a chance to kick my ***!

They are definitely a broody breed and they seem to be very good mothers. Something that has endeared me and frustrated me with this breed.

[(edited for typos)]

 

[countrygoddess]

Lol.. it takes some time for the vents to close back up and for the pubic bones to move back together..

The same when a chicken starts laying.. it takes time for everything to stretch out

But when presented with a flock of chickens where you need to check to see which birds have been laying and which have quit long ago vent checking is a sure fire way to tell who is not producing Another plus is that it can be done in minutes when sorting birds out to see who gets culled from the layer flock

It's also one of the methods we used when judging laying hens.. just cause a hen looked nice didn't get her an automatic win.. the production birds also had to be producing and not just taking up space.

Oh, yes, I've used this to see who just isn't laying anymore, period. It is helpful for that. My girls were just taking a super cold temperatures shock break--after a week and a half, they're all back to it. I just thought it might not be a bad idea to move the girl who overcame the shock the fastest to the top of the "who am I going to breed" list. She who can deal with the New England winter temps the best shall triumph! =)

 

[Fentress]

In my 20 years of keeping chickens, last year a young Red Dorking hen did something that NONE of my Dominiques could ever pull off.... She successfully hatched a clutch of eggs, on the ground! She had her very protective rooster in the pen with her too. In this neck of the woods, a nest on the ground is just another meal for the local black snakes (some getting up to 9 feet long!). She and her "hubby" were both very mean and wirery. I felt that if I tried to move her, she would break up the nest (and kick my *** in the process). So I let her have a go at it. She pulled it off and hatched 3 beautiful little pullets! Of course, I had to catch her and her brood so she and hubby still got a chance to kick my ***!

They are definitely a broody breed and they seem to be very good mothers. Something that has endeared me and frustrated me with this breed.

[(edited for typos)]

Thanks for your help.

 

[ki4got]

They are definitely a broody breed and they seem to be very good mothers. Something that has endeared me and frustrated me with this breed.

IMO the dorkings are NOWHERE near as bad as the cochins... breaking a broody dorking is easy compared to the little fluffball bulldogs that insist on going broody after laying 2-3 weeks of eggs each go-round... one girl in my mille fleur bantam cochin pen has gone broody on me 4 times in the last year, then takes a month off after stopping setting, before laying again. i still have a backlog of people wanting eggs from that pen, but with only 1 laying at a time (until the pullets start up), all i can do is hatch my own. LOL

 

[pysankigirl]

So yesterday didn’t quite go as smoothly yesterday as Craig had planned and we ended up meeting for Dinner instead of lunch. Poor guy has predators out the wazoo and yesterday had to deal with the aftermath of a overnight raccoon attack on his peafowl. Poor guy (Shudder) I hope our dogs are going to keep that sort of thing from happening, although he did say that he has dogs.

So we made the parking lot chicken exchange in the dark and I didn’t even see what I had really until this morning when we were transferring them into the quarantine pen.

In addition to the 2 Cockerels and 40 eggs I knew he was bringing me, he also brought me 2 of what look like colored pullets from Sandhill and another nice big red Roo who is from his red breeding. Nice feet. Nice comb. Really nice size! (I need to weigh him when I get home from work.) Only things I can see that need some serious work is there is some white tail fluff and the earlobes are tinged with white. How hard are those things to fix?

The colored Cockerel he brought me is rosecomb. I only have single combed girls(!!!) what happens when you mate a rose to a single? I know that rose comb is more practical for northern folks, but I really do like the looks of a nice single comb.

 

[Kilsharion]

So we made the parking lot chicken exchange in the dark and I didn’t even see what I had really until this morning when we were transferring them into the quarantine pen.

I had to laugh when I read this....it played through my mind's eye like a shady, underworld deal going down.

 

[pysankigirl]

I had to laugh when I read this....it played through my mind's eye like a shady, underworld deal going down.

I know, Right? The parking lot of the Texas Steakhouse was pretty packed on a Valentine's day evening, though. So the police didn't ID us. LOL