B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[greenhorn]

Liberty Nursery,

Dorkings aren't really a breed designed for that kind of solitary confinement, They like to free range or at least have an area to forage for food. They need to go outside......

If I were going to do what you want I'd go with a modern meaty breed that already grows faster, check out Dominiques https://www.backyardchickens.com/products/dominique#wiki..... You may have a problem getting birds from serious breeders if you tell them you are going to cross breed their birds to other kinds of chickens.

 

[ki4got]

http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/dorking.html After reading this I want in the BYC Dorking club. I just want to be set up for a rooster so I can breed my own heritage breed meat birds. It would also be interesting to see if I can get some good crosses and speed up maturity.

A broody mother would be perfect for making meat birds too, and when she isn't broody she can help with my egg count.

The 3 hatcheries that sell Dorkings I have found only sell Silver Gray. Would be nice to get a variety.

I am not in a current situation that is good for roosters, although my city allows them. One neighbor complaint can change that so I am not going to ruin this freedom for others who can pull off having a rooster. Maybe I will design a large sound proof coop with artificial lighting I have the HID lights to grow plant inside of an outbuilding with straw bale walls. still figuring how to get ventilation without sacrificing sound privacy. But that's a big expensive project for the future.

I still have to prove I can raise the chickens I bought a month ago... a man and his chicken dreams. Maybe I will get one male Dorking to taste test in my next order along with a few others and see if Dorkings can win my taste test like they win so many other.

compared to some other heritage breeds, the dorkings aren't near as slow as some... my dorking pullets typically star laying around 5 months old. my orpingtons? try closer to 8! yes they take a while longer to fill in a nice meaty frame IMO, but it's definately worth waiting for.

crossing to "speed up maturity" defeats the purpose of a nice tender and flavorful meat. my EE/dork crosses grow nice and fast, but aren't near as tasty or tender IMO. the benefit there though is the blue eggs. but i don't sell them as dorks, i sell them as dual purpose easter eggers.

as for hatcheries, mcmurray has the best silver greys, but duane urch's are supposed to be very nice too (i don't really consider him a hatchery tho), for reds, i'd go to rudy troxel or dick horstman. whites, go to yellow house farm. sandhill preservation center has all the color varieties (the reds were nice but i wasn't impressed with the sg's).

 

[BGMatt]

I know this is the wrong time of year to acquire stock, especially in rare breeds but I have a customer and friend who is looking for Dorkings of any color in Washington State and doesn't want to wait til next year for me to hatch. Anyone have any leads?

 

[foxflower]

Another very good source for breed info is the ALBC (American Livestock Breed Conservancy, www.albc-usa.org ). They have a Chicken Breed Comparison chart that is excellent!

You may also want to add the American Dominique to your "short list". They are not only good foragers, calm & hardy - they are also excellent layers of a medium to large light brown egg and lay through hot or cold. I absolutely love them!

We had dominiques from Sandhill Preservation. They were good foragers and hardy, but very stand-offish. I wouldn't have called them calm either. They were free range and I could never find their eggs, which wasn't good for me but was good in terms of protection from predators. If I am recalling correctly there was one hen who was an excellent brooder and would show up with chicks out of nowhere. Perhaps you have a better strain than what I experienced.

 

[ki4got]

Quote: you'll find variations in many different lines, depending what the breeder's looking for. i found that most of my sandhill dorkings were standoffish at first, but as they matured did calm down a lot. tho i still have a problem finding eggs. LOL but i have 'secret' nesting locations for them to find on their own, and they seem to like them. ie an old doghouse with a quilt in it, under my deck, another plastic doghouse (top only) with 2 milk crate nests in it), and even a chicken cage (wire bottom!) that keeps gathering eggs in the feed room (the door has a hole in one corner).

so they think they're being sneaky hiding their eggs from me, when really, those eggs they've 'hidden' are all wooden ones now. i figure chickens probably can't count above 5 or 6 anyways, so that's how many wooden/plaster-filled plastic eggs are replacing the real ones.

 

[foxflower]

Your post made me laugh since I can totally relate. We live on a farm/ranch so I have found eggs in some funny places......the 3rd level of the seed cleaner, inside the baler, underneath a sled, in a pipe, and all the normal places....in the wild rose jungle, under the bench, and low and behold, the nesting boxes. A rooster and a bunch of hens (a dominique among them) took up rooster on a high beam in the barn. It was quite a process to get up there but they managed. This time around they won't be so free range. They'll have the grass and the everything, but not freedom to roam acres.

 

[ki4got]

Your post made me laugh since I can totally relate. We live on a farm/ranch so I have found eggs in some funny places......the 3rd level of the seed cleaner, inside the baler, underneath a sled, in a pipe, and all the normal places....in the wild rose jungle, under the bench, and low and behold, the nesting boxes. A rooster and a bunch of hens (a dominique among them) took up rooster on a high beam in the barn. It was quite a process to get up there but they managed. This time around they won't be so free range. They'll have the grass and the everything, but not freedom to roam acres.

oh but the dorkings so LOVE to roam! at least mine do. so in the mean time i'll just offer creative hiding places.

 

[dalalune]

We had dominiques from Sandhill Preservation. They were good foragers and hardy, but very stand-offish. I wouldn't have called them calm either. They were free range and I could never find their eggs, which wasn't good for me but was good in terms of protection from predators. If I am recalling correctly there was one hen who was an excellent brooder and would show up with chicks out of nowhere. Perhaps you have a better strain than what I experienced.

Will not go into Doms on this thread, but I will say that the Dorkings I got from Sand Hill were/are extremely flighty and aggressive - not what is the typical temperament for the breed. It is interesting that you find the same "issues" with your Sand Hill Doms....Hmmm....not sure what they are doing with their birds, but that is not a normal quality for Doms either....

 

[ki4got]

YAY!!! my Sandhill colored's will be here this week!

now to decide... brooder, or broody. I'm leaning toward broody. so much easier over the long haul.

has anyone had any experience giving shipped chicks to a broody?

 

[foxflower]

Will not go into Doms on this thread, but I will say that the Dorkings I got from Sand Hill were/are extremely flighty and aggressive - not what is the typical temperament for the breed. It is interesting that you find the same "issues" with your Sand Hill Doms....Hmmm....not sure what they are doing with their birds, but that is not a normal quality for Doms either....

Good to know. Thanks for the heads up.

As for letting my chickens roam....it's either confine the coons and the herding dog or confine the chickens. In my case, it'll be the chickens, at least most of the time, but my idea of confinement is probably a little broader than that of the average chicken lover (afterall, there are 120 acres to choose from). It just has to keep the dog out for the most part, and the coons and other predators at night. Never fear, they will have plenty of fun.