B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[ki4got]

Quote:
Originally Posted by speedy2020
I purchased a Dorking rooster cheap recently and he doesn't like to mate. My guess the fertilized rate for Dorking may be on the low side.

that is kind of a stretch based on one example. are there others you have had problems with?

I am not currently breeding, but the red roo I have with two girls in my quarantine pen is DEFINITELY doing his job. Every egg I crack open has a bullseye.

can't say that's the norm around here... I've got 4 roos that are keeping my hens quite happy. and doing their best to keep the Wyandotte and easter egger away too. LOL

 

[speedy2020]

that is kind of a stretch based on one example. are there others you have had problems with?

I am not currently breeding, but the red roo I have with two girls in my quarantine pen is DEFINITELY doing his job. Every egg I crack open has a bullseye.

I had one last year and he does not mate at 7.5months. He end up in the stock pot for being mean.

 

[ki4got]

Quote: well there you go. better that he didn't breed then. all mean roosters go to the stockpot sooner than later usually.

but my guys usually start harassing the girls around 3.5-4 months old... even tho they won't usually lay for another month +.

 

[melissaG]

I purchased a Dorking rooster cheap recently and he doesn't like to mate. My guess the fertilized rate for Dorking may be on the low side.

Well based on our buddy Hoss, I'd say no not at all. He's had quite a few kids around here, whether I approved of the crossings or not

See how this batch from him selectively in a pen with Bertha and Poundcake goes here in another 2 1/2 weeks

(yup, still awaiting Mr. Horstmans' email telling me it's my turn on the waiting list)

 

[greenhorn]

can't say that's the norm around here... I've got 4 roos that are keeping my hens quite happy. and doing their best to keep the Wyandotte and easter egger away too. LOL

Same here all of our roosters are eager to service their hens. I do have one that seems to have a difficult time hitting the mark though. It's like he falls off sometimes before he gets positioned correctly but he just does his thing anyway lol. The other thing is he is kicking out a lot of chicks with spots of color and he's a white rooster. I put him with a different hen now, but my hopes aren't up too high.....

We have been hatching like crazy. Think we have it down pretty good, getting close to 100% on fertilized eggs. The new home made hatcher bator blows the reptipro 5000 away. Way more room and can control temp and humidity much better. Must have hatched 150 chicks so far....

 

[sandiklaws]

For those having fertility issues due to roo being lax on the job, I have found this method to be helpful:

1) Put lazy roo in a cage or pen alone where he can see another roo "working" . Roos are naturally competitive and watching another roo work (breed doesn't mater as much as effort, seeing a roo mount hens is the main goal) can often trigger a mating response when allowed to have hens of his own. On day one, worm him with Febendazole. Also at this time, select your test hens- no more then 3 to put him with, they should be submissive hens of any breed- the idea here is to check fertility right away, and give him success. Hens used for this should be confirmed fertile, and have not been w/ any other roos in the last 10 days.

2) Besides a good feed, give Kickin' Chicken roo booster, calf manna pellets, quality cat food kibble, and supplement feed with lots of fresh stuff/goodies- this helps to bring nutrition up to optimum levels and correct any hidden deficiencies.

3) Use a herbal supplement to bring up testosterone to as optimum a level as possible. I got this years ago for my Doberman, and have used it occasionally w/ my Favs.
http://www.revivalanimal.com/Mr-Stud.html
I do a daily dose in a syringe mixed w/ cod liver oil when handling for #4

4) Using AI techniques, collect from the roo daily and discard collection. As weird as this sounds, it accomplishes 2 very important things; it helps ensure that the pipes are indeed working properly, and it stimulates the roo into production of more sperm... injuring the dignity a tad will only serve to make him need to feel lord and master all the more when he gets his hens back.

Follow this method for 2 weeks. Then put him in a cage with the SUBMISSIVE hens that were selected for him in week 1. If he continues to shoot blanks after the described method, discard him and find a replacement ASAP


**also know your roo, if you know/suspect he is lax due to being in with a roo that beat the crap outta him every time he tried to mate, you need to make sure he only sees the "action" from a distance so the working roo doesn't make him feel even more of a pansy then he already is**

 

[greenhorn]

For those having fertility issues due to roo being lax on the job, I have found this method to be helpful:

1) Put lazy roo in a cage or pen alone where he can see another roo "working" . Roos are naturally competitive and watching another roo work (breed doesn't mater as much as effort, seeing a roo mount hens is the main goal) can often trigger a mating response when allowed to have hens of his own. On day one, worm him with Febendazole. Also at this time, select your test hens- no more then 3 to put him with, they should be submissive hens of any breed- the idea here is to check fertility right away, and give him success. Hens used for this should be confirmed fertile, and have not been w/ any other roos in the last 10 days.

2) Besides a good feed, give Kickin' Chicken roo booster, calf manna pellets, quality cat food kibble, and supplement feed with lots of fresh stuff/goodies- this helps to bring nutrition up to optimum levels and correct any hidden deficiencies.

3) Use a herbal supplement to bring up testosterone to as optimum a level as possible. I got this years ago for my Doberman, and have used it occasionally w/ my Favs.
http://www.revivalanimal.com/Mr-Stud.html
I do a daily dose in a syringe mixed w/ cod liver oil when handling for #4

4) Using AI techniques, collect from the roo daily and discard collection. As weird as this sounds, it accomplishes 2 very important things; it helps ensure that the pipes are indeed working properly, and it stimulates the roo into production of more sperm... injuring the dignity a tad will only serve to make him need to feel lord and master all the more when he gets his hens back.

Follow this method for 2 weeks. Then put him in a cage with the SUBMISSIVE hens that were selected for him in week 1. If he continues to shoot blanks after the described method, discard him and find a replacement ASAP


**also know your roo, if you know/suspect he is lax due to being in with a roo that beat the crap outta him every time he tried to mate, you need to make sure he only sees the "action" from a distance so the working roo doesn't make him feel even more of a pansy then he already is**

Good stuff there. I'm not that up on fertility issues but i did notice something that seems to work pretty good. I notice my number 1 rooster gets lax when he is with the same hens for a spell. But when I put him in a new coop with different hens he suddenly becomes very active. He will service each hen in that new coop in minutes.

I did notice a slight decline in fertile hatching eggs. I think it's because I was leaving him in the coops for 5-6 days when I should have only been letting him visit for 3 days at a time. Still have lots to learn.

 

[greenhorn]

Just got my American Standard of Perfection book a couple weeks ago. Been so busy havemn'y had much time to read it all but I did read over the Dorking information. Yes, I had quite a bit to learn. Don't feel that I would have made different rooster selections without the SOP but I may have selected different hens. Oh well, I chalk this first year up to learning and did we have plenty to learn, and still do.

Can say it's been great fun but hope next year will be better. I placed an order for 25 YellowHouse whites for 2014. Plan on hatching dorking chicks through the summer just because we have the space and need some good hens.

Just got our bulletin from the SPPA and did some reading about grading. LOL there were 3 articles about it, ya think they are trying to tell us something?? I also recall Dorkings being mentioned and there was something mentioned about using grading to make bigger birds.

I'm personally too much of a purist to do something like that with dorkings though. Seems to me you'd want to keep an ancient breed as pure as possible but then how pure is the Dorking breed in reality?? We don't get many birds that meet the standard weight if any at all (is my understanding).

What do we do? Just wait for somebody to get a dorking that actually meets the standard weight then hope he offers a stud service? What if it's a hen? LOL

I do have a couple large birds but still need to weigh them. Being the rookie that I am, not really sure how to weigh a chicken. First I probably need some kind of poultry scale?

Listening to dorking chicks chirping as we speak, it's hatching time again....

The blacks come out with bad feet over all but we have been culling those and do have a few with good feet. The blacks are also quite small compared to our whites but there are a couple black chicks that appear to have some size. Of course that can change over time but I have my fingers crossed.

The whites are doing ok but get quite a few chicks with color spots, usually black but sometimes gray or blue. I decided to pay less attention to color right now. I'm not a pro chicken breeder but i do know from breeding plants that when you shoot for too much at once it makes it very tough. Probably the best thing to work with birds that have the best type and shape and keep a separate line going where size is the main focus. I've read too often to build the barn first and i think that culling spotted chicks might be like throwing the baby out with the bath water. To me size is the illusive trait we are looking for and it would be a shame to cull larger birds because of a color flaw this early in the game...

I think once we get 2 generations of birds we will start a roll breeding program with the blacks and whites separately of course. Will probably work it like that for a couple years or more, until we start seeing what we are looking for.

I'm definitely open to constructive criticism so if anybody thinks i'm getting off track or losing focus please feel free to let me know what you think. I'm going to study as much as possible when I get more time. Lots more to learn in the SOP.

YellowHouse's birds have been worked with and he knows what to expect from his birds as we are just starting to do here. Can't wait to see what he has come up with for 2014. Hope to be able to use some of those birds in the roll breeding project, I'm certain they will be much better overall compared to what we will have then. It's awesome that he's going to keep releasing his white dorking stock. Thanks again Joseph!

 

[capayvalleychick]

For those having fertility issues due to roo being lax on the job, I have found this method to be helpful:

1) Put lazy roo in a cage or pen alone where he can see another roo "working" . Roos are naturally competitive and watching another roo work (breed doesn't mater as much as effort, seeing a roo mount hens is the main goal) can often trigger a mating response when allowed to have hens of his own.

Your entire post is great information. I improved fertility simply by doing the first part.

By single mating, I also discovered that one hen was infertile. Working on her now.

 

[capayvalleychick]

Just got my American Standard of Perfection book a couple weeks ago. Been so busy havemn'y had much time to read it all but I did read over the Dorking information. Yes, I had quite a bit to learn....

Just got our bulletin from the SPPA and did some reading about grading. LOL there were 3 articles about it, ya think they are trying to tell us something?? I also recall Dorkings being mentioned and there was something mentioned about using grading to make bigger birds.

I'm personally too much of a purist to do something like that with dorkings though. Seems to me you'd want to keep an ancient breed as pure as possible but then how pure is the Dorking breed in reality?? We don't get many birds that meet the standard weight if any at all (is my understanding).

What do we do? Just wait for somebody to get a dorking that actually meets the standard weight then hope he offers a stud service? What if it's a hen? LOL

I do have a couple large birds but still need to weigh them. Being the rookie that I am, not really sure how to weigh a chicken. First I probably need some kind of poultry scale?


The whites are doing ok but get quite a few chicks with color spots, usually black but sometimes gray or blue. I decided to pay less attention to color right now. I'm not a pro chicken breeder but i do know from breeding plants that when you shoot for too much at once it makes it very tough. Probably the best thing to work with birds that have the best type and shape and keep a separate line going where size is the main focus. I've read too often to build the barn first and i think that culling spotted chicks might be like throwing the baby out with the bath water. To me size is the illusive trait we are looking for and it would be a shame to cull larger birds because of a color flaw this early in the game...

I think once we get 2 generations of birds we will start a roll breeding program with the blacks and whites separately of course. Will probably work it like that for a couple years or more, until we start seeing what we are looking for.

I'm definitely open to constructive criticism so if anybody thinks i'm getting off track or losing focus please feel free to let me know what you think. I'm going to study as much as possible when I get more time. Lots more to learn in the SOP.

I've been raising Dorkings since 2005, but didn't get the SOP until last year. I was so upset when I read it and realized how many defects I had been breeding.

Not having the SOP when I started breeding was my worst mistake.
Make sure to read the first sections, not just the breed description. So much valuable info there. Even the glossary will help with using the correct terminology on that other site.

Regarding grading, I am a purist and will not cross breed a foundation breed. That opinion got me condemned on another thread, so beware of making that opinion public.

You can get bigger birds by selecting for it in your breeding program. It's slow, but entirely possible with patience. I saw an old article with illustrations for each year and the progress made over a ten year period. There were only subtle changes from year to year but a transformation when you looked at the decade.

Finding a mentor that is a Master Breeder and APA judge has been a great help in applying what I read in the SOP.

I also waited way too long to use a scale. I'm still not sure if I'm getting an accurate weight. I bought a food scale but the surface is slippery. I ended up using an infant scale for mature birds. Lots of people say that they use postal scales but the ones I've seen for sale are expensive and too small.

Now I have the dilemma of my birds with the best weight have white ear lobes. My birds with some traits that I need have lower weight. I'm trying different combinations to see how I can resolve this.

I did cull some nice type/sized birds, early on, due to improper color. Another mistake. Type/size is the most important. Disregard color until you have type. At least you have single color varieties!