B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[ronott1]

naaaah! I've only got 10 broodies right now. LOL

Silly Broodies!

I have some hatching next weekend so that will be perfect for breaking her. She is very cute and dedicated as a Broody.

 

[ki4got]

Quote: honestly, none of my dorkings so far have made decent mothers once they're presented with the challenge of chicks. the first ran away screaming a hissy fit and left her chicks/eggs to be adopted by her co-broody buff orp. who took on a total of 32 babies her first brood, and is on her second batch now, that started out around 25 and is down to 9 since I sold off the rest.

several others were given hatching eggs and chicks had to be rescued or transplanted to another momma (cochins and the buff orp).

my broody dorkings are also related to snapping turtles I think. i'll stick with the sweet cochin and orp girls for momma-duty. LOL they let me keep my fingers intact.

 

[ronott1]

honestly, none of my dorkings so far have made decent mothers once they're presented with the challenge of chicks. the first ran away screaming a hissy fit and left her chicks/eggs to be adopted by her co-broody buff orp. who took on a total of 32 babies her first brood, and is on her second batch now, that started out around 25 and is down to 9 since I sold off the rest.

I am going to give her the chicks long enough to break her and them move them into the brooder.

She nearly killed the ones I let her hatch last spring.

 

[ki4got]

Quote: a good broody is worth her weight in feed. 8) bad ones might get a second chance, but rarely do.

 

[dorkings]

I can't wait until just one of my girls goes broody. Hopefully next spring!

 

[pysankigirl]

honestly, none of my dorkings so far have made decent mothers once they're presented with the challenge of chicks. the first ran away screaming a hissy fit and left her chicks/eggs to be adopted by her co-broody buff orp. who took on a total of 32 babies her first brood, and is on her second batch now, that started out around 25 and is down to 9 since I sold off the rest.

several others were given hatching eggs and chicks had to be rescued or transplanted to another momma (cochins and the buff orp).

my broody dorkings are also related to snapping turtles I think. i'll stick with the sweet cochin and orp girls for momma-duty. LOL they let me keep my fingers intact.

Oh, gosh...my current SG girl has two chicks she is doing wonderfully with! and she seems to understand when I am trying to help, even if the chicks don't. she went broody up on the hay shelf in the goat shed so we put a barrier along the edge so the chicks wouldn't fall out but now every day I lift them to the ground manually and then back up at night. she gets it and tries to get them to come over to me but they are 'fraidy cats. & she hasn't pecked me even once, ever.

 

[Alaskan]

That is so cute! I love stories like that.

 

[LilyD]

So my trio started having fertile eggs around end of April beginning of May. Since then I hatched everything I could out of their eggs (about 3 dozen eggs) and out of the ones I put in the incubator I had 12 total hatch. One died about a week and a half after hatch. No idea why. All of the other chicks in that pen are doing fine. So I have 11 that I will be able to choose from with hatch dates from June 11th through July 3rd. Out of those babies I think 3 are boys and 8 are girls. I am thinking even though I don't have a large population to choose from this year that I should still be looking at shape and size for my first two breed characteristics to cull for. Feet seem to be good. All babies have 5 toes even the crosses. So I think that is a solid trait in these three. I am already seeing a few of the younger birds (4 weeks) showing a blocky body type already but the others are much younger and so it's hard to tell what they will look like.

Now comes the hard part, watching and waiting to see what they look like once they get a bit older. Hoping I get some girls I can add in with the ones I have. I have a second rooster now. He is a little smaller than my guy but they seem to be getting along together. He has the blocky frame and red earlobes but I don't have any babies from him yet since they are all free ranging right now. I will be reseparating the flocks again at the end of August to get ready for winter so we will see how he does breeding after that. He is having a hard time learning to be a good roo but the girls are being patient and believe it or not the boys are helping to teach him too and will get after him when he gets too rough

I bred quite a few Dorking Cochin and Dorking Brahma crosses as well and they are all growing and looking really good. I am thinking that the Dorking and crosses that don't make the cut will be my new meat birds from now on. I love their type and their behavior so much more than other birds.

I will take pictures on Monday once things dry out a bit. We have had torrential rains here all month and the world is one big swamp right now lol. Hopefully next year I will be able to get an early start hatching and the weather will help me out.

One question though, wondering if anyone had ordered SG dorking chicks from The Poultry Hatchery in Fayette New York. I talked to the guy who runs it and he said his birds were from England and were imported SQ breeders. I was supposed to get some this year but they had incubator difficulties due to power outages from the storms we have had and had very poor hatches this summer. I would love any thoughts you have on them.

 

[ki4got]

So my trio started having fertile eggs around end of April beginning of May. Since then I hatched everything I could out of their eggs (about 3 dozen eggs) and out of the ones I put in the incubator I had 12 total hatch. One died about a week and a half after hatch. No idea why. All of the other chicks in that pen are doing fine. So I have 11 that I will be able to choose from with hatch dates from June 11th through July 3rd. Out of those babies I think 3 are boys and 8 are girls. I am thinking even though I don't have a large population to choose from this year that I should still be looking at shape and size for my first two breed characteristics to cull for. Feet seem to be good. All babies have 5 toes even the crosses. So I think that is a solid trait in these three. I am already seeing a few of the younger birds (4 weeks) showing a blocky body type already but the others are much younger and so it's hard to tell what they will look like.

Now comes the hard part, watching and waiting to see what they look like once they get a bit older. Hoping I get some girls I can add in with the ones I have. I have a second rooster now. He is a little smaller than my guy but they seem to be getting along together. He has the blocky frame and red earlobes but I don't have any babies from him yet since they are all free ranging right now. I will be reseparating the flocks again at the end of August to get ready for winter so we will see how he does breeding after that. He is having a hard time learning to be a good roo but the girls are being patient and believe it or not the boys are helping to teach him too and will get after him when he gets too rough

I bred quite a few Dorking Cochin and Dorking Brahma crosses as well and they are all growing and looking really good. I am thinking that the Dorking and crosses that don't make the cut will be my new meat birds from now on. I love their type and their behavior so much more than other birds.

I will take pictures on Monday once things dry out a bit. We have had torrential rains here all month and the world is one big swamp right now lol. Hopefully next year I will be able to get an early start hatching and the weather will help me out.

One question though, wondering if anyone had ordered SG dorking chicks from The Poultry Hatchery in Fayette New York. I talked to the guy who runs it and he said his birds were from England and were imported SQ breeders. I was supposed to get some this year but they had incubator difficulties due to power outages from the storms we have had and had very poor hatches this summer. I would love any thoughts you have on them.

I've never heard about them but would like to learn more about them.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

One question though, wondering if anyone had ordered SG dorking chicks from The Poultry Hatchery in Fayette New York. I talked to the guy who runs it and he said his birds were from England and were imported SQ breeders. I was supposed to get some this year but they had incubator difficulties due to power outages from the storms we have had and had very poor hatches this summer. I would love any thoughts you have on them.

Not to intrude, but there are no imported Dorkings in the US. If they had imported Dorkings:

1. It would be known in the poultry community
2. It's a royal pain in the neck; so their website would at least make mention of it.
3. It costs a lot of money, and anyone with the slightest business sense would pull a Greenfire farms scam a rob the pants off everyone to regain the funds lost in importation.

If you go to their website, their entire set up suggests a link to Ideal Hatchery.The combo that they just got into poultry in 2005 and offer that many breeds--as well as commercial hybrids means: 1) they're not breeding their own birds because one doesn't simply begin breeding commercial hybrids. 2) they don't know a lot about poultry because if they did, they'd know that people who know a lot about poultry don't offer what they offer. 2) they are not SOP/APA centric, which means their birds are hatchery sourced. 3) They either have a cesspool of a farm, or 4) more probably, they're shipping other hatcheries' birds.

The only hatchery sources for Dorkings in the US are MMCM, Ideal, Stromberg's (Duane Urch birds in disguise), and Sand Hill. Any other folks are selling birds from these sources, which means same quality with a middle-man mark-up. All are hatchery quality birds. Dick Horstman has combed his birds with birds from a gentleman in VA. They are of OK quality. If there are any even moderately SQ Dorkings in America, they are in the Reds, Whites, and SGs. There are no elite SQ Dorkings in America, at least within the public ken, nor have there been for multiple decades.

Edited to add: they offer sexed chicks.....they don't know how to sex chicks (!!!!)....even the most accomplished breeders don't know how to sex chicks...sexing chicks is a rather closed profession, it's like a little secret society.