B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[Kyzmette]

RedBugPoultry that roo is GORGEOUS!!!

 

[RedBugPoultry]

Thank you Kyzmette and BlackPanther! My roo in the picture, which is actually a cockerel of course, is filling out really nice. The pictures make him look thinner than he is but he will get much bigger than he is now anyway as these birds develop really slow. I was worried about his tail feathers for a while but they are finally coming in and looking to me pretty good. Really fun birds to work with!

 

[PineTopFarm]

I want to share some pictures of our Red Dorkings. Most of these girls are from this season's hatching and we are having really good luck with our size and weight in these birds. These are from Sandhill Lines. We only saved 2 roosters this season and I am really pleased with this one. He is about 7 months old.

It's nice to see pictures of the Red Dorkings. You say you have had good luck with weights; how much do your birds weigh?

 

[RedBugPoultry]

It's nice to see pictures of the Red Dorkings. You say you have had good luck with weights; how much do your birds weigh?

My rooster in the picture is just under 7 lbs but he is also 7 months old and I feel he will fill out and make weight before a year. Though he is the only rooster in with these hens so he is not in a conditioning pen. I need to weigh the one rooster I have kept from last year as I know he is a heavier bird but not sure by how much. These birds are not free ranged daily. They get out every few days but I have such a tough time getting them to go back into the coop if I free range them daily I have stopped trying that--they prefer trees to the chicken house. The pullets I kept(which I kept for their size) are right at the 6 lb mark and there again these girls are 7 to 9 months old. One is light at around 5 lb 7 oz but I think I could bring her up if I separated her. My breeding hens are not all at the 7 lb mark but most are close or right on. I do find that the pullets I raised this season from my eggs and not from shipped eggs have put on weight faster and are bigger birds. I have found this in a number of birds from shipped eggs for some reason that the second generation birds tend to be bigger...this might be due to the birds I tend to use as breeders though.

 

[Hewitt House]

I was finally able to weigh my Urch trio of SG Dorkings. The cock weighs 6 lb, 1 oz, looks small, feels thin. The big hen feels 'about right' and weighs 6 lb, 1.4 oz. the small hen feels thin, weighs 4 lb, 6.8 oz. I will post pics when they stop hiding from me when I approach their pen. I will also re-weigh when all have put on weight.

Am very curious to know when you got the birds. was thinking of getting a cockerel for the purpose of increasing the size of mine- but from the sound of things not sure it would help

 

[Sydney Acres]

I was finally able to weigh my Urch trio of SG Dorkings. The cock weighs 6 lb, 1 oz, looks small, feels thin. The big hen feels 'about right' and weighs 6 lb, 1.4 oz. the small hen feels thin, weighs 4 lb, 6.8 oz. I will post pics when they stop hiding from me when I approach their pen. I will also re-weigh when all have put on weight.

I may have missed it in an earlier post, but how old are your Urch birds at this weight?

 

[neopolitancrazy]

...

I may have missed it in an earlier post, but how old are your Urch birds


They are "young" adults per Mr. Urch. The terms cock and hen refer to any birds over one year of age, but do not specify exactly how much older the birds may be. Cockerels and pullets are chickens less than one year of age.

 

[Sydney Acres]

My rooster in the picture is just under 7 lbs but he is also 7 months old and I feel he will fill out and make weight before a year. Though he is the only rooster in with these hens so he is not in a conditioning pen. I need to weigh the one rooster I have kept from last year as I know he is a heavier bird but not sure by how much. These birds are not free ranged daily. They get out every few days but I have such a tough time getting them to go back into the coop if I free range them daily I have stopped trying that--they prefer trees to the chicken house. The pullets I kept(which I kept for their size) are right at the 6 lb mark and there again these girls are 7 to 9 months old. One is light at around 5 lb 7 oz but I think I could bring her up if I separated her. My breeding hens are not all at the 7 lb mark but most are close or right on. I do find that the pullets I raised this season from my eggs and not from shipped eggs have put on weight faster and are bigger birds. I have found this in a number of birds from shipped eggs for some reason that the second generation birds tend to be bigger...this might be due to the birds I tend to use as breeders though.

Hi RedBugPoultry,

Thank you for posting the pictures of your Sandhill Red line. How many generations out from a Sandhill shipment is this cockerel? Were his parents (grandparents?etc, depending on how many generations out) both from the same shipment, or from different years? He is a 98% duplicate to the rooster I kept from my 2012 Sandhill Red shipment, right down to the slight knotching in the first two tall comb spikes and the slight wrinkling in the comb blade!
It looks like you also got a bit of variety in the colors of the hens, with some looking more colored than red. In my group, the hens with the CD appearance had a better frame and size than many with the RD color, so I was quite happy to get them.

I also found mine to prefer roosting in trees instead of their coop. Luckily they have chosen a tree right in front of my house that is ladder-accessable, so I've been able to retrieve them every night. If they were to roost in the forest I'd either have to keep them in, or bribe them back into their coop before sundown every night. Letting them free-range definitely keeps a rooster lean - he spends so much time on guard duty that the hens eat more than twice what he does. Depending on their recent activity, he's between 7 1/4 to 7 1/2 lbs at 17 months, but he's quite lean, so he would probably be 8 to 8 1/4 lbs if he were in a conditioning pen. Still not up to the standard, but a close enough starting point for a breeding program.

 

[RedBugPoultry]

Hi RedBugPoultry,

Thank you for posting the pictures of your Sandhill Red line. How many generations out from a Sandhill shipment is this cockerel? Were his parents (grandparents?etc, depending on how many generations out) both from the same shipment, or from different years? He is a 98% duplicate to the rooster I kept from my 2012 Sandhill Red shipment, right down to the slight knotching in the first two tall comb spikes and the slight wrinkling in the comb blade!
It looks like you also got a bit of variety in the colors of the hens, with some looking more colored than red. In my group, the hens with the CD appearance had a better frame and size than many with the RD color, so I was quite happy to get them.

I also found mine to prefer roosting in trees instead of their coop. Luckily they have chosen a tree right in front of my house that is ladder-accessable, so I've been able to retrieve them every night. If they were to roost in the forest I'd either have to keep them in, or bribe them back into their coop before sundown every night. Letting them free-range definitely keeps a rooster lean - he spends so much time on guard duty that the hens eat more than twice what he does. Depending on their recent activity, he's between 7 1/4 to 7 1/2 lbs at 17 months, but he's quite lean, so he would probably be 8 to 8 1/4 lbs if he were in a conditioning pen. Still not up to the standard, but a close enough starting point for a breeding program

Most or my Red Dorkings are now third generation, but a few are second. The rooster shown is third and from my hatching this season. I purchased eggs from a friend that purchased the chicks from Sandhill and the eggs were from her first laying season with the birds. That said I wonder if the size of my birds, I hatched, are bigger due to age of my hens. I am not sure how old her birds were when I purchased eggs from her but I did not keep and hatch eggs from my birds until they had laid for about 4 months or more and their eggs had gotten pretty good size. Yes, I do know that the darker birds from Sandhill have Colored Dorking in them and those do tend to be and produce the nicest birds. I know of several people that have culled the darker hens but I am going to work with them a while before I worry about the colors.

 

[LavendarFeather]

Hi! I'm new to Dorkings, and admit that my first attraction to getting involved with the breed was so that I could tell my friends I was a Dork Farmer. Lame joke, I know, but can't help myself sometimes. Anyway, I fell in love with the Silver Grey variety, and have begun paying my dues with shipped eggs that disappointed, and "live" chicks mishandled by the p.o. Heartbreaking... I am working on getting more stock, but in the meantime I have one truly lovely pullet from excellent lines, and would love to find her a boyfriend. I'm checking the usual channels on BYC, but thought I'd ask here, also, if anyone has a cockerel or rooster whom they would like to sell. He will have a nice life, with a spacious run and free range time some afternoons (need to rotate which boys are out), a lovely wife and some other other layers to admire him until I get more Dorkings. I'm in Southern California, but willing to drive a bit, or pay shipping for the right boy. Thanks!