B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[sandiklaws]

The goal is faverolles oriented and these have all of the fav traits. .. just was a bit of a surprise in the color department

Neither look silver to me...  but what is your goal?  to breed back to the faverolles or to breed back to the silver greys?  if to breed back to dorkings, why? especially when there are much better dorkings already available.
The goal was to diversify Fav genetics as they are all fairly closely related. In my research I tracked back nearly every single major (30+) SOP breeder flock back to one flock that began with 10 birds and had several genetic flaws, most notably split wing and very poor immunity. My curiosity about the silver is if it keeps showing up I may eventually try to work with it as a new color... otherwise I will just begin the process for selecting towards salmon and cull the silvers out. The pullet resembles a dark Brahma hen. The cockerel has the light dark division typical of a salmon fav male but with a clean silver base. Neither bird appears to have any color bleedthrough.

if you're trying to breed back to the faverolles, then why does it matter if they have leakage or not, since the base color is supposed to be red not silver?

sorry but i'm a bit lost here.  when you work on a project it helps to have a clear goal in mind, so you (or others) can determine where the project is going...

 

[ki4got]

The goal is faverolles oriented and these have all of the fav traits. .. just was a bit of a surprise in the color department
Quote: oh ok... so if you're aiming for fav's, these would set you backwards, color-wise.

 

[msladyhawke]

Yay! My red pyle hen started laying! I forsee red pyle dorking chicks on New Years Day!!!! (Anyone else doing the NYD hatch-a-long?) :yiipchick

 

[BLT79]

ok, I want more chickens in the spring. I want to add some diversity! I have an ee roo, 1 splash maran, 2 bcm, and 1 rir/cuckoo maran. I have no idea now how I came across the Dorking. It may have been on the heritage thread. They have great reviews for being docile, friendly, quiet. Will they be cold and heat hearty? will they be fine with other breeds and being confined? Do they tend to be broody? I live in Western MA. where is the closest, most reputable place to get them? and I do not want 25! haha! I don't think I am particular on the colors either! What are the colorings besides the red and the silver grey? Thanks all and hopefully in the spring I will be the proud mama to a couple dorkings!

 

[sandiklaws]

oh ok...  so if you're aiming for fav's, these would set you backwards, color-wise.

Yeah I guess they are. I am going to do a few test breedings with them both together and to pure favs... and if the color keeps popping up I will see if anyone wants them for a color project. I have a friend who has LF black they might work well with. I am pretty sure the roo carries the fav male pattern gene, so it will be interesting to see what happens next generation. The pullet resembles a dark Brahma.

 

[Kyzmette]

Dorking question! Love this pair that I just got, but the roo is the sloppiest eater I've ever seen! He is the biggest food waster, and he also seems to eat more than any other bird I've ever had. Is this typical of Dorkings, or is this just one young boy with terrible table manners? I'm going to build a better feeder just for this guy, because he'll eat me out of house and home.

 

[cukooformarans]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...te-5-gallon-25-feed-bucket-feeder-for-about-3

I am seriously considering trying this idea.

Dorking question! Love this pair that I just got, but the roo is the sloppiest eater I've ever seen! He is the biggest food waster, and he also seems to eat more than any other bird I've ever had. Is this typical of Dorkings, or is this just one young boy with terrible table manners? I'm going to build a better feeder just for this guy, because he'll eat me out of house and home.

 

[Kyzmette]

@cukooformarans I read that very article and was already thinking of making one of those feeders! Right now I have the Dorkings in a large cage until the new pen is finished, so I can't put a big feeder in with them, but I'm going to adapt one of the pvc connectors to fit. The first thing this bird does with any dish I put in with them is turn it over. The second thing he does is kick anything left in the dish out of the cage. The third thing he does is stare at me like I'm trying to starve him.

 

[cukooformarans]

Lol! I wouldn't consider myself an experienced dorking breeder by any stretch. However, I have had some Marans behave the same way. My personal guess is that it just depends on the individual chicken. If you figure something out, please share your experience!!

 

[Sydney Acres]

@cukooformarans I read that very article and was already thinking of making one of those feeders! Right now I have the Dorkings in a large cage until the new pen is finished, so I can't put a big feeder in with them, but I'm going to adapt one of the pvc connectors to fit. The first thing this bird does with any dish I put in with them is turn it over. The second thing he does is kick anything left in the dish out of the cage. The third thing he does is stare at me like I'm trying to starve him.

Sounds about right for a young boy! Years ago an experienced breeder told me I had 2 choices -- I could invest in quality feeders, or I could invest in lots of wasted feed. How true that is!! That doesn't mean that you can't make your own, but it does mean you have to consider normal chicken behavior to prevent food from being wasted. Normal chicken behavior is to scratch at the ground to eat, even if the food is right on the surface. So any food bowl has to be one that can't tip over. It can be too heavy to tip, or mounted on a wall/fence, or hung from something, or designed specifically to prevent tipping (like the tip-proof dog bowls). But if it can be scratched at and tipped over, it will be.

The second normal chicken behavior is to "bill out" food from a container. That is where they can't get their feet into the bowl to sort through their food, so they use their beak to scoop it out onto the ground, where they can scratch it about like they feel nature intended. There's a few ways to control that. The commercial feeders have a narrow lip on the feeder rim, projecting towards the center of the feeder, to catch the food as it's scooped towards the edge. But unless you have access to the proper equipment to roll metal (to prevent sharp edges) or to manufacture plastic, that conformation might be difficult to create at home. Alternatively, you can use very tall bowls, but only put a small amount of food in them, so the walls of the bowls are too tall for the birds to scoop out their food. That does mean that you need multiple bowls to provide the needed amount of food, but it does prevent them from scooping out the food. The experienced breeder told me that his one-time expense of 4 bowls was a lot less than the constant expense of wasting 1/4 - 1/2 the feed. Elevating the feeder to at least crop level can reduce food wastage also.

The other thing to consider is food sanitation. Food that is on the ground and is eaten right away is fine -- chickens are meant to graze and forage. But food that sets on the ground for a long time can harbor dangerous mold/bacteria/parasites/etc, which can make chickens sick. Lots of chickens die, or just fail to thrive, because of poor feeding technique. (I visited a farm recently where the single feeder was in the center of the pen, there was nothing to prevent scooping out of food, and the feeder was just topped off when it got low, never emptied or allowed to run out. The (wide) area around the feeder was a thick crust of wet, moldy food mixed with droppings. The submissive birds were bullied away from the bowl, so all they had to eat was the old spill-over. Not surprisingly, this farmer had very poor egg production, lost an average of 5 birds per year, and his heritage breed birds had an average lifespan of only 3 years. The rest of his management was good, but he just needed to use better feeding sanitation.) I free range my birds, feed only enough on a daily basis that they will eat it all at least one hour before they go in to roost (that way any spilled feed gets eaten that day, and it encourages them to forage more), and I move my feeder location at least 10 feet every week. That way their food is always fresh, never spoiled on the ground with mold or poo or moisture on it, I've never had any intestinal problems with my flock, and their appetite is great, so the egg production and meat production is also great. If you don't free range, then moving the feeder isn't an option. Placing the feeder on a slatted tray, and cleaning out the tray regularly, will work quite well. The scooped-out food will fall through the slats and be inaccessable to the chickens, so no contaminated food would be consumed (just design the slats or grate in a way that prevents injury to their feet and legs). Alternatively, a simple tray underneath that is cleaned daily would also work just as well.

Hope you're enjoying your new birds.

--April