B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[pysankigirl]

I was wondering about that. Craig said he came from his colored pen.

 

[DeannaA]

IMO rudy troxel and dick horstman have the best, but the ones from Sandhill aren't bad either. my own girls are from tice/horstman lines with my roo being a cross between that and Sandhill.

Thanks.

 

[imtrying]

i'm looking for red dorking day old chicks. does anyone know where i can get them other than sandhill and horstman? not that anything is wrong with either, i simply would rather not wait until april/may to get them.

 

[ki4got]

i'm looking for red dorking day old chicks. does anyone know where i can get them other than sandhill and horstman? not that anything is wrong with either, i simply would rather not wait until april/may to get them.

those are the only options I know of that ship chicks, and I don't think I'd chance it this time of year, especially with the temps we've been having. it was bad enough I got two shipments last year and each time the chicks got lost (mcmuray) and arrived dead. sandhill I've had fewer problems with. I haven't ordered ffrom dick or rudy yet but I plan to this year I think. possibly some whites from Joe too... they're growing on me. (I typically don't like white birds).

 

[Sydney Acres]

Well, I lost Mongo to the cold. he wasn't in the coop last night...he had chosen to hunker down under the goat shed. I thought he' be fine under there but he wasn't. kicking myself now. woke to find him frozen stiff.

But I still have his son, who honestly looks identical to him. and I have Tonda, my blue-red, who is friggin HUGE. I need to weigh him.

Question on the genetics of blue-red. if I breed him to regular red hens it acts like BBS...50% will be red and 50% will be blue-red, right?

Oh Pysankigirl, I'm so sorry. It must have gotten frigid cold there. You'd think that it wouldn't be a problem with overhead cover, but I guess being outside on the ground is a huge difference from being outside on a roost, overhead cover or not. We'll all learn from that.

Tonda is a gorgeous boy. Such a unique color -- maybe not a SOP color, but very pleasing to the eye, nicely balanced. And a beautiful Dorking shape, which is the most important thing of all.

 

[Sydney Acres]

i'm looking for red dorking day old chicks. does anyone know where i can get them other than sandhill and horstman? not that anything is wrong with either, i simply would rather not wait until april/may to get them.

Those are the only ones I know of that ship chicks, but try joining the Dorking Breeder's Club and look for a breeder in your area. That way you don't have to worry about minimum numbers or shipping deaths. If you don't find a local breeder that is advertising, then put an ad up yourself, in the Dorking Breeder's Club site as well as on threads like this, stating that you want Red Dorking chicks, where you are, and how far you're willing to drive to pick them up. There are several people that I know locally that have them, myself included, that don't actively sell, but might be willing to provide some chicks to the right home if we knew you were local and wanted some. If that doesn't work you can always order fertile eggs to hatch. Lots of people will ship eggs that won't ship chicks. If you don't have an incubator, contact your local FFA or 4H group, or a local breeder of any breed, to see if they'll incubate the eggs for you. Lots of people would consider doing that, either at no charge, or for a price, or for 1/2 the chicks, or something else.

I know it's sometimes hard to wait when you really want something, but I'd reconsider wanting shipped chicks this time of year. There's nothing more disappointing that opening a box at the post office to find all the chicks dead because they got too cold, or having them die of shipping stress one by one over the next week. There's a reason very few people ship chicks this time of year, of any breed.

 

[pysankigirl]

Oh Pysankigirl, I'm so sorry. It must have gotten frigid cold there. You'd think that it wouldn't be a problem with overhead cover, but I guess being outside on the ground is a huge difference from being outside on a roost, overhead cover or not. We'll all learn from that.

Tonda is a gorgeous boy. Such a unique color -- maybe not a SOP color, but very pleasing to the eye, nicely balanced. And a beautiful Dorking shape, which is the most important thing of all.

Thanks so much.

Mongo was a good boy. He was attacked once by a fox trying to save his girls and got bitten in the process but managed to make it.

Tonda is a good boy too, and has quite a following, the girls love him. So he must be doing something right. He seems to do a good job taking care of them and watching over them. I wonder what makes one rooster a leader and another one just a hanger-on. regardless, he has a tight little clique and I sometimes see him as the footballer with all his cheerleaders (I am always likening chicken politics to high school politics)

 

[ki4got]

(I am always likening chicken politics to high school politics)

same number of functional brain cells in both groups? (sorry I was in the 'out' crowd LOL)

 

[BlackPanther]

Well, I lost Mongo to the cold. he wasn't in the coop last night...he had chosen to hunker down under the goat shed. I thought he' be fine under there but he wasn't. kicking myself now. woke to find him frozen stiff.

But I still have his son, who honestly looks identical to him. and I have Tonda, my blue-red, who is friggin HUGE. I need to weigh him.

Question on the genetics of blue-red. if I breed him to regular red hens it acts like BBS...50% will be red and 50% will be blue-red, right?

He's lovely! What variety is he?

 

[msladyhawke]

He's lovely!

X2