B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[DaveK]

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CONGRATULATIONS!

Great fertility, especially for this time of year. How are your breeding birds housed/managed during the months of snow up to the armpits?

 

[Yellow House Farm]

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Untapped market????

Yup...I guess I walked into that one...

 

[DaveK]

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Temperment? Dorking's tend to have an ideal temperment for farm fowl. I've only once heard of a Doking cock being a man-fighter, and I've never had one on our farm. The hens are calm but go about their business. Dorkings are serious foragers and don't have time to follow you around like a puppy-dog.

Laying will vary with the strain. Some are fair layers, some are good layers. Their general capacity should be strong, but that will only hold true with intentional breeding practices. They are, however, in the "dual-purpose" world, it's either "eggs with meat" or "meat with eggs." An Australorp should be "eggs with meat". A Dorking should be "meat with eggs".

Cockerel weight at 20 weeks--and I'd wait at least until 22 wks. "20" weeks is a bit random. Dorking roasters are slaughtered between 22 and 26 weeks. At that this age they'll currently be between 3.5 and 5/lbs. With intentional breeding, we should be able to have them at a consistent 5-6lbs--without caponizing. As capons they have a great potential.

I AM going to quote this as it completely echoes our experiences with a variety of Dorking colors and strains. Love the description of them being "meat with eggs" as that's how we should find this fowl. The only thing I might add is that some strains within some of the red varieties are good brooders and mothers. So they will start reasonably early and lay well up until it's time they figured they should be broody. If eggs are a huge deal this can be a disappointment but for those who want broddies or some back up to incubator hatching it's a very positive plus.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

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CONGRATULATIONS!

Great fertility, especially for this time of year. How are your breeding birds housed/managed during the months of snow up to the armpits?

Birds are in 6'x4' bays, hence 24 sq.' with between 3 and 6 birds per bay. Hence, 4 sq' minimum per bird.

Birds have unlimited access to a breeder ration, grit, and calcium. Scratch dropped daily--heavy in oats.

Outdoor runs are 6' high with wire enclosure on top. We hang 6 mil plastic on the sides all the way around to remove wind chill. Coops are plasticed up pretty tight. The double front doors and side windows are wire. In the warm months they're open. Each bay has an opening out to a run. This provides air circulation and ventilation all day long, removing stale air, etc... But at night they're locked up and the plastic holds the heat. It adds several degrees to the ambient temperature without investment in expensive insultations. I do think that taking that bite off is important with regards to early fertility, although I think that it is equally important to give them outside access. I'm not a strong believer in birds stuck inside. Chickens should be tough. SC Dorkings were not built for life on our farm--VERY bad scene. RCs, however, do swell.

We have found that, when it snows, we cover the outside runs with loose oat straw. The birds exit right away, and by walking on the straw, pack down the snow. They scratch away and have a ball. In the springtime, with the thaw, you're left with some pretty manure-laden straw ready for composting--excellent for gardening. On the rare occasion, we have a bird that ingests straw and develops crop issues. However, I'm a FIRM believer in culling for any ailment or weakness. THis hasn't happened in two years. I believe that it is something that can be culled against. Weakness is not tolerated here. I know that sounds tough, but our goal is rugged farm-fowl.

I hope this provides a good picture

 

[Mrs MIA]

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We use a breeder ration with hightened protein. If you have excess eggs, hard boil them-MASH THEM UP!--and feed them back. A diversified diet will strengthen fertility. However, you say "trouble hatching chicks" what precisely is the problem, or rather, at what stage are you having difficulty. There could be several answers.

Sorry 'bout that, I should have clarified!! I've been feeding 16% layer supplemented with a few scratch grains, flax, BOSS... The last 3 dozen eggs I set this Fall, if they developed at all, they quit on me between 7 and 14 days. This was with 4 hens to one roo. I'd have to go through my notes, but I hatched very few chicks last year, most quiting before 2 weeks was up. I had two different bloodlines going. I'm going to order more chicks this year (

) but wondering if it was the birds or the breed.
Right now they're not laying at all, and I have never had a hen go broody, which is odd. My breeder coop is set up very similar to yours, with 3-5 birds per pen. I have access to 16 and 20% protein layer rations. I'm in the boonies, so I'm limited to what is "ready made", though for my layer coop I'm sprouting barley and mixing my own rations. I feed eggshells back to the birds, and they get boiled quail eggs for treats, and sprouted alfalfa occasionally.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge...

 

[Yellow House Farm]

My first thought is this sounds like an incubator issue. What stock are breeding and where are they from? You mentioned two bloodlines and did not seeem to have fertility issues but rather developmental/hatchability issues.

There could have been a dietary issue, perhaps some increased protein. How old/mature was the stock when you set the eggs?

 

[Mrs MIA]

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If they were the only eggs I was hatching, I'd think it was the incubator. But I usually set about 80 eggs a week, and the Dorkings were the only ones not developing to hatch. The birds are either from MMH, or Black Mountain in MT. They were on the same feed as my Orpingtons, Marans, Lt. Brahmas, Ameraucanas, and sexlinks, and all of them had fabulous hatch rates. It was just the Dorkings.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Hmmm..... That's all quite strange. Did you combine the two strains for diversity?

 

[Mrs MIA]

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Yes, I did.

The birds I have now are the first generation of the cross.

I'm most appreciative of any insights. My breeder coop is split into 8 LF pens... everyone was on the same ration. I'm just at a loss, unless I just managed to keep the weakest ones.

 

[FlyingtheCoop]

Please forgive my novice questions, but this is my first Dorking and I want to learn as much as possible. Are they very slow to mature to laying? My pullet is somewhere in the range of 20-21 weeks, but she has a little teeny comb, it is red, but still so small. The Henderson chart is great, but the maturity scale is cryptic at best.