Some color patterns a more or less solid. "Self-colored" birds, i.e. birds of one color, tend to be fairly stable, although the quality of the coloring can vary. Each self-color: white, red, buff, black, blue, etc..., has those particulary glitches that can undermine the individual quality of a specimen: brassiness in white birds or positive black; purple narring in black birds or positive white, washed out or smutty red, etc...
"Parti-colored", or patterned, birds layer a whole other level of complication onto the finished product because of the greatly increased potential for variation from the Standard. Some patterns are easier to perfect than others; some are outstandingly difficult to nail down. Colored Dorkings, especially the females, possess one of these patterns. Unfortunately, the problem is compounded because the level of difficulty and the kind of hatching and culling required for success often put people off, which means that fewer people work with them and breed them in number, leading to stock whose quality is even more compromised.
Personally, if I were to want to delve into Coloreds, I'd make them the center of my breeding program so that I would allot them the kind of space needed when doing my hatching plans. I'd hatch as many as possible, and for a season or two, I'd just what them grow, keeping meticulous notes as to which younger trait led to which adult result. Of course, this goes, with any bird, but I'd be extra diligent with coloreds because of the level of variability. Hopefully after a few seasons of meticulous hatching/study I'd be able to see elements in the younger birds that would foretell their adult outcome, allowing me to hatch heavier and cull earlier.
"Parti-colored", or patterned, birds layer a whole other level of complication onto the finished product because of the greatly increased potential for variation from the Standard. Some patterns are easier to perfect than others; some are outstandingly difficult to nail down. Colored Dorkings, especially the females, possess one of these patterns. Unfortunately, the problem is compounded because the level of difficulty and the kind of hatching and culling required for success often put people off, which means that fewer people work with them and breed them in number, leading to stock whose quality is even more compromised.
Personally, if I were to want to delve into Coloreds, I'd make them the center of my breeding program so that I would allot them the kind of space needed when doing my hatching plans. I'd hatch as many as possible, and for a season or two, I'd just what them grow, keeping meticulous notes as to which younger trait led to which adult result. Of course, this goes, with any bird, but I'd be extra diligent with coloreds because of the level of variability. Hopefully after a few seasons of meticulous hatching/study I'd be able to see elements in the younger birds that would foretell their adult outcome, allowing me to hatch heavier and cull earlier.
