B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
Actually, there is someone north of Anchorage that is raising them.

We have a pretty close/tight-knit chicken community up here, so we try not to raise the same thing that other people are raising. One gal has Norwegian Jaerhons, another is getting the Coronation Sussex, I have the Dorkings and BBS/Lav Orpingtons, a few others specialize in bantams... I hear the Icelandics are very cool birds though.

Heck, it's 60°F here now, but I'm sweating and it feels like 90F. Great weekend to be out on the water!!

Just wondering how the dorkings do in your harsh winters with their combs and all of that.

And what size eggs are you getting and what color????

I do have to watch the combs, but they do well up here. I put vaseline on their combs.

The eggs are medium sized, and almost pure white.

 

[jgervais]

Does anyone actually make any profit from raising Dorkings?
I'm hoping to be getting a few here to breed just for meat and some eggs. I want a heritage meat bird just for personal consumption (basically holiday birds... christmas, thanksgiving, 4th of july bbq ect...)
Curious though if there is any actual profit to be made? I know the best feed conversion is cornish x's, but Im just not interested in those. Assuming this is more of a hobby breed?

 

[Urbanfarmerkc]

Quote:
I was at a poultry gathering once and I was doing my usual talking and carrying on when I made the comment, "There is NO money in chickens," an old man standing next to me raised up his hand and said emphatically, "I KNOW there is money in Chickens!" Nervously, I said "Well sir, how the heck did you figure out how to make money in chickens?" The old guy looked me in the eye and said with as much emphasis as before, "Son, I know there is money in chickens because I put it there!".

If that doesn't answer your question then I can add this much. I have NEVER made any profit on any type of chicken. I know Tyson does, I pretty sure that all the egg companies do but for anyone who has less than thousands of chickens probably not. Of course, the exception to this is if someone has breeder stock and is very organized, has NPIP, and can market well enough to sell a LOT of chicks and eggs in the spring. Then you MIGHT make a little profit but I wouldn't count on making much.

Reality is... raising chickens is a hobby these days. It is fun, you get the best tasting eggs in the world, the meat is wonderful even if the process of killing your own chickens is horrible and for me took 4 years of seeing raccoon do it, possums do it and every other creature in the world doing it before I became desensitized enough to do it myself. (killed and dressed my first chicken, since childhood, last week.)

It is also essential, I think, to keep the heritage breeds alive. If or maybe even when, a crises hits the big boys, we need to be able to compensate for the loss... it will be the old breeds that will survive a big disease hit. The flocks that are being raised like they always have been and not the ones that are locked up in small cages... So, that is another reason to keep up small flocks...

If you do figure out how to make a profit though, by all means share with us cause it'd be nice to have money coming in for a change.

Dave

 

[jgervais]

Love your response Dave! thanks for posting that.
I assumed this would simply be a hobby with some nice eggs and a few great meals a year - Im ok with that!

 

[capayvalleychick]

Quote:
I noticed on your blog and here, that you mention the Dorking for BBQ.

I also wanted to raise a heritage breed for my own consumption (as well as breed conservation). I've had Dorkings for years and have been experimenting with cooking them in many different ways. I especially need chickens that can be grilled, since it's too hot here all summer to use the oven. The Dorking is best as a roaster. They take a while to mature and by that time, they are too tough for the BBQ. Yellowhouse might have had success with grilling very young Dorkings but I have not. So, I don't recommend the Dorking as a breed for grilling. (Same thing with Buckeyes.)

I finally found a heritage breed that does develop fast enough to be cooked on the grill and that is the Delaware. So, I recommend Delawares for the grill and Dorkings for roasting.

A note to Dave: Loved your post!

Kim

 

[rtroxel]

My personal opinion is that if you keep a tight budget, free-range most of your birds, live close enough to a large population center to take advantage of the ethnic and urban markets, and have efficient birds, could make a profit on heritage breeds. You would need to carefully market your product and charge higher than store prices.

Here are a few basic numbers. Most chickens are pretty efficient, maybe 35-40% efficient (so 35-40% of the feed goes to growth). That means if you feed a 100# of feed to a batch of chicks, when the 2 bags ($30) are gone, your chicks should collectively weigh 35#. If you hatch your own chicks and don't have to pay $3 a chick (or a lot more) and you can sell those 35# for $4 a pound to someone, you should be a little bit ahead. These are pretty optimistic numbers, but if they are possible, so is making money. Obviously, you're going to feed more than 2 bags of feed and raise more than 35# of chicken, but I personally believe that if you had orders to fill most of the time that you could get ahead.

The problem is that most of us have 5 or 10 chicken hobbies to go along with our chicken ventures. That's where you really lose money. You also have to feed your breeder birds, count your time, pay for your overhead, buildings, etc. That all costs $$. And most of us do the job in a way that would usually rank pretty high on the inefficient scale=more time and money.

Anyway, best of luck

 

[capayvalleychick]

Quote:
That looks good to me. Who is working on this?

Kim

 

[rtroxel]

Quote:
I noticed on your blog and here, that you mention the Dorking for BBQ.

I also wanted to raise a heritage breed for my own consumption (as well as breed conservation). I've had Dorkings for years and have been experimenting with cooking them in many different ways. I especially need chickens that can be grilled, since it's too hot here all summer to use the oven. The Dorking is best as a roaster. They take a while to mature and by that time, they are too tough for the BBQ. Yellowhouse might have had success with grilling very young Dorkings but I have not. So, I don't recommend the Dorking as a breed for grilling. (Same thing with Buckeyes.)

I finally found a heritage breed that does develop fast enough to be cooked on the grill and that is the Delaware. So, I recommend Delawares for the grill and Dorkings for roasting.

A note to Dave: Loved your post!

Kim

In response to you, Kim. My silver grays would never be big enough fast enough to grill either at this point in their breeding, but after handling some of my 6 and 8 week old reds, I'd grill them today in a heartbeat if I needed to. (They're still just a bit small. It would be like a cornish hen...) They have grown fast, filled out impressively and really done well on the feed I buy. They are twice as good as growers compared to my show quality Wyandottes and Cochins. I have been thoroughly impressed with them.

In short, it's all about the strain that a person has and how that strain has been perpetuated over the years. And I hope that in the future you have excellent success breeding your silvers up to the point that they become good grilling birds

 

[TOL Chick]

Quote:
That looks good to me. Who is working on this?

Kim

I am planning on doing this at least for District 4 of the Dorking Club, as well as a library of poultry resources, etc. I will certainly let you know once it is up and running.

Jen

 

[jgervais]

love this site! Thanks so much for the info.... let the experimentation begin!!!!