B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[TOL Chick]

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Hey Nicole! Welcome to "THE CLUB"

It's hard not to fall in love with the Dorking, as we will all concur!

Renee up in Syracuse is working on Cuckoos & Coloreds, and has birds from Ed, so you could hook up with her on details. Lindsay & I are in Michigan, and working on coloreds, but are in the "chick" stages of gathering stock. So probably at least a year out before we'd be able to help with colored birds.

Hope this helps!

 

[tgrlily]

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I think Ed Hart in IL has cuckoo. But you'll want to call him and find out if he ships eggs in the fall. He also has RC colored, but I believe availability is rather limited.

Ed has White & Colored. The White pen has thrown a few sport cuckoos this year.

 

[X2Farm]

Thanks for the Welcomes yall! I'd seen Eds name mentioned (I read the whole Dorking thread the last few days

) and and a few others. I wrote down his contact info so I can get in touch with him. How do I get ahold of Renee?

Curious, is there no one known that has any of the old bloodlines of Dorkings that trace back more then a few years? Has all the old stock/blood pretty much been lost?

Strange thing about the SG Dorkings... I've got some Olive Egger pullets that have that nice pattern w/the color on the breast area. I was a bit suprised to see that as one of the Dorking Varieties!

 

[TOL Chick]

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Renee just responded to you The ever vivacious Tiger Lilly!

 

[X2Farm]

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Renee just responded to you The ever vivacious Tiger Lilly!

OH!

Well, now I know who she is

 

[jgervais]

anyone get chicks from sandhill?
I think mine are supposed to hatch today - 10 colored dorkings. prettty excited, i hope they have enough to send!

 

[Oldhound]

Igervais ! My answer probably would have been different last year. I received rose combed black Dorking chicks from Sandhill last year , perhaps the scarcest color and most faulty color available . Mr Drowns clearly stated that other colors were used to avoid possible inbreeding issues. I ended up keeping three solid black pullets of reasonably good type and a huge colored cock bird. The cock I chose to keep because of size alone even though his type was wrong , V shaped outline and too tall . Put some eggs in the incubator , but got discouraged looking at the adults thinking nothing good would ever come out of them , so I culled them. BIG Mistake ! at least half of the chicks now 8 weeks old are sooo much better than the parents. nice squatty , chunky babies . The other half look like the parents, but will "still taste like chicken".
My point being , even if they don't look like show birds, don't give up. The genes are there , it's all a matter of choosing the breeders and keeping the next generation and so on. Compared to blacks I would expect the Colored to be better.
It would be a shorter road going to a "show" breeder rather than a hatchery , but I like the challenge of breeding for the betterment of a breed , and am finding this very rewarding.
One other thing , I have found that the chicks that shipped in were terrified from the experience and no where near as friendly as those I hatched , Talked to and handled from the get go. Baby yours , after all they are babies. Best of luck Bill

 

[rtroxel]

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I think most of the lines have roots long ago. Unfortunately, no one really know what they are because the breed history has become obscure on this side of the pond. There are actually several lines that have been kept up rather well. Roger Tice's Reds. Jeanie ________ (don't know last name

's SGs. I'm sure Ed Hart knows at least some of the history of his line of whites. I doubt there are too many people that can trace their birds' roots back across the Atlantic directly, but I'm sure there are some lines that have plenty of history. I guess you'd really have to talk to the breeders about their own lines.

 

[tazcat70]

It would be good information to gather. I am sure it would be a long, hard road. It is hard to find breeders let alone find out where they got their stock from.

 

[TOL Chick]

Quote:
I think most of the lines have roots long ago. Unfortunately, no one really know what they are because the breed history has become obscure on this side of the pond. There are actually several lines that have been kept up rather well. Roger Tice's Reds. Jeanie ________ (don't know last name

's SGs. I'm sure Ed Hart knows at least some of the history of his line of whites. I doubt there are too many people that can trace their birds' roots back across the Atlantic directly, but I'm sure there are some lines that have plenty of history. I guess you'd really have to talk to the breeders about their own lines.

The best in the country on Dorking lines is Craig Russell. I would venture to say most of the colored lines come from Craig originally (I believe Sandhill bought their original stock from him). Tigerlilly is working on the Dorking Preservation Project which is all about identifying the different strains in the US. If you are a member of the Dorking Breeder's Club, our last newsletter contained an article by Tigerlilly (aka Renee Bennett) all about it. It's really Noah's idea