B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[Jake Levi]

The silvers and the coloreds are my favorites but they are all grand. This is a gorgeous roo.

 

[neftaball]

I had a crele pullet hatch out of some White Dorking eggs Ed Hart sent me. I gave her away, since I'm not concentrating on that color. She had the same coloring as the rooster in that picture.
Quote:
well, i'm excited! my girls (who i was complaining about not laying yet) gave me my first egg this morning (hoping it didn't get too cold).
re: shipped eggs, yeah i blame postal for a lot of things LOL. but ALL of these eggs were fertile, and ALL developed to day 10-14, when 2/3 of them quit on me. and except for the 2 that hatched, the rest look like they quit before day 18...

i took pics of my 2 this morning, still trying to figure cockerel/pullet of the second, it's got the wide brown stripe on the head, but a white spot to the right edge... doesn't really look like any other pics i've seen of chicks... pretty sure the first is a pullet.

found this pic this afternoon... THIS is what i REALLY want. 8)
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/imported/nav-homegarden/2009-09/6-dorking.jpg

this is my goal down the road... but for now i'll work on what i can get.

 

[lceh]

ki4got,
I'm sorry to hear your hatch didn't go so well, but glad to hear you're getting at least some Dorking eggs from the pullets. My 5 girls from the same hatch as yours were giving me 3-5 eggs a day through September, but as soon as the weather cooled off and the days got shorter a few weeks ago they slacked off big time (1 egg today, none yesterday, none on Saturday). I hear the Dorkings are better winter layers than most, but I'm not expecting much until the usual spring egg explosion at this point.

Hope the trio has settled in and are enjoying their new home!

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
oh man i'd love to have a 'mistake' like that... LOL

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
so far so good. got another egg today. same hen i think, but not positive... i've edited a funny video you might like to see (if i ever get it uploaded). the dorking roo and my (brainless) sultan going at it... (nobody got hurt) Funky just doesn't give up. and then my oegb roo, he's just a little old lady in disguise LOL. i'll post the link tomorrow maybe.

 

[greenhorn]

Just sent our first order to Sand Hill for 25 dorking chicks, 15 white and 10 silver grey. Never had dorkings before and look forward to getting our first flock.

We hope to get some white dorkings from Joe Marquette in 2012, have contacted him and are on his list.

Can't wait to try some old school meat birds, have been running cornish cross for last couple years. It's nice raising our own birds and being somewhat self sufficient. Cornish cross are kind of gross though and when it comes to filling the freezer it's not really necessary to butcher birds at 7 weeks.

We think it would be awesome to have an ancient breed or 2, help preserve them and become less reliant on hatcheries to provide our chicks.

For now we hope to get some decent eaters from the sand hill birds and will keep the best birds for breeding. Never ate dorking chickens before and have to find out how good they really are.

Hoping that it's not difficult to pick out the best birds when it's butcher time. We know it's going to take time to work the Sand Hill birds to standard and really hope to get some better stock soon.

We also have 2 trios of white cornish lined up for spring 2012. Can't wait to eventually have a variety of quality meat birds in the freezer..

 

[DaveK]

A little bit off topic for current discussion but I have a question. Have applied for membership in the Dorking Breeders Club and am still waiting for approval on a pending membership. Does this process usually take a while? Figured there'd be members there as well as here that might have some insight. I am normally fairly patient but right now maybe not so much. Thanks for any responses. Dave [email protected]

 

[Cheepside Texas]

I am with you Dave. I joined the Dorking Breeders Club about a week ago and got an email confirmation but still can't post or contact members. I read another post that it takes awhile to have your membership approved. That is too bad cause when you get the Dorking bug you are ready to get going!! Kinda frustrating.

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
yup. lol been there done that. it did get approved pretty quick for me tho. *shrug*

and i started looking for local breeders. or auctions. or chicks. but was too late in the season for most of them. but i did manage to find an auction of eggs (got 2 chicks out of 21 eggs, hatched last fri.) and a trio about 2 hours away (got 2 weeks ago) so now i have a whopping 5 dorkings... and from what i can tell, the chicks look to be pullets.

so 4 girls 1 roo. and i've gotten 2 eggs out of the new girls so far (hubby says the roo's "doing his job"

) so everything i get's going in the incubator asap. (i'll wait 7 days out and incubate what i've got...) fortunately i've got seperate hatcher/bator so i can do rotating hatches...

 

[Cheepside Texas]

Ki4got - Sounds like you are making great progress.

Actually I have many more important considerations besides approval to the Dorking Breeders Club before pursuing Dorkings - like housing! I guess I need be more patient so that I have a solid plan. The information on this BYC Dorking thread is really helpful.
Mary Beth