B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[ki4got]

Oh I didn't use a bag, I wouldn't have been popular!

I use bathroom digital scales and an airline dog crate since my cat crate isn't big enough. I weighed the crate empty and then with a bird in it, subtract the known weight of the crate and tada! Easy chicken weighing.

well, I don't have a bathroom scale. they scare me LOL

i do have a hanging 'fish hook scale' and think i'm going to modify a milk crate to hang under it. then i can just put the bird in with my hands over the top to keep them from jumping... the pillowcase isn't bad. they just sit there and practically go to sleep. but i think the milk crate would be more versatile.

 

[Lino]

Hello all,

greetings from Germany to all Dorking-Breeders!
I read through the posts and it has been very interesting to learn more about Dorking.

While the English-Standard requires the same weight as the Australian Standard, the German Standard requires the following weight:
Rooster 3,5 -4,5 kg
Hen 2,5 – 3,5 kg

In Germany Dorking are a very rare breed, the follwing numbers have been registered, though there is certainly unregistered stock:
Year Female animals Male animals
2009 167 45

Most of them are 'silvergrey' or a darker variety of silvergrey (silberwildfarbig/ dunkel), as mine are, too.

http://tgrdeu.genres.de/default/hau...3E5D466-BB51-FD58-E040-A8C0286E751D/jahr/2009

Greetings
Lino
(Please excuse my poor English, I hope it is understandable)

 

[capayvalleychick]

Welcome Lino!

It's wonderful to hear about the Dorking in countries around the world. Sorry to hear that there are so few in Germany. Is it possible for you to import from other countries?

I would love to see pictures of your Dorkings!

Regards,
Kim

 

[blessedacre]

Anyone mix their own organic whole grain feed? this is the recipe that seems to be popular, I have found it on different sites.....this is for grown hens, there are variations for chicks.........

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]- 2 parts whole corn
- 3 parts soft white wheat
- 3 parts hard red winter wheat
- ½ part Diatomaceous Earth (not the kind you put in your pool)
- 1 part hulled barley
- 1 part oat groats
- 2 part sunflower seeds
- ½ part peanuts
- 1 part wheat bran
- 1 part split peas
- 1 part lentils
- 1 part quinoa
- 1 part sesame seeds
- 1/2 part kelp
free choice of granite grit
free choice of oyster shell and [/FONT]

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]I do not have my chickens yet, the coop is almost done. I plan to have 8-10 dorkings and 3 buff orphantons[/FONT]

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]my question is..... if I buy in bulk 6 gal buckets would this feed a flock of 10-15 for a year or at least 6-8 months..... I would also supplement with garden and table scrapes as well as allowing them to forage a 3-4 times a week, maybe more at times. I understand there to be NO waste with whole grain feed, and I would assume it would be more filling and last longer??? I will be costly 3 - 4 HUNDRED at once....... anyone do this and can tell me how far the $$$$ would go. I priced all organic. Thanks Anyone have a different mix they are willing to share or might suggest certain ingredients to be more important than others. I have been told I can feed them hard boiled eggs for the protein supplement, would that be daily or a couple times a week?[/FONT]​

 

[ki4got]

Quote:

Anyone mix their own organic whole grain feed? this is the recipe that seems to be popular, I have found it on different sites.....this is for grown hens, there are variations for chicks.........
<snip>

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]I do not have my chickens yet, the coop is almost done. I plan to have 8-10 dorkings and 3 buff orphantons[/FONT]

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]my question is..... if I buy in bulk 6 gal buckets would this feed a flock of 10-15 for a year or at least 6-8 months..... I would also supplement with garden and table scrapes as well as allowing them to forage a 3-4 times a week, maybe more at times. I understand there to be NO waste with whole grain feed, and I would assume it would be more filling and last longer??? I will be costly 3 - 4 HUNDRED at once....... anyone do this and can tell me how far the $$$$ would go. I priced all organic. Thanks Anyone have a different mix they are willing to share or might suggest certain ingredients to be more important than others. I have been told I can feed them hard boiled eggs for the protein supplement, would that be daily or a couple times a week?[/FONT]​

​

I can't say for the organic stuff, but i get feed from a local mill so i know it's fresh, and pay $20 per hundred pounds. and feeding a total of 39 birds of various ages, plus daily free ranging, I go thru about 100 pounds every 2 weeks. I feed everyone the same thing, 20% protein, and give free choice oyster shell. I don't worry about grit, as they're free ranging and can find plenty of that on their own in the yard.
the egg coop (dorking roo, his 2 girls, and 5 bantam girls) gets the feeder (10 lb capacity) filled once a week or so, and turned loose in the afternoons, and everyone else gets 2 scoops morning and afternoon scattered to pick at, since there's not much to eat with frozen ground right now.

 

[SoCal Dorkings]

Hello all,

greetings from Germany to all Dorking-Breeders!
I read through the posts and it has been very interesting to learn more about Dorking.

While the English-Standard requires the same weight as the Australian Standard, the German Standard requires the following weight:
Rooster 3,5 -4,5 kg
Hen 2,5 – 3,5 kg

In Germany Dorking are a very rare breed, the follwing numbers have been registered, though there is certainly unregistered stock:
Year Female animals Male animals
2009 167 45

Most of them are 'silvergrey' or a darker variety of silvergrey (silberwildfarbig/ dunkel), as mine are, too.

http://tgrdeu.genres.de/default/hau...3E5D466-BB51-FD58-E040-A8C0286E751D/jahr/2009

Greetings
Lino
(Please excuse my poor English, I hope it is understandable)

Hi Lino,

Please tell us more about your Dorkings.

Are there fertility issues? Do they go broody? Is the temperament good?

How many do you have, and how to you keep and breed them? Are they all together, or in pairs, trios, etc?

I would also love to see pictures of your birds

It's great to hear from folks like you in Germany and RareBreedFancier in Australia and get a better picture of what Dorkings are outside of the US.

 

[RareBreedFancier]

Hello all,

greetings from Germany to all Dorking-Breeders!
I read through the posts and it has been very interesting to learn more about Dorking.

While the English-Standard requires the same weight as the Australian Standard, the German Standard requires the following weight:
Rooster 3,5 -4,5 kg
Hen 2,5 – 3,5 kg

In Germany Dorking are a very rare breed, the follwing numbers have been registered, though there is certainly unregistered stock:
Year Female animals Male animals
2009 167 45

Most of them are 'silvergrey' or a darker variety of silvergrey (silberwildfarbig/ dunkel), as mine are, too.

http://tgrdeu.genres.de/default/hau...3E5D466-BB51-FD58-E040-A8C0286E751D/jahr/2009

Greetings
Lino
(Please excuse my poor English, I hope it is understandable)

Lino! Your English is very good, certainly better than my German! Interesting to see the different weights around the world. Those are terribly low registered numbers, very sad when I looked at the site and most colors have less than 10 registrations for the year. I hope there are a lot of unregistered Dorkings out there. I'd love to see pics of your birds, the darker color sounds interesting. I have one pullet growing out who looks way to dark for a silver grey and I'm wondering if that's what yours look like. She's very pretty.

 

[dorkings]

Didn't want to leave out our 2 handsome Dorking boys

 

[RareBreedFancier]

Anyone mix their own organic whole grain feed?  this is the recipe that seems to be popular, I have found it on different sites.....this is for grown hens, there are variations for chicks.........

[COLOR=3C3568]- 2 parts whole corn[/COLOR]
[COLOR=3C3568]- 3 parts soft white wheat[/COLOR]
[COLOR=3C3568]- 3 parts hard red winter wheat[/COLOR]
[COLOR=3C3568]- ½ part Diatomaceous Earth (not the kind you put in your pool)[/COLOR]
[COLOR=3C3568]- 1 part hulled barley[/COLOR]
[COLOR=3C3568]- 1 part oat groats[/COLOR]
[COLOR=3C3568]- 2 part sunflower seeds[/COLOR]
[COLOR=3C3568]- ½ part peanuts[/COLOR]
[COLOR=3C3568]- 1 part wheat bran[/COLOR]
[COLOR=3C3568]- 1 part split peas[/COLOR]
[COLOR=3C3568]- 1 part lentils[/COLOR]
[COLOR=3C3568]- 1 part quinoa[/COLOR]
[COLOR=3C3568]- 1 part sesame seeds[/COLOR]
[COLOR=3C3568]- 1/2 part kelp[/COLOR]
​

[COLOR=3C3568]free choice of granite grit[/COLOR]​

[COLOR=3C3568]free choice of oyster shell and[/COLOR]​

 ​

[COLOR=3C3568]I do not have my chickens yet, the coop is almost done.  I plan to have 8-10 dorkings and 3 buff orphantons[/COLOR]​

 ​

[COLOR=3C3568]my question is..... if I buy in bulk  6 gal buckets  would this feed a flock of 10-15 for a year or at least 6-8 months..... I would also supplement with garden and table scrapes as well as allowing them to forage a 3-4 times a week, maybe more at times.  I understand there to be NO waste with whole grain feed, and I would assume it would be more filling and last longer???  I will be costly 3 - 4 HUNDRED at once....... anyone do this and can tell me how far the  $$$$ would go.  I priced all organic.  Thanks   Anyone have a different mix they are willing to share or might suggest certain ingredients to be more important than others.  I have been told I can feed them hard boiled eggs for the protein supplement, would that be daily or a couple times a week?[/COLOR]​

Blessedacre!

Never seen that recipe before, certainly a nice range of ingredients. Your buying a bucket for each part right? So 20 buckets? Using only half of some? (Kelp, DE and peanuts) I calculate that would be only just over 2 big barrels. (55gal barrels/drums I believe you call them in the US?) Checking grain weight and knowing some of these things are heavier than others I'll work on roughly 400 pounds per barrel.

Rounding down to 800 pounds:
1/4 pound per bird per day = 320 days for 10 birds or 213 days for 15 birds (likely amount for much of the year) or
1/3 pound per bird per day = 240 days for 10 birds or 160 days for 15 birds. (likely amount for cold winter weather)

Commercial products will say 1 pound will feed 5 birds but that's calculated for light crossbred layers. Obviously the more they can free range or you can supplement the less grain they will need. Dorkings are great free rangers and love to get out and find their own dinner if they can.

I don't mix my own as getting high enough protein is an issue. I haven't calculated the protein in that mix but my gut tells me it will be lower than I prefer. If they are free ranging and catching their own bugs and getting egg as well that will help to increase the protein %. The thing to remember with that is when you have heaps of eggs and bugs it's great but over winter your likely to have neither of those things if you live in a cold climate. You may want to increase the protein feeds in winter to make up for that.

Oh and don't assume there will be no waste with a whole grain diet. I tried feeding mine whole grains and the stinkers used to only eat the ones they preferred and flick the rest out onto the floor for the mice to get. Now they are back on pellets till I find another option.

Good luck with your new adventure into chicken keeping!

 

[RareBreedFancier]

Didn't want to leave out our 2 handsome Dorking boys

Dorkings!

Those are some beautiful birds!