B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[ki4got]

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!

good point on picking thru for what they like best...

gave me another idea too. check with a local feed mill. they can run the numbers and tell you what the ratios would be for that mix. and also might be able to mill it all together for you and formulate a pelleted feed the birds can't pick thru. i'll see if i can find my feed formulation program. been a while since i used it. but it'd give me the info about that diet.

 

[RareBreedFancier]

Oh good idea! Getting the mill to calculate it would be much easier than doing it all by hand like I do.

I'm used to doing it myself for horse feed mixes and there is no local mill here so I didn't think of that. That feed formulation program sounds interesting, what's it called?

 

[ki4got]

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]- 2 parts whole corn[/FONT]

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]- 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]​

​

ok surprised me... but presuming they eat 100% of the feed put down, it works out to
protein - 21.4%
fat - 5.2%
crude fiber - 6.3%
so overall not a bad looking ratio. but cost wise, it's not very efficient. so on a small scale, for pets, I can see it, on a larger scale, if you're hoping to at least break even? not too likely.

 

[ki4got]

Oh good idea! Getting the mill to calculate it would be much easier than doing it all by hand like I do.

I'm used to doing it myself for horse feed mixes and there is no local mill here so I didn't think of that.

That feed formulation program sounds interesting, what's it called?

WinFeed 2.8

i didn't input ALL the possible nutritional values, just the basics to save time. but if you were to find prices for those components, that would also calculate out how much the cost would be for x amount...

that's part of what my degree is in. BS in animal sciences, with concentrations in genetics nutrition and reproduction. biochem killed my hopes of vet school tho.

 

[RareBreedFancier]

Protein - 21.4%? Wow! That's much higher than I expected.

I'll have to look up WinFeed, I'd like a program like that. I know what you mean with the Chem, that's why I gave up trying to be a Vet too. So now I'm just a hobby farmer. Mind you, with all these critters being a vet sure would have cut down on the bills!

Eep! First site I pulled it up on it's 100 pounds!

Oh no, looks like I've found a free demo, it's all good.

Looks like it might take a while to get the hang of. Does it have a long list of possible ingredients hiding somewhere? *Must look harder*

 

[DaveK]

Dorkings!
Those are some beautiful birds!

YES! Some nice wide wheel base there. Look like a good start. Thanks for sharing.

 

[ki4got]

Protein - 21.4%? Wow! That's much higher than I expected.
I'll have to look up WinFeed, I'd like a program like that. I know what you mean with the Chem, that's why I gave up trying to be a Vet too.

So now I'm just a hobby farmer.

Mind you, with all these critters being a vet sure would have cut down on the bills!

Eep! First site I pulled it up on it's 100 pounds!

Oh no, looks like I've found a free demo, it's all good.

Looks like it might take a while to get the hang of. Does it have a long list of possible ingredients hiding somewhere? *Must look harder*

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/livestk/01615.html
that's where i found most of the info... EE is fat btw, it's not mentioned anywhere on the page tho but if you look down the list of feed ingredients one is 'animal fat' which is 99% EE LOL.

if i could find my old textbook it had a lot of nutrition analysis in it. no idea where it is now tho.

the program is pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it. but it's got some issues IMO.

 

[ki4got]

on another note, I've discovered that YES LF dorking and bantam (oegb, d'anvers or rir?) crosses WILL hatch. LOL

totally forgot about the 3 eggs in the hatcher. got home and kept hearing something faintly. then all of a sudden it got LOUD!

PEEP PEEP! yup he/she made it out just fine. but man he's loud. waiting for the next 2 to hatch so he'll have buddies in the brooder. could this be the start to another bantam dorking line?

 

[Lino]

Hi all, especially Kim, SoCal Dorkings and RareReedFancier,

thank you very much for your warm welcome.

Due to some technical problems, it will need some time (2-3 weeks) to show you some pictures.

Presently I start breeding Dorking. Due to limited space I can keep only one line of Dorking. But there are 2 breeders in driving distance so there are opportunities of exchange. One of them is in contact with a breeder from Switzerland. I know that also some eggs from the UK have been imported, but the quality was rather disappoiting.

Originally I started with 'Bielefelder Kennhuehner' a German breed from the 1970s. As they do not go broody, I was looking for a broody hen and last year I got a broody Dorking hen (silver grey) together with a few eggs. Somehow I fell in love with the Dorking so I decided to breed Dorking. Dorking are a unique ancient breed, which must be preserved.
One rooster and one hen (both of them silber-wildfarbig, a darker variety of silver grey, also called 'dunkel', dark) developed nicely. From a breeder I got another hen also 'silber-wildfarbig'. The rooster is rosecombed, the hens are singlecombed.
I believe that due to low numbers Dorking varieties are sometimes crossed, especially the red Dorking and the silvergrey Dorking.

Dorking are known in Germany as a broody breed, though many breeder prefer the incubator and don't want them to go broody.
I like the temperament of the Dorking very much, the rooster is very good to the hens and the hens care very good for the chicks. The meat quality must be exceptional.

Now despite of very low temperature (-21C = -6F), the hen is broody again. At the weekend I will candle the eggs. As it is quite early I am not sure about the fertility.

There is also a German-Dorking-Site: http://www.dorking.de/
The site needs some update but has some very nice pictures (also from the dark variety) and information. The breeder list is out-dated, many of them have given up due to the avian flu, due to their age or various other reasons.

Greetings from Germany

Lino

 

[jgervais]

Lost my only silver grey hen two days ago Just vanished, so Im presuming a hawk. We're usually really careful about when we let them out and keep the dogs out with them to keep predators away. And my two roosters that have been behaving together so well are now fighting like a mexican rooster ring... So I think the silver grey rooster may become dinner this week, I just don't have room to separate two and the other roo is so nice... I guess Ill stick with breeding the colored roo i have (though his colors look more like a cross) with the one colored hen i have. Now quite how I imagined this 'Dorking breeding' thing to go, but what can ya do?