B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[ki4got]

WOOHOO!!!

a breeder sent me some eggs last week, some as much as 4 weeks old... (it seemed a waste to throw them away when we could give them a chance).

well, i've got 14 of 31 eggs growing! the oldest are from jan 30th. so 17 days old when i received them, AND having been at the mercy of USPS. a few of the eggs from the 29th started but ended up with early blood rings.

I'll

and hope i don't lose any from here, but being a realist, i'll take what i can get.

but it's still exciting having eggs developing that you didn't really give much hope to.

oh! these are red dorkings! and a couple red/colored mix (she doesn't have a colored roo). and i've finally got some colored on the way soon!

 

[DaveK]

Oh crap, I'm no teacher but will try with what I do know here. Did I send you the old pdf of the Dark Dorking from the English book? The one that I said looked silver instead of straw but was otherwise what we should be after? The colored Dorking cock is supposed to be straw/gold whatever you want to call it. That's a combination effect of both red and silver and as such the color is variable. As Craig's article tries to stress no one is going to get completely stable "true" breeding males any more than you do with any other golden duckwing. Breeders need to constantly select for the richer color or they seem to want to run towards the silver end of the spectrum. Breeders of golden duckwing (like the cock in the pictures I sent in the earlier post) will understand as it is the same thing. With the colored Dorking we have a hen showing a lot of melanizing factors and we should have hackle and saddle striping in the cocks.On a richly colored background, not a silver or darn near silver bird. I love the sentiments expressed in your last sentence but to some extent with coloreds there is what we want AND what we get. The reality of working with a variety that is a bunch of modifiers and not a clear cut color like silver or red. Not having the hackle/saddle striping ain't right either and while I imagine there might be ways to foster that, especially by knowing what to look for in the hens, I don't know what they are. It wasn't an issue in our own or some other's birds we were familiar with and even the males in those old strains were not too hard to keep correct. Just had to watch for a dimming down of that rich gold color.

Quote:

Dave, thanks for bringing this up... I've wondered myself, since the sandhill birds seem to (from what i'm finding) have a LOT of variation in the cocks. can you find/post a pic of what they are SUPPOSED to look like? I haven't got a copy of the SOP, and am not really sure exactly how it is worded regarding these birds (the colored). but I'm hoping to start working back to SOP and breeding for true color (in addition to type).

are the cocks supposed to have the striping on hackle and saddle? similar to the silvers? or are they not? I'm still learning about all this, and trying to get a fixed image in my head for what we want, not what we're likely to get.

 

[LilyD]

WOOHOO!!!

a breeder sent me some eggs last week, some as much as 4 weeks old... (it seemed a waste to throw them away when we could give them a chance).

well, i've got 14 of 31 eggs growing! the oldest are from jan 30th. so 17 days old when i received them, AND having been at the mercy of USPS. a few of the eggs from the 29th started but ended up with early blood rings.

I'll

and hope i don't lose any from here, but being a realist, i'll take what i can get.

but it's still exciting having eggs developing that you didn't really give much hope to.

oh! these are red dorkings! and a couple red/colored mix (she doesn't have a colored roo). and i've finally got some colored on the way soon!

My fingers are crossed for you. I hope they hatch that would be so cool. I can't seem to hatch mine fast enough I have 4 people already asking for chickens and they all want my brahmas because they are big and beautiful. Hoping we both have a good hatch.

 

[DaveK]

As far as the color of the hens there should never be any confusion about red vs colored. Red in any other breed where we don't have to deal with Dorking vernacular would be red duckwing or black breasted red. Think Old English Game bantams. That would mean that in regard to the trio picture I sent the hen in the left front is a red Dorking. The other one is a colored hen though ground color and general effect seems light to me. That and the fact of the "colored" male who came with her and is in that same picture has me wondering about red infusion somewhere along the line. Something has caused the hackle/saddle striping in that male to be absent but otherwise he is lots closer to being correct for basic color than the very silvery birds pictured. Though some look like big hefty boys which is nice to see. That one hen is basically a red with something gone awry, at least by the looks of her. The big looking darkish hen all by herself that I sent is the closest to being correct as I understand it. She could be improved color wise by having definite straw/gold shafting instead of the paler shade she seems to have according to the picture. The male the same breeder pictured was very silvery so I suspect the color we see in the photo is accurate. Which can improve in her offspring provided she is bred to a richly colored male and not a paler cream or silvery one. I don't know that getting them to breed "true" is so much the issue, except for keeping the color rich enough, as actually finding the real thing nowadays to work with. There have been long term breeders breeding and selling various degrees of wrong not in any way being dishonest but as Craig's article explains just out of misunderstanding of what they actually ought to be.

 

[ki4got]

Did I send you the old pdf of the Dark Dorking from the English book?

you did, but i've had 2 computer reinstallations over the last 3 weeks, so it's gone and then some LOL. but i'm on a stable configuration now, so cross fingers it stays that way...

i'm wondering if there's any way you could post it here for everyone's benefits, or if there's legalities in doing so (copyrights?)

if it's open for distribution, and you can't post it, i can if you send it to me again.

 

[dorkings]

ki4got, I am excited for you and your great post. Please keep us posted and pics please.

 

[RareBreedFancier]

Loving the pics, here's a couple I borrowed from the web...

Dark or Colored hen


This might be the one mentioned with the silver looking roo

Looks like I have about 8 eggs developing and another 6 to go in as well as whatever is laid over the next few days.

My double yolker is still looking good,

for it.

Karen, I'm glad to hear your finally getting some fertile eggs, hope you have lots of chicks running around soon.

 

[DaveK]

Send me an email and I'll send it again. Problem is that when scanned at work it transfers as a pdf, no choice in the matter. So no way I know of to post it here.

 

[ki4got]

Send me an email and I'll send it again. Problem is that when scanned at work it transfers as a pdf, no choice in the matter. So no way I know of to post it here.

no problem, i can change a pdf to whatever i want. 8) if it's ok to, i'll post it here once i get it again.
pm'd my email to you

 

[dorkings]

Thanks, If it could post it that would be great I would like to read it also.