B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[monkeemakr]

Hmmm...

1. Does "cord trailing" mean a very fine thread between 1/8 and at very most 1/2 inch long that's gone in 1-2 days? If so, no worries.

2. If a four-toed is bred to a five-toed, you'll get (some) five-toed. This is something for which you can cull at the incubator door.

If you have two pullets and three cockerels, choose the the two strongest cockerels and pair each with a pullet. Use your standard and select for ways in which the one helps to compensate for lacks in the other. Then hatch as many as you can raise well from the two pairs and be careful to toe-punch so that you keep track of the lineage of each chick. From here, you'll be able to do a lot next year.

Best,

Joseph

 

[ki4got]

Well, it's certainly not a variety issue. If the problem is in the birds, it's in the strain.

i agree. that's what i intended to relay, but was half asleep when i posted. sorry. 8)

 

[Yellow House Farm]

i agree. that's what i intended to relay, but was half asleep when i posted. sorry. 8)

Of course, no apologies necessary. I find this all befuddling. MMCM SG's played a key role in our out crossing a few seasons back, and the fertility and hatchability were through the roof. Indeed, they have been ever since.

 

[ki4got]

Of course, no apologies necessary. I find this all befuddling. MMCM SG's played a key role in our out crossing a few seasons back, and the fertility and hatchability were through the roof. Indeed, they have been ever since.

well, it's quite possible that the issues that i and a few others are having may only stem from 1 roo they may be using. and it could just happen that these birds are descended from that one.

things like that do happen now and again. look at the quarter horse world, and descendants of "Impressive". he was an awesome halter horse, and while he didn't have problems himself, many of his offspring had or were carriers of HYPP. hyperkalemic periodic paralysis. it had not been diagnosed in the breed prior to Impressive, and is found only in his bloodline. fortunately a genetic test is now available to identify carriers, to make sure you don't breed HYPP +/+ or +/- horses together. (-/- horses do NOT carry the gene and are therefore 'clean').

 

[Howhardcanitbe]

Of course, no apologies necessary. I find this all befuddling. MMCM SG's played a key role in our out crossing a few seasons back, and the fertility and hatchability were through the roof. Indeed, they have been ever since.

Thanks for the input. I cracked open a dud today. On external inspection of the chick, all the requisite parts were there. I didn't open him up though to see if he had all the necessary internal parts. He actually looked really good, except of course, he was dead.

I will try again in when my girls start laying larger eggs, right now eggs are on the big side of medium. And I will try a different rooster. My two spares aren't quite as nice, but they aren't bad either. I wish now I had kept at least one from the Sandhill group, but they were very small and their coloring was all wrong. I do have a few pullets from Sandhill, but again, size and color patterns are suspect. At least I have some options.

 

[monkeemakr]

Does anyone know of a place where you can look at all the color varieties available in dorkings? I've seen red, white, SG, and salmon. Seems there are so many colors, or are those just breeding projects? tawny, fawn, etc

 

[ronott1]

Quote: I read somewhere(probably in the first part of this thread) that you shouldn't try hatching pullet eggs form Dorkings. Wait several months and try again with your good rooster.

Late quitters have more to do with the health of the parents. Make sure all of the nutrition is correct and just to be sure, take a manure sample to a vet for a float test to rule out worms.

Of course there could have been problems with the temps or humidity during your hatch. I am convinced I killed some with too small of an aircell and moving them from an auto turner to their sides in the incubator. I am having better hatches following the tips on the Easter Hatchalong thread. Look at the first post there for the tips.

Hoping for better hatches in the future.

 

[ki4got]

I read somewhere(probably in the first part of this thread) that you shouldn't try hatching pullet eggs form Dorkings. Wait several months and try again with your good rooster.

Late quitters have more to do with the health of the parents. Make sure all of the nutrition is correct and just to be sure, take a manure sample to a vet for a float test to rule out worms.

Of course there could have been problems with the temps or humidity during your hatch. I am convinced I killed some with too small of an aircell and moving them from an auto turner to their sides in the incubator. I am having better hatches following the tips on the Easter Hatchalong thread. Look at the first post there for the tips.

Hoping for better hatches in the future.

well, i always hatch multiple breeds /sources together so i know if it's an incubator issue or something else. the bad hatches i've had for dorkings, i've had better than 75% on everything else, with the exception of shipped eggs, and anything over 20% i'm happy with. i know my first shipped eggs weren't pullet eggs, but my own birds were somewhat. and hatches did improve over the couple months i hatched them out, but then the roo stopped doing his job so i went for almost 2 months with clear eggs. i've got 4 or 5 of my own eggs in the incubator and the other 50+ are from colored and reds from sandhill lines from 2 different breeders. i'm amazed that i still have 16 going from 23 eggs shipped... 22 were fertile but i had a couple late quitters. they're in the hatcher due on tuesday. the other eggs weren't really shipped, but they did travel from greensboro to roanoke via my truck a couple weeks ago. they're due to hatch next sunday. i had to consolidate 2 incubators last night and i think a couple got shocked because i noticed they'd quit on me since yesterday... but better than losing all 20 that were in there.

 

[ki4got]

Does anyone know of a place where you can look at all the color varieties available in dorkings? I've seen red, white, SG, and salmon. Seems there are so many colors, or are those just breeding projects? tawny, fawn, etc

http://dorkingbreedersclub.webs.com has pics of the APA recognized varieties. the rest i think can be gotten from mixing some of the colors together, but not sure (yet).

 

[ronott1]

Quote: It looks like you are doing the right things. Probably a rooster fertility problem and this could be due to the small gene pool increasing genetic problems.

I toyed with the idea of getting hatching eggs from Canada--It is the easiest country to get eggs from. The problem is I would probably just get McMurray Dorkings since they ship chicks up there.