B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[Rockashelle]

Are you certain that it is "white" versus light grey? I just re-read you said cream colored on the chest. This puzzles me. If it is truly white, then I would say they are cockerels. If there's a chance that it is light grey, then I would say they are pullets with cream or rust color chests. There's plenty of experts on here that may have a better answer for you. I raise colored dorkings and have some pretty weird colors grow in. The white on the cockerels definitely presents itself first. I'm interested to hear others opinions on your birds.

 

[ki4got]

Hello Dorking club, I purchased some Dorking pullets earlier this month from Ideal. Could you tell me if the ones with white feathers are actually Roosters? The white banded wing ones are growing in white/cream colored feathers along the armpit/chest and the brown ones are coming in dark brown.

look at the breast color. pullets will be reddish, cockerels will be black. the ones with white, if it's not one or the other, then who knows...

 

[pysankigirl]

I got our first two eggs this weekend...one on friday and one on Sunday so I think it is just one girl that has matured! they are about 24 weeks old.

so thrilled!!! both eggs were about 40 grams. is that a normal size for a dorking egg?
they were perfectly shaped and I am going to pysanki-dye the one and keep for posterity.

 

[capayvalleychick]

thought i'd post up some new pics i got yesterday... (be warned, my naming system kinda lacks imagination LOL)
my Craig Russell roo "Big Red"

I also have to say, comparing a couple new sg's from Mcmurray (spring 2012) with sg's from there last year, they seem to be improving their program a bit too. the new girls are much larger than my 'old' girls, and have better type. These came from a local woman who got them for 'barnyard color', not specifically for breeding, but she let me have 2 of her girls to add to my bunch. (i REALLY want her roo... he's MASSIVE!) but i haven't gotten any good pics of the new girls with the rest of the flock yet... hopefully soon.

Nice pics Karen. I was really interested in seeing what you got from CR. Love the bodies on the girls in the group shot...the pony is cute, too.
Colored hens are so pretty. I have one from my 2009 SH order and I use her to produce eggs for eating. She's a great layer of large eggs. She does go broody and hatched out a few pullets with her same coloring.
I'm glad that you've had such good results from McMurray's. I regret ordering from them, this past Spring. Most of the chicks did not survive, all were doa in the replacement order. The surviving few chicks were of worse quality than my own birds. A breeder told me that he used to drop ship eggs to them, to fill orders. Their source for the West must not be as good as the one for the East coast.

 

[capayvalleychick]

I got our first two eggs this weekend...one on friday and one on Sunday so I think it is just one girl that has matured! they are about 24 weeks old.

so thrilled!!! both eggs were about 40 grams. is that a normal size for a dorking egg?
they were perfectly shaped and I am going to pysanki-dye the one and keep for posterity.

Please post a photo of the dyed egg. I'd like to see it. Good to hear that you are getting eggs.

 

[greenhorn]

NIce pictures ki4got!

Hey psyankigirl just started getting dorking eggs recently also, three so far today. They seem quite small compared to the eggs my ISA Browns lay. Hopefully they get bigger. Probably takes more time for that with Dorkings just like everything else I suppose/hope lol.

And to all the rest of the dorking farmers out there I have been doing a little research about Fodder Systems. I think it would be easy to set up one for chickens that don't have an opportunity to free range. Might also be a great way to offer live green food to our chickens during the winter when there is none available. The more I research the more I want to try it. Just barley or wheat seeds etc some trays a rack and water and in 7 days you can grow 6-8 pounds of feed with 1 pound of grain seed. Soil is not even used and it looks like feed grain works fine too.

The other advantage is that you get 80% of the available nutrition to the birds compared to a far lower percentage when bag feed or dry grain is used. I know it's a bit off topic for this thread but just thought it might be a great method for feeding heritage breeds that were bred to free range.

Does anybody here use a fodder system or method? Any suggestions or advice?

 

[alisar]

Maybe light silver?




This one's eyeliner has faded quite a bit. Black barred chest feathers. Boy?





I know, I know, that's why no one wants to buy from the hatchery

 

[capayvalleychick]

Does anybody here use a fodder system or method? Any suggestions or advice?

I have two friends who use a fodder system. Both have ranches with multiple species of animals. One person said that it worked well, but her horses did not like the barley fodder. She stopped using it during the summer because it was so much work. She bought her system through Farmtek, it was very expensive. The second person recently started and made up her own fodder system. She's been writing about it in her blog. Search through here to find her experiences so far:
http://quartzridgeranch.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/our-fodder-room/
She loves to talk about it, so you could contact her.

 

[capayvalleychick]

Maybe light silver?




This one's eyeliner has faded quite a bit. Black barred chest feathers. Boy?

The black feathered chest, I say cockerel. The other is tough to tell. Eyeliner can mean pullet. The salmon feathered chest in the other photos is a pullet. It's hard to say when you have unusual color feathering going on.

 

[Sydney Acres]

Hi Alisar,
I got my first order of straight run Red Dorkings this year, and they're now 23 weeks old. I tried to determine which was male and which was female when they were first feathering out, and it's not that easy. They're going to go through a few molts before they get their final coloring, so what looks like one gender initially can end up the opposite.

Although I have no experience or expertise in Silver-Greys, it is my understanding that they can be sexed by down coloring. IF that is true, and if your birds are silver-greys, then all four of your chicks are pullets, based on the width of the brown pattern on the top of their head. Here is a link to the site with the picture of male and female SG Dorking chicks. The picture of the head coloring is 4th from the bottom. http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGD/Dorks/BRKDorks.html

--April

Hello Dorking club, I purchased some Dorking pullets earlier this month from Ideal. Could you tell me if the ones with white feathers are actually Roosters? The white banded wing ones are growing in white/cream colored feathers along the armpit/chest and the brown ones are coming in dark brown.