BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[AnthNDacula]

I'm on a search to find the foundation stock for my White Dorking project. So far I've e-mailed the more commonly sited names in White Dorkings but haven't had much feedback yet. I'm guessing it's winter, the holiday season, and generally not when people are thinking about selling chicks. I'd be ecstatic to find anything descended from Yellow House or Jeremy Woeppel's lines. If I don't have any luck in the next few weeks I'll place an order with Sandhill Preservation Center. I'll get spare cockerel chicks locally to practice caponizing on in late winter and then order 25 Silver Gray Dorkings to have something to begin selling next Christmas. If anyone has a source of White Dorking chicks please let me know.

I love your pics from your Cornish project Ipatelski. I'll bet those roasted chickens in your picture taste better than their grocery store counterparts. I've been mulling over the details of my Christmas Capon project for a long time and considered using heritage White Cornish but decided I'd have a better chance marketing something with a different name than Cornish. Besides that the history and legends surrounding Dorkings caught my fancy.

 

[gjensen]

I'm on a search to find the foundation stock for my White Dorking project. So far I've e-mailed the more commonly sited names in White Dorkings but haven't had much feedback yet. I'm guessing it's winter, the holiday season, and generally not when people are thinking about selling chicks. I'd be ecstatic to find anything descended from Yellow House or Jeremy Woeppel's lines. If I don't have any luck in the next few weeks I'll place an order with Sandhill Preservation Center. I'll get spare cockerel chicks locally to practice caponizing on in late winter and then order 25 Silver Gray Dorkings to have something to begin selling next Christmas. If anyone has a source of White Dorking chicks please let me know.

I love your pics from your Cornish project Ipatelski. I'll bet those roasted chickens in your picture taste better than their grocery store counterparts. I've been mulling over the details of my Christmas Capon project for a long time and considered using heritage White Cornish but decided I'd have a better chance marketing something with a different name than Cornish. Besides that the history and legends surrounding Dorkings caught my fancy.

I would not get any from any other source other than the two you first mentioned.

Jeremy is a reliable seller and someone I think a lot of. I would recommend contacting him directly. You will get a response. If none are available now, they will be later this winter or spring.

This is the time of year where everything gets quiet. We are in the shortest days of the year, and will be for a time.

This is the way it goes with rare breeds especially. They are not conveniently available.

 

[gjensen]

Thanks! More than one had it, but one looked worse than the rest of them. As the day went on, she was not worse, but not necessarily obviously better, and still puffed up like a brown feather ball with a face and beak. I made sure she got a good drink/dose every hour or so - I knew she was not feeling well because she didn't fuss about being held. I didn't know what I would find this AM - but there she was, digging in the bedding with her sisters (they like to really dig like they're digging their way to China.) And she's eating (and making a mess) with everyone else now. And no blood on any of the bedding. Whew! Glad I caught it when I did - if it had been a week day, it might have been too late.

I spent the day FINALLY getting the roof put on the new coop, and several times while I was up on the ladder, the neighborhood hawk (a pretty small one) made a pass at the Naked Necks. He couldn't get a good angle in their paddock to get one because they would huddle by the fence line, but I ended up festooning some overhead protection everywhere. I may have gotten a little carried away:



- Ant Farm

As long as what you have done does not give you a false sense of assurance.. . . . You did not do any harm.

 

[Mini Meat]

So, let my see if i have got this straight.

Starting with an open hen (unmated). I put Cock A with the hen for 3-4 days and pull him out. I should then be able to collect his DNA in her eggs for +/- 21 days. Then, on day 22 I could put cock B with the same hen for 3-4 days pull him out and collect his DNA in her eggs for the next +/- 21 days, and so on down the line. Doing it this way would produce the fastest AND most reliable method of doing test matings to multiple cocks.

Correct or no?

 

[ronott1]

So, let my see if i have got this straight.

Starting with an open hen (unmated). I put Cock A with the hen for 3-4 days and pull him out. I should then be able to collect his DNA in her eggs for +/- 21 days. Then, on day 22 I could put cock B with the same hen for 3-4 days pull him out and collect his DNA in her eggs for the next +/- 21 days, and so on down the line. Doing it this way would produce the fastest AND most reliable method of doing test matings to multiple cocks.

Correct or no?

This will work if you are comfortable with the margin of error--some of the chicks will be from an old cock bird.

It really is best to use the same breeding flock for the season--or you can do single mating where each hen is in a pen and the cock bird comes to visit. You can get pure chicks from a lot of different combinations that way.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

As long as what you have done does not give you a false sense of assurance.. . . . You did not do any harm.

Yeah, I realize a good hawk can "thread the needle" and get through gaps sometimes (and that there are other daytime predators). They actually have done well so far in organizing, running for cover, and being alert - just trying to increase the odds for them. Clearly me being there is irrelevant, protection-wise - each time, it was already happening before I noticed, and I was out there. I may arrange something a bit better later, this was just what I had on hand.

While I'm not seeking out these sort of close calls, it has been interesting to watch the cockerels that I'm evaluating in these circumstances (though, yes, I realize they will continue to grow up/mature). Dozer and Tank worked together to stand watch when everyone went outside. They make an interesting team...

- Ant Farm

Edit to add: I recall the advice regarding getting a good LGD to help look after a flock, but I'm not in a position to do that right now. Possibly when I retire...

 

[varidgerunner]

So, let my see if i have got this straight.

Starting with an open hen (unmated). I put Cock A with the hen for 3-4 days and pull him out. I should then be able to collect his DNA in her eggs for +/- 21 days. Then, on day 22 I could put cock B with the same hen for 3-4 days pull him out and collect his DNA in her eggs for the next +/- 21 days, and so on down the line. Doing it this way would produce the fastest AND most reliable method of doing test matings to multiple cocks.

Correct or no

If you went 21 days, you would maybe get some blanks toward the end, after an additional 3 or 4 days of breeding, you would be at day 24 after cock A bred the hen, if cock B was fertile, and your hen was not one of my crazy game hens that was prone to deciding that she will only breed with a particular cock bird, then you could with confidence collect eggs for evaluating the offspring of cock B, considering you might only get eggs with a chance of being fertilized by cock A for maybe 6 days at the most and that chance would be equivalent to winning the lottery and publishers clearing house sweepstakes in the same day. Considering that the next couple of weeks you would add to those 6 or 7 eggs, you could certainly evaluate the hatch of eggs, collectively, once grown, as evidence of rooster B's overall capability, especially if you had rooster A's progeny to compare them to.

 

[Mini Meat]

Quote: This will be singles. My main goal next year is to get as many of her offspring on the ground as possible. A bit of over lap on the cocks side won't hurt the program too badly. I am hoping to identify the best nick.

 

[ronott1]

This will be singles. My main goal next year is to get as many of her offspring on the ground as possible. A bit of over lap on the cocks side won't hurt the program too badly. I am hoping to identify the best nick.

Great plan!

Keep us updated on your progress.

 

[angry rooster]

I'm hoping to do some crosses for a mutt breed for eggs and meet soon and right now I'm having problems with the bulk of my flack stops laying from late October to now any ideas on what I can add to them to get a more consistent egg production