Dorking meat birds

[Chickenheadmate]

Are these red dorkings?

 

[hunterlj]

Are these red dorkings?

Yes they are

 

[hunterlj]

I’m not sure if anyone is watching this thread but I do plan on updating more regularly. I recently moved from North Carolina to New Hampshire so I don’t have a whole lot of time right now. The coop up here is a work in progress and their run is too but I have them in a pen with a fenced in run to keep them out of the garden when I’m not home. Birds seem to be gaining weight but all of my stuff still hasn’t been delivered and my scale is packed up. The birds seem pretty happy up here though. Until winter that is!

 

[hunterlj]

 

[OhZark Biddies]

View attachment 1489291 I’m not sure if anyone is watching this thread but I do plan on updating more regularly.

Yep I’m watching, Thanks for the update!

 

[EquiSally]

I’m following this thread. Don’t disappear.

I only have one silver-grey dorking and I feel like she is quite large. Every time I see her “run-waddle” I want to eat her. I don’t plan to, but point is that I wouldn’t mind having them in excess.

I ordered her along with a few other breeds from ideal hatchery. I’m assuming she isn’t perfect, but she has all her toes in an adorable low-rider model, and is so very wide and large breasted. I could totally see raising more of them for eggs while getting a decent amount of meat from the extras hatched. I need to wait until the evening so I can catch and weigh her.

 

[hunterlj]

When they eat all of the bugs in their run they just reach through the fence

 

[hunterlj]

Thanks guys I’ll keep updating as I can. I know I enjoy when others post pictures of their birds so at the very least I can do that right now! When I get the scale back I’ll weigh again every week or two.

 

[hunterlj]

I’m following this thread. Don’t disappear.

I only have one silver-grey dorking and I feel like she is quite large. Every time I see her “run-waddle” I want to eat her. I don’t plan to, but point is that I wouldn’t mind having them in excess.

I ordered her along with a few other breeds from ideal hatchery. I’m assuming she isn’t perfect, but she has all her toes in an adorable low-rider model, and is so very wide and large breasted. I could totally see raising more of them for eggs while getting a decent amount of meat from the extras hatched. I need to wait until the evening so I can catch and weigh her.

I honestly don’t know the standards as much as I would like to so I’m hoping somebody that does will chime in. Also curious to see how my birds are according to the standards. I do know that they’re quite large and some of them feel like they have a ton of meat on them.

 

[Compost King]

all the Dorking I received from Ideal ended up dying very young, out of 4 of them 2 died in the brooder, 1 died shortly after going to the coop, and 1 died around 3 months old. In every case they just slowly got weaker and slower than the other chicks and eventually ended up dead. I suspect inbreeding lead to a weak immune system and my lack of experience dealing with illness in birds are the reason. I bought 3 dorkings from a local breeder recently and all 3 are healthy but not breeding age just yet. I want the females to hatch chicks for me, and the male will be breeding with the Female dorkings and Red Rangers. If I ever get decent Delaware and NH Reds I will cross those with the dorkings too and see if I can get high quality meat faster. I would even be willing to cross the Dorking with CornishX if I end up with any I keep for breeding. I hope my dorking male likes fat chicks lol.