Dual-Purpose White Egg Layer

[grendel]

Ancona is dual purpose lays 5 eggs weekly.

 

[3littlebirds]

Quote:
HAHAHAHA wow! This is an amazing coincidence!
Remember Max who came to your farm last Saturday to pick up a White Dorking pullet? That's me!
I didn't know you were on BYC! Wow and to post on the same thread too...

By the way, "Henrietta" is doing great- she's eating well and while she's being picked on a little by the other hens, but there haven't been any major fights and most of the time they just ignore her. She has her separate cage to retreat to when she needs to get away from them.
We had your Saxony duck for dinner two nights ago and the leftovers tonight- it was absolutely delicious. It was really flavorful, and, like you said, not fatty like a commercially-raised duck. Thanks!
I'm looking forward to duck soup and then the chicken meat we bought from you.

And wow again what a coincidence!!!!

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Hey Max!

I'm glad she's moving in well. Don't worry about the pecking. It should abate soon enough, and all will be well, as long as no true damage is done.

I'm glad you enjoyed the Saxony duck. The meat is very fine grained, and, yes, duck soup is pretty nifty.

You'll enjoy the Dorking stewing fowl when you have a chance to prepare it.

Best to you!

 

[Tannubyky]

Quote:
I actually wanted white Dorkings for that reason, they're just hard to come by most hatcheries have the silver-gray only and we haven't had a lot of luck with our incubator... I found someone who lives only an hour away that sells hatching eggs on ebay but I can't contact her about buying chicks (and with our incubator not very reliable I didn't want to toss money away on a slim chance.) Our original plan was to get some broody-type chickens and have THEM hatch the eggs for us. But I figured if we're going to be buying some of the more common & easily accessible chickens, it would be fun to try and breed our own trying to get a white holland type. We're not in any hurry or anything so have the time to play with genetics

Unfortunately we had lost our base stock we were going to try and with money tight and the holidays coming up we decided to just get a mixed batch of chicks from a hatchery. Luckily we got some Brahmas so getting some hatching eggs is now an option for us. I still think it would be fun to try to breed up a white holland type... Despite their being a couple of varieties I don't think there are ENOUGH choices available in comparison with brown egg layers. (I don't really mind what color egg, they all taste good to me LOL but for some reason lots of people are leery of anything but white eggs!)

**Edit
Oh, and plus the name... Dork-king... I LOVE dorks! I'm a big dork! How could I resist having the King of dorks? Bwahahahhahaha I <3 it!!!

 

[A.T. Hagan]

A yellow skinned, white egg laying dual-purpose bird sounds like a worthy project.

If I were doing it I can see two different approaches I'd take.

The first would be crossing White Leghorns and White Plymouth Rocks, especially if you could find some that grew to a good size. The old broiler lines are probably gone, but I see plenty of show birds that make a very nice size. I'd select for egg size, rate of lay, sexual maturity, and mature size. I don't think it would take very many generations to come up with something good.

The other approach would be somewhat more difficult in the beginning, but might reach the ultimate goal a little faster. Pick a white feathered, yellow skinned broiler cross, either straight forward fast growing Cornish X or one of the slower breeds if you can find one that is white feathered. May need to keep them on a restricted diet to get them to breeding age. Just pullets. Once they are ready cross them with a White Leghorn rooster. Select as per what I mentioned above.

Either way in a relative few generations I'd be willing to bet you could come up with something that would breed true and would lay decent, make a good size in not too terribly long a time.

Now how much interest you'd get in the greater poultry community I cannot say. There is a decided preference for brown egg layers so you may be slowing in gaining wide spread acceptance.

Still a nice project though. If anyone got it off the ground I'd be willing to hatch them out and see if I could find any local interest.

 

[CARS]

The White Dorking seems like a good bird for me to try... If a person could find them.

The rose comb is perfect for MN. I like the white eggs (or should I say my customers prefer white eggs). The white skin might be a little odd to look at though

 

[Tannubyky]

I did find one place that sells dorking chicks... in many different colors here:http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/catalog/chickens.html#dorkings

You can also order them from here: http://yellowhousefarmnh.com/content/508 but it's pick up only and they're in NH

Lots of hatcheries have silver-gray dorkings available. I just haven't seen the white.

Also if you check ebay from time to time there are dorking hatching eggs available on there.

They are out there, but it's slim pickings. If we are ever in NH we'll get some lol but until then I think I'll wait till my Brahamas are older and try my hand at some hatching eggs!!!

 

[Illia]

Quote:
Houdans are. They're very beautiful, meaty, and lay a good amount of white eggs.

Wait, they're practically extinct.

Seriously, Houdans used to weigh over 7 pounds and were originally created as a dual purpose breed, not an ornamental breed. But, sadly, I'm still on the hunt for some Houdans that are still bred to the standard, and I'd say good luck to anyone else finding such.

 

[CARS]

Quote:
We had a real good discussion about Houdans: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=106119

If I remember correctly, I think we came to the conclusion that we need to import some stock from Europe.

 

[3littlebirds]

I'm so glad you're trying this Tannubyky! And if you have any extra chicks from your breeding project... well I might be interested

Bring the White Holland back!

And BTW, white dorkings are great. My white dorking hen (from Yellow House farm) is a great, consistent layer, and despite their good brooding ability she hasn't gone broody once on the unfertilized eggs (unlike our super-broody Wyandotte).
And if you are looking for Houdans, Yellow House farm happens to breed those too- they breed them as dual-purpose farm birds, not ornamentals.
You should check out their website- http://yellowhousefarmnh.com/