Heritage White Dorking Thread

[kayakfish]

Hello everyone, I just received 36 eggs from White Dorkings from Sandhill, and Yellow House lines that were bought last year as chicks. I am so looking forward to this venture as I am raising several Heritage Breeds, to help our Local 4-Hers get a good understanding the importance to raising and keeping good lines going of our Heritage breeds. Instead of the production birds that lay really heavy for 2-3 years then stop, and then they are to tough to even eat.
The children are very excited, as we already have the following breeds started from eggs this year: Buckeyes, going on 19 weeks old, Delawares going on 5 weeks old, Mottled Javas one Trio and 9 chicks from 5 wks -4 days, and Welsummers that I was already breeding from Lowell / Barbour lines as well as Urch.

I live in VA, and we have a 15 acre parcel that we used to have horses on and now the kids are grown and gone and we are doing the Heritage breeds, we being my 100% disabled husband and I, with the 4-H children. We have 3 Large coops with outdoor runs, and grow-out pens inside and outside, as well as a insulated outside Brooder.
We have had the love of my special husband of a present of a GQF 1502 Digital Incubator for Christmas and then he built us a Maple Wood Hatcher that is built the same dimension's as the Incubator with 4 hatching trays and a Digital Thermostat control. They have been running 24/7 since we got them hatching eggs from contributor's to the Breeding Program, and we have had really great hatch rates.

As we have the 2 lines of White Dorking we are looking for a third if anyone has one they would like to share with hatching eggs, for the incubator.

Any and all information of choosing the Dorkings for Breeding will be appreciated, and very well received.

 

[RAM4171]

Well I have to say that I am more than a little disappointed in Yellow House. When Joseph had said on this thread that he didn't think that he would not be selling chicks this year I thought well darn that stinks and I made arrangements with Jeremy. Then I get an email from Joseph saying that he would in fact be taking orders, I was really excited, so I placed my order and sent in a check and it went through. I emailed back and forth with Joseph a few times about when they may be delivered. I've been talking about them to everyone and explaining the breed and so forth. It is now past time when he said that they would ship I've emailed a few times asking how things are going with no response. Well today my wife calls me while I'm at lunch and tells me that I got a letter from Joseph saying that he wouldn't be able to fill my order. That really stinks, I hope that Joseph didn't suffer any loses or anything. I'm waiting on a response from Jeremy to see if he can still fill my order this late in the Spring, hopefully he can. I just feel like I've wasted months waiting on Joseph because his line is supposed to be the best, only to be let down.

 

[3riverschick]

Hello everyone, .....
As we have the 2 lines of White Dorking we are looking for a third if anyone has one they would like to share with hatching eggs, for the incubator.

Any and all information of choosing the Dorkings for Breeding will be appreciated, and very well received.

That's interesting. Are the 2 strains well and truly line-bred pure strains? If they are you might get some assistance from a Darwin Law of Variation. I saw it work with my collies. It's quite interesting. Originally Darwin was talking about plants. If it is a Law (yes) and operates in Collies and plants, why maybe not poultry too?
It states that if you have three pure strains ... And you breed Strain A to Strain B... then take a female from A/B and breed her to a male from pure strain C, that the get will look as much like the sire from strain C as if they were his siblings. Interestingly this does not work if you switch the sexes in the last mating and breed a male from A/B to a female from Strain C. In this last case, the get from the A/B/C mating will show expected variation from a 3-way cross. So the male from Strain C should be of the very highest quality.
I did this with my Collies and the puppies from breeding A/B/C were so alike the breeder to whom I had leased my female had to have them micro-chipped when she had their eyes checked so she would tell them apart. I searched for several years for an answer for this astounding similarity in a 3-way cross before I ran across the explanation of this Law in a book on the principles of genetic variation. In fact I even bought that book hoping for a just clue and found an explanation instead.
Best,
Karen

 

[kayakfish]

Solved the problem sold them all.

 

[3riverschick]

Why?

 

[Sydney Acres]

Well I have to say that I am more than a little disappointed in Yellow House. When Joseph had said on this thread that he didn't think that he would not be selling chicks this year I thought well darn that stinks and I made arrangements with Jeremy. Then I get an email from Joseph saying that he would in fact be taking orders, I was really excited, so I placed my order and sent in a check and it went through. I emailed back and forth with Joseph a few times about when they may be delivered. I've been talking about them to everyone and explaining the breed and so forth. It is now past time when he said that they would ship I've emailed a few times asking how things are going with no response. Well today my wife calls me while I'm at lunch and tells me that I got a letter from Joseph saying that he wouldn't be able to fill my order. That really stinks, I hope that Joseph didn't suffer any loses or anything. I'm waiting on a response from Jeremy to see if he can still fill my order this late in the Spring, hopefully he can. I just feel like I've wasted months waiting on Joseph because his line is supposed to be the best, only to be let down.

Yes, that is the issue with rare breeds -- there are only so many breeders, each of them only hatches so many chicks, and when the last one is sold, that's it. There's no more. It's all a matter of getting in line early. It is important for all buyers to remember that you are buying live animals, not manufactured goods. When a hen doesn't lay well or an egg doesn't hatch there's no chick available to be sold. You can't just make more. Putting in an order is never a guarantee that the order will get filled, even if it's prepaid. That just secures your place in line. But it is disappointing, especially if you don't have a backup plan in place. I once had to wait 3 years for the specific chicks I wanted, only to have them be nothing like I had hoped. Hopefully Jeremy will be able to help you out, but if not you might want to get in line for next year at the earliest possible date.

 

[kimberly35042]

Well said Syd....

 

[3riverschick]

Yes, that is the issue with rare breeds -- there are only so many breeders, each of them only hatches so many chicks, and when the last one is sold, that's it. There's no more. It's all a matter of getting in line early. It is important for all buyers to remember that you are buying live animals, not manufactured goods. When a hen doesn't lay well or an egg doesn't hatch there's no chick available to be sold. You can't just make more. Putting in an order is never a guarantee that the order will get filled, even if it's prepaid. That just secures your place in line. But it is disappointing, especially if you don't have a backup plan in place. I once had to wait 3 years for the specific chicks I wanted, only to have them be nothing like I had hoped. Hopefully Jeremy will be able to help you out, but if not you might want to get in line for next year at the earliest possible date.

Yup, I have waited for my birds of different breeds. Some I never got. Some weren't what I had thought I was buying. But when you find the breeder and flock you want to deal with, it's well worth the wait. Joseph is one of those breeders. If I was wanting White Dorkings, I would keep in line and keep in touch with him until I got some. Have you checked to see if he will have any started birds available this Fall as he downsizes his flock for winter, as many of us do?
BTW, where is Joseph? I so look forward to his educational posts and haven't seen any for while?
Best,
Karen

 

[Ifish]

As I understand it Joseph is getting out of the WHite Dorkings and moving in a different direction.

This is from his website:
Quote:

 

[Ifish]

Yup, I have waited for my birds of different breeds. Some I never got. Some weren't what I had thought I was buying. But when you find the breeder and flock you want to deal with, it's well worth the wait. Joseph is one of those breeders. If I was wanting White Dorkings, I would keep in line and keep in touch with him until I got some. Have you checked to see if he will have any started birds available this Fall as he downsizes his flock for winter, as many of us do?
BTW, where is Joseph? I so look forward to his educational posts and haven't seen any for while?
Best,
Karen

I to enjoy his posts. I hope that things are going ok and he's just busy.