Heritage White Dorking Thread

[Yellow House Farm]

Another thread I will enjoy following. Joseph, seeing your White Dorkings make me want some.

It might be an interesting 3 to 4 year side project to work them into a few La Fleche and see what happens.

 

[Natalijaasbj]

Yellow House Farm!
Can you recommend somebody in WA with white dorkings? Or where should I start looking?
Thanks for any input.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Yellow House Farm!
Can you recommend somebody in WA with white dorkings? Or where should I start looking?
Thanks for any input.

Well, currently for White Dorking, we're probably your best bet. I don't know of any WA flocks. Are you thinking about pioneering that?

 

[catdaddyfro]

Yellow House Farm!
Can you recommend somebody in WA with white dorkings? Or where should I start looking?
Thanks for any input.

XW poultry farms Jeremy Woepple (Jwhip)on here has Wt.Dorkings just won best English at a show in Iowa with a nice pullet recently any way he is in Nebraska somewhat on your side of the Mississippi anyhow, LOL

Jeff

 

[Yellow House Farm]

XW poultry farms Jeremy Woepple (Jwip)on here has Wt.Dorkings just won best English at a show in Iowa with a nice pullet recently any way he is in Nebraska somewhat on your side of the Mississippi anyhow, LOL

Jeff

Good call!

 

[Natalijaasbj]

Thank you you both!
I will look into it!
As much as I love Black Copper Marans, I am interested in Dorkins as well. Will check it out!

 

[TJPENN]

Well, this is the second batch.  The first was the same size more or less.  In total I'll keep 8 for the breeding

And that is why the most noble Dorkings in the US come from Yellow House. Thank you, Joe. Put my check in the mail today and counting the days until spring!

 

[Yellow House Farm]

And that is why the most noble Dorkings in the US come from Yellow House. Thank you, Joe. Put my check in the mail today and counting the days until spring!

Thanks, TJ, we'll notify once we have your order.

Best,

Joseph

 

[brahmabreeder]

Trying to pick out a new breed for my self so I've got a ton of questions.
1) do they go broody?

2) can I get a good carcass by 5/6 months of age?

3) what's the laying ability like?

4) cold hardy?

5) good feed conversion ratio?

That's all I got for now. Thanks.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Trying to pick out a new breed for my self so I've got a ton of questions.
1) do they go broody? Yes, but like many, they are most reliable in late spring. In early/mid-spring they're fairly focused on laying. It's actually fairly easy to keep them from going broody even into the summer, but one must collect the eggs at least daily. A few days of laziness in june and you'll have three hens piled in on the eggs clucking away.

2) can I get a good carcass by 5/6 months of age? Yes, at that age you'll have an appropriate carcass for a heritage fowl.

3) what's the laying ability like? Pretty good considering that they're a dual-purpose bird with an emphasis on meat. They come into lay at an appropriate age and lay steadily until molt unless interrupted by a bout of the broody.

4) cold hardy? Very. We're in the middle of a second cold snap with several days at around 0 degrees. They're fine, and several pullets are still cranking out eggs.

5) good feed conversion ratio? This isn't something I can answer honestly. Nobody in the small-scale community really deals in feed conversion. That's actually a complicated system of feeding and record keeping that is owned by the commercial industry. There are home-grown ways to do it, too, but that's a whole different conversation. Perhaps a more appropriate question is are they good foragers, and the answer is yes. They are old-school foragers, like Games and Mediterranean fowl. They can glean a lot of their keep.

That's all I got for now. Thanks.