Heritage White Dorking Thread

[clayhillcoo]

I can only assume that my stock was crossed with a colored variety at some point??? I also have a hen that has a black spot or two, so she needs go.

 

[AnthNDacula]

I can only assume that my stock was crossed with a colored variety at some point??? I also have a hen that has a black spot or two, so she needs go.

I'm waiting on my first White Dorking chicks and continue to study about them. I'm planning to keep everything, weigh frequently and take copious notes for as long as I can without actually culling until I absolutely must. In other words until I've got a dozen cockerels crowing. Combs and color will be the absolute last thing I cull for. My work has all been theoretical so far but it seems those issues would be the easiest to resolve, and I'd hate to lose genetic depth before I really get started. I'll focus on carcass quality as well as growth rates and patterns. I read recently, but can't quote the source, that in the 19th Century Dorkings were known to go thru a brief period between 6 and 12 weeks when they had the essential carcass shape of an adult and made a nice butchered butchered bird. Then they were supposed to add a lot of skeletal growth which took a long time to flesh out for the mature carcass quality. I'll be tracking that in particular to see if extra pullets could be used as fryers in the future. Cockerels will eventually be caponized one I can figure out the growth patterns, so I can hold back potential breeders.

I'm green with envy that you have your birds and even think there's a place for single combed White Dorkings. I know it not SOP but I'm in Georgia where it easily gets into the low 100s in the summer. It seems like a single comb would be an advantage in that sort of heat.

 

[clayhillcoo]

I'm waiting on my first White Dorking chicks and continue to study about them.  I'm planning to keep everything, weigh frequently and take copious notes for as long as I can without actually culling until I absolutely must.  In other words until I've got a dozen cockerels crowing.  Combs and color will be the absolute last thing I cull for.  My work has all been theoretical so far but it seems those issues would be the easiest to resolve, and I'd hate to lose genetic depth before I really get started.  I'll focus on carcass quality as well as growth rates and patterns.  I read recently, but can't quote the source, that in the 19th Century Dorkings were known to go thru a brief period between 6 and 12 weeks when they had the essential carcass shape of an adult and made a nice butchered butchered bird.  Then they were supposed to add a lot of skeletal growth which took a long time to flesh out for the mature carcass quality.  I'll be tracking that in particular to see if extra pullets could be used as fryers in the future.  Cockerels will eventually be caponized one I can figure out the growth patterns, so I can hold back potential breeders.  

I'm green with envy that you have your birds and even think there's a place for single combed White Dorkings.  I know it not SOP but I'm in Georgia where it easily gets into the low 100s in the summer.  It seems like a single comb would be an advantage in that sort of heat.  

I am selling some eggs to folks locally, possibility prematurely, but I'm trying to recoup some cost of production. That mindset may be wrong in the preservation world, but buying feed gets expensive.

The interesting thing is, the hen with black is the heaviest hen and probably closest to SOP, I'll keep her around but her offspring are showing equal amounts of black.

I was worried about egg production, but my hens are now 42 weeks old and are laying well...when my Barred rocks shut down, these Dorkings are chugging right along in 20-30 degree weather

 

[AnthNDacula]

Don't think twice about charging to cover your expenses and hopefully make a little extra. The only hope these rare birds have is to offer qualities worth paying for. It's wonderful that we're in a new age of chicken loving, but it will come to an end, and then the birds with true value will hang on. I'm guessing that's why Dorkings have lasted 2000 years. They've got a lot of built in value.

Right now I'm waiting on White Dorking chicks to arrive, and I'm starting to set hens, and I'm going to have to butcher about 10 old hens in February, so it's not a good time for me to buy an incubator and start raising chicks, but I do plan to add stock in the future. If my current order doesn't work out by late spring I'll probably be ready to go the incubation route. If my chicks do arrive I'll certainly want to place an order for eggs next spring to increase my genetic depth. Do I remember correctly that your birds are a blend of Sandhill and Yellow House lines?

Anthony

 

[CGilbert]

I am selling some eggs to folks locally, possibility prematurely, but I'm trying to recoup some cost of production. That mindset may be wrong in the preservation world, but buying feed gets expensive.

The interesting thing is, the hen with black is the heaviest hen and probably closest to SOP, I'll keep her around but her offspring are showing equal amounts of black.

I was worried about egg production, but my hens are now 42 weeks old and are laying well...when my Barred rocks shut down, these Dorkings are chugging right along in 20-30 degree weather

Don't think twice about charging to cover your expenses and hopefully make a little extra. The only hope these rare birds have is to offer qualities worth paying for. It's wonderful that we're in a new age of chicken loving, but it will come to an end, and then the birds with true value will hang on. I'm guessing that's why Dorkings have lasted 2000 years. They've got a lot of built in value.

Right now I'm waiting on White Dorking chicks to arrive, and I'm starting to set hens, and I'm going to have to butcher about 10 old hens in February, so it's not a good time for me to buy an incubator and start raising chicks, but I do plan to add stock in the future. If my current order doesn't work out by late spring I'll probably be ready to go the incubation route. If my chicks do arrive I'll certainly want to place an order for eggs next spring to increase my genetic depth. Do I remember correctly that your birds are a blend of Sandhill and Yellow House lines?

Anthony

I completely agree with AnthNDacula. Don't feel bad about charging a little extra to cover your own expenses. If you have an incubator, that's another way to make a slightly larger profit margin, selling chicks. Sell chicks for $X each versus a dozen eggs for virtually the same amount.

 

[clayhillcoo]

Don't think twice about charging to cover your expenses and hopefully make a little extra. The only hope these rare birds have is to offer qualities worth paying for. It's wonderful that we're in a new age of chicken loving, but it will come to an end, and then the birds with true value will hang on. I'm guessing that's why Dorkings have lasted 2000 years. They've got a lot of built in value.

Right now I'm waiting on White Dorking chicks to arrive, and I'm starting to set hens, and I'm going to have to butcher about 10 old hens in February, so it's not a good time for me to buy an incubator and start raising chicks, but I do plan to add stock in the future. If my current order doesn't work out by late spring I'll probably be ready to go the incubation route. If my chicks do arrive I'll certainly want to place an order for eggs next spring to increase my genetic depth. Do I remember correctly that your birds are a blend of Sandhill and Yellow House lines?

Anthony

Yes, I was told they were both lines. I bought 30- 4 weeks old chicks and they were all mixed. Eggs should be available if you ever need some.

 

[clayhillcoo]

I've kept 4 roosters, just recently culled two that were smaller. My roosters average 6.5 lbs @ 42 weeks, which seems lite. I do have one that is over 8 lbs. but he doesn't sit as low to the ground as the others. I've read it can take up to two years to reach maturity. Does any one know if 10-12 lbs. is achievable?

I am hatching as many as I right now so I can actually cull harder this summer. I may put some trios together to isolate desirable traits, right now I've got two rooster in with 8 hens.

I let these birds out all day(no fence, no boundaries) and hawks wont touch them, I expected losses, but the hawks sit in near by tree and just watch.

 

[AnthNDacula]

Does any one know if 10-12 lbs. is achievable?

My information is all from reading because my Dorkings are still in the making, but it doesn't sound like anyone is getting those weights in America. People in Britain seem to get bigger birds.

 

[clayhillcoo]

This guy doesn't scream Dorking, but he's almost two pounds heavier than my other roosters @42 weeks...breed or not?. If only I could shorten up his legs.

 

[AnthNDacula]

This guy doesn't scream Dorking, but he's almost two pounds heavier than my other roosters @42 weeks...breed or not?. If only I could shorten up his legs.

I just finished reading "An Introduction to Color Forms of the Domestic Fowl" by Brian Reeder. Honestly my eyes crossed looking at most of the stuff about genetics, but clearly Mr. Reeder knows his chickens. He also lists trait groups for selecting breeders... in order of importance. Here they are:

1) vigor and disease resistance
2) fertility and production
3) temperament
and at the bottom
4) Visual phenotype... or what the bird looks like

He believes that getting these traits out of order leads invariably to genetic degradation and what he calls "extinction of a breed or strain".

Overly large birds and those that grow too fast can lead to high mortality rates but if their chicks thrive it's clearly not a problem. The problem today is Dorkings are much smaller than they were in the past. Small size is one of the most critical areas Dorking breeders need to focus on. Also at 42 weeks your Dorking cockerel is barely a teenager. He's built a large frame but should continue putting on meat for quite a while.

I'm afraid all my knowledge on chicken breeding is theoretical and comes from the books and articles I've read. I wish there were experienced breeders/APA judges to help with this. But if it were me I'd hold on to that guy to see what he passes on to the next generation. But that's just my opinion.
On a side note, I thought it was curious that Mr. Reeder ranked temperament significantly higher than phenotype. He argued that good temperament allows a breeder to maintain more males and therefore maintain a more diverse gene pool and to avoid the single sire pitfall. I wouldn't have thought of that.