Thanks everyone. Yes, I kind of thought my Dorkings would be a temporary thing, but I get more attached to the breed as time goes on. I probably hatched close to 50 Dorkings this year.
And yes, boy can those suckers fly. My mom wanted white egg layers, so for Mother's day I gave her a cockerel and 4 pullets from my Silver Grey chicks. She wanted to free range them but worried that their "dorked" legs would handicap them. I laughed and told her that when I have to catch chicks for any reason the Dorkings are my most quick and nifty escape artists. I told if they go missing in the middle of hot-weather it is because they're hatching eggs in the bush somewhere.
There are many things I enjoy about them. I love the fact they are autosexing. I'm testing this now, having given those colored male at hatch with blue bands and those marked female at hatch with red. But, it is funny because once their sex mark fades and their real feathers come in, they are still visual sexable because the females have pink breasts. A great breed, I have fallen in love with them.
There are few things I have found poor with them. My particular hens lay small eggs, but I know someone who has Sandhill stock and her hens lay HUGE eggs. I bred my hens to her roo so hopefully this next generation will have better egg size. The second thing I found "awkward" about them, is that fifth toe of theirs. LOL. If there is ANY kind of string(the stray hay-string in our situation) they'll catch it on their fifth toes and hobble themselves. I have had to "un-hobble" a few this week, and evened hobbled they are STILL hard to catch. LOL
I'm glad she is okay as well. It was quite a strange and unusual situation. I had never seen an animal shake like that, unless they were cold. And if they were cold, the whole body would shake and not just the head.
She was moved to the "big-chick" brooder today. So she is back in with her same-hatch siblings.
-Kim
