The Dorking Breeders thread

[AFChick]

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[kimberly35042]

I like her a lot. Do you have weights? My McMurray SGs "looked" ok, but were sadly seriously underweight under those feathers. The male looks like he needs some length, but its hard to tell from the photo.

Cheers!
Kim

 

[AFChick]

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[Sydney Acres]

I agree, the pullets are beautiful. Hard to evaluate the feet in the photo, as I can't get adequate focus in that area. Also, can't tell if she has adequate width to her pelvis, as many are a bit pinched. But she has a beautiful lateral profile. The cockerel does look a little short in the sternum/keel and back, but he also looks like he's somewhat on alert, so his relaxed pose may look quite different. Looking forward to more pictures and their weights. Hope you don't get too flooded. --April

 

[DesertChic]

Hello All!

I just read through all of the pages on this thread to become a bit more familiar with this breed. I'm fairly new to keeping chickens, having started just last fall, and the SGD was the first breed I fell in love with at first site but I wasn't able to locate any chicks at that time. Now that I've become much more familiar and practiced with keeping chickens and have acquired an incubator and have been fortunate enough to find someone selling SGD hatching eggs here on the BYC and have made a "purchase in advance" for eggs that should arrive in early May. I'm VERY excited to be able to finally add this breed to my flock, which now included NN Turkens and Bielefelders. I want to thank you for all the invaluable information you've posted on this thread as I've learned a great deal.

 

[Sydney Acres]

Hello All!

I just read through all of the pages on this thread to become a bit more familiar with this breed. I'm fairly new to keeping chickens, having started just last fall, and the SGD was the first breed I fell in love with at first site but I wasn't able to locate any chicks at that time. Now that I've become much more familiar and practiced with keeping chickens and have acquired an incubator and have been fortunate enough to find someone selling SGD hatching eggs here on the BYC and have made a "purchase in advance" for eggs that should arrive in early May. I'm VERY excited to be able to finally add this breed to my flock, which now included NN Turkens and Bielefelders. I want to thank you for all the invaluable information you've posted on this thread as I've learned a great deal.

Welcome to the breed. They are amazing. Hope you enjoy breeding. Who/where did you get your eggs from?

 

[KittieChick]

Good morning, everyone! I picked up one of my Dorking pullets and she felt a bit thin around her keel. So I felt my 4 hatchery girls and the other Dorking. The Dorkings are definitely not as fat as my hatchery girls, and they're about 2 months older. I'm thinking worms. They came to me in January, just before the cold hit the fan.

Any recommendations on broad spectrum wormer, or is it better to take a fecal sample to the vet and let them tell me? I have 15 chicks in the grow out pen and six Dorkings in the brooder box.

Thank you, I've looked around at wormer sand can't decide which to use.

 

[DesertChic]

Welcome to the breed. They are amazing. Hope you enjoy breeding. Who/where did you get your eggs from?

From @bethbug74 .

This will be the first breed I'll have selected with the goal of improvement and possibly even showing. There was just something about them...love at first site...and I was so disappointed when I couldn't find any to start my flock with. Now I have NN Turkens and Bielefelders that I raise for meat and eggs, and my SGDs will be a labor of love and a way to satisfy my appreciation for heritage breeds that have historically been so important to humanity. (Yes....I'm a total nerd.

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[Sydney Acres]

Quote: This is a breed that needs someone who will breed for improvement, so glad you're on board. Appreciating their intrinsic value is a big plus (hello fellow nerd!). I'm glad you're starting with nice stock. Hope they hatch out well for you.

 

[Sydney Acres]

Good morning, everyone! I picked up one of my Dorking pullets and she felt a bit thin around her keel. So I felt my 4 hatchery girls and the other Dorking. The Dorkings are definitely not as fat as my hatchery girls, and they're about 2 months older. I'm thinking worms. They came to me in January, just before the cold hit the fan.

Any recommendations on broad spectrum wormer, or is it better to take a fecal sample to the vet and let them tell me? I have 15 chicks in the grow out pen and six Dorkings in the brooder box.

Thank you, I've looked around at wormer sand can't decide which to use.

If you search the BYC threads for deworming protocols, you will find lots of options. Sometimes asking at the feed store in your area can be helpful, as resistance to certain dewormers can be regional. I usually use fendabendazole if I'm having clinical problems, but it works best when given to birds individually with the dose based on their weight, so that isn't an option for everyone (the bird needs to be fairly tame, you need to know its weight, and you can't have too many or it gets overwhelming). Also, if overdosed it can cause serious problems, including death, so dosage really is important with this specific medication.

Taking a fecal sample to the vet can be valuable, but it's not foolproof. The vet will look for worm eggs under the microscope. When eggs are seen, you're 100% sure that the chicken has that type of worm, and you can tailor your deworming specifically to target that parasite. The problem is that not all varieties of worms lay eggs every day. So a negative test might mean that the bird doesn't have worms, or it might mean that it has worms, but they just didn't lay worm eggs that day. So some people will want to start with the fecal sample and go with parasite-specific dewormer if the test is positive, and broad spectrum dewormer if the test is negative, and other people just go straight to the broad spectrum dewormer, and only take a fecal sample in if the problems don't resolve afterwards.