Thanks Sydney -this is great information!
My red Dorkings came from Crowfoot Farm in Amissville, VA, and they started their flock with Sandhill Preservation Center stock. I have been told that the red Dorkings will sometimes produce a colored Dorking.
My D's were born on Easter, so they haven't reached the 16-week point quite yet, but the adolescents are beautiful. The Dorkings were the first to forage, and actually prefer foraging to hanging around the feeder more than a few minutes.
The two hens are very clever and quick, but not friendly to humans. I am a bit disappointed in the standoffish-ness of this strain of Dorking,
I got Buckeye chicks as well, also born on Easter, and the Buckeyes grew faster and beat up on the Dorkings... until yesterday (at 15 weeks old), when the biggest Dorking put the dominant Buckeye in his place. Unfortunately, power has gone to the new boss's head and we had to separate him from the entire flock. He was running around taking chunks out of all the chickens today. He is handsome, was first to crow, has bright red comb and wattles, but violent, suspicious roos are out.
I have heard that it is really no use to try to cull based upon adolescent looks because the Dorking develops fully later. I can't keep all the roos around a year to see what they look like as cocks! I may have to just wait for the 20 week point, and take my best shot, or maybe get rid of all roos, and try with a different strain next year.
I am trying to hook up with the swap meet people. Otherwise, some of the roosters are freezer-bound.
I'm not so sure about the RDs producing CDs, and I may be the one who started that rumor. My RDs are from Sandhill. All of the hens had a slightly different "red" color, but two of them were quite darkish and unique, which I thought looked more like imperfect CDs than RDs, despite being sold as RDs. I assumed that some CD chicks had accidentally been shipped, or that some CD breeders had been mixed in with the RDs at Sandhill, but I now think I was wrong. When test breedings were done with these hens using a classic red duckwing rooster, most of the pullets and cockerels were the classic RDs, but some of the pullets and cockerels looked more like unusual CDs, which I thought confirmed my suspicion that CDs had been mixed in. But it turns out that the U.K. version of the red dorking hen is quite different than the U.S. version of the RD hen, and the hens that I thought were CDs are actually a perfect match to the U.K. reds. When I started talking to breeders in the U.K. and Australia, they all felt that my hens were U.K. version reds, and that the reason for the CD appearing cockerels was that the rooster I used had both a gold gene and a silver gene, which gave me both some classic RDs and also some RDs with a CD appearance.
There are several different lines of Red Dorkings in the U.S., and the Sandhill ones do tend to be a bit wilder than the others. Mine are active foragers, run like pheasants, fly like wild turkeys, insist on roosting in trees, hide their eggs, brood 1-3 times a year, are excellent mothers, are protective and watchful roosters, and the hens are so well camouflaged that they are invisible when hiding. So for my free range farm management they are the perfect birds with excellent survival instincts, although they can be frustrating. Many people find them too frustrating, and prefer the lines that aren't quite so wild. Some individuals will be inappropriately anxious or flighty, especially when young, and I don't use those birds for breeding. The anxious hens tend to produce an anxious and aggressive son, in my experience. The calm hens are treasures, and mine are incredibly tame, often getting underfoot or flying onto my shoulder to request attention (which is sweet but can sometimes be frustrating also). The sweet roosters are snuggly lap warmers when they aren't focused on a cute pullet, and love to "help" me in the orchard, picking up any fruit that has fallen off the tree and bringing it to me. But the chicks can be quite independent and have strongly hardwired survival instincts, so they do panic when handled if you don't work with them daily, and didn't start when they were quite young. Even tame chicks and teenagers that don't want to be caught can be crazy wild things, totally different than my fully domesticated show line Speckled Sussex chicks (who wouldn't survive a day free ranging in the woods if I didn't feed them).
They are not fast growers, and at 9 weeks old my Dorking cockerels are 3/4 to 1 pound less than my Speckled Sussex cockerels, but they are also very agile, have already explored the farm, have integrated into the adult flock, understand the importance of watching for hawks, and are starting to develop some good "tree skills" already. On the other hand, the SS are huge but clunky, ungraceful birds that are needy and clueless, although quite sweet and very easy to manage. I have seen 3 of my dorking cockerels that were at the bottom of the pecking order suddenly explode out in retaliation and then become a bully himself, so that behavior has to be controlled. If you have an adult cock with good judgment you can put him in the cockerel pen and he will restore order quickly (don't use an adult who's a bully, as that creates chaos instead of calming everyone down).
Most breeders do their preliminary culls long before a year of age, as there will be some things that will be obvious at 5-6 months old, and some that will be obvious at 7-9 months old, etc. It's not a matter of making a final choice before they are adults, but a matter of whittling down the numbers to concentrate on those that have good potential. I had my 19 cockerels down to 8 by the time they were 5-6 months old, and down to 3 by the time they were 9-10 months old.
Be really careful at swap meets. Be sure to quarantine any birds you bring home, and don't contaminate your property by wearing the same clothes and shoes around the farm after going to the swap meet. There's lots of potential disease that you can bring home if you're not careful.
