The Dorking Breeders thread

[Yellow House Farm]

We've shipped to multiple folks in the South, but only one--in North Carolina--maintains a public presence. Perhaps some others choose to out themselves.

 

[southernmomma]

Thanks for the reply.

M

 

[PineTopFarm]

Posting so that I can follow this thread.

 

[draye]

Can you post pictures? Who did you get them from?

I'll try to get some when the rain clears out. Maybe by the weekend.

I'm in central Araknsas. Just outside of Little Rock (Sardis Community) toward Bryant-Benton area.

Well here they are: . I'm not that great of a picture taker. Don't know if they'd even be considered exhibition stock or not. This is just a pair of them. The rooster is pure evil, he started pecking and trying to pull feathers from the little pullet, guess he thought she was attacking him. I gave him a little attitude adjustment and he settled down a bit.

 

[pigsflyacres]

Well here they are: . I'm not that great of a picture taker. Don't know if they'd even be considered exhibition stock or not. This is just a pair of them. The rooster is pure evil, he started pecking and trying to pull feathers from the little pullet, guess he thought she was attacking him. I gave him a little attitude adjustment and he settled down a bit.

The cockerel might not be pure evil. It might just be hormones and time to separate the boys and girls or it might be that he needs some meat. Hamburger or cooked liver are my go to meats when I have chicks or young stock that are feather picking. Life got in the way of paying attention to my chicks and all of a sudden I noticed bare backs from feather picking. I had some hamburger that got missed in the fridge and fed it to them and the picking stopped. I've had the problem in the past only with Dorkings. I think they have some nutritional requirements as chicks that some of the feed formulas don't meet.

 

[draye]

The cockerel might not be pure evil. It might just be hormones and time to separate the boys and girls or it might be that he needs some meat. Hamburger or cooked liver are my go to meats when I have chicks or young stock that are feather picking. Life got in the way of paying attention to my chicks and all of a sudden I noticed bare backs from feather picking. I had some hamburger that got missed in the fridge and fed it to them and the picking stopped. I've had the problem in the past only with Dorkings. I think they have some nutritional requirements as chicks that some of the feed formulas don't meet.

No he wasn't attacking or anything, or no feathering picking before today. He just thought it was the pullet restraining him. I do on occasion feed my birds scraps of meat to help them along.

 

[MacCana]

I am posting so I can follow this thread. Plus I have a question. Does any one have links to pictures of Dorking chicks showing the appropriate coloring/standards from all the different colors Dorkings come in?
I traveled upstate to get some silver-grey dorking eggs from a man who purchased his now grown birds from Murray McMurray. Ended up hatching off 6 of those, and by all regards, they appear to be purebred dorkings. In every way.
I also ordered some dorking chicks online from Flip Flop ranch in California. Was told they raise a few kinds of the different Dorking color strains, so I opted to get a few chicks of each of their color lines. Including silver grey.
They came this morning, & I received more chicks than I ordered. Which I can't complain about, but some of the chicks have me wondering whether or not I even was sent purebred dorkings of any color. Most have the 5 toes (1 chick has 4 on one foot and 2 on the other) a couple only have 4 on both feet (which is sorta unacceptable as I was told they cull their chicks with less than 5 toes) & one chick I am 95% sure is in no way, shape, or form, a dorking. It doesn't have a comb. Instead it's a small fuzzy covered bump on its forehead. It has some kind of strange beak that kinda reminds me of a duck, large round eyes, and purple tinted colored legs. It's cute, but not a dorking.
What I need are sources showing pictures of chicks from all the dorking color lines for comparison, so I know how angry I need to be (or if I even should be) when I email the ranch. As I said, I can find plenty of pics of the silver greys, but none for others.
I waited 3 months & paid a lot of money for these guys. I just want to know what I have.

 

[capayvalleychick]

I also ordered some dorking chicks online from Flip Flop ranch in California. Was told they raise a few kinds of the different Dorking color strains, so I opted to get a few chicks of each of their color lines. Including silver grey.
They came this morning, & I received more chicks than I ordered. Which I can't complain about, but some of the chicks have me wondering whether or not I even was sent purebred dorkings of any color. Most have the 5 toes (1 chick has 4 on one foot and 2 on the other) a couple only have 4 on both feet (which is sorta unacceptable as I was told they cull their chicks with less than 5 toes) & one chick I am 95% sure is in no way, shape, or form, a dorking. It doesn't have a comb. Instead it's a small fuzzy covered bump on its forehead. It has some kind of strange beak that kinda reminds me of a duck, large round eyes, and purple tinted colored legs. It's cute, but not a dorking.

I have heard nothing but complaints from people who have bought Dorking chicks from that source. I don't think any of their birds are even close to standard or even hatchery quality, which is not saying much.
Ask her how she separates her breeding birds and for how long. She might flock mate with a mixed flock or not separate them long enough. Even her Dorking colors aren't standard. Only Silver Gray, White, Red, Colored & Cuckoo are accepted colors by the APA. It would take years and years to try to straighten out color issues from breeding mixed colors.

It's a shame that she has the url that she does because so many newbies get sucked into her marketing and end up with inferior mixed Dorkings. Which doesn't matter for the casual backyarder but certainly does if you are serious about breeding.

 

[Sydney Acres]

I am posting so I can follow this thread. Plus I have a question. Does any one have links to pictures of Dorking chicks showing the appropriate coloring/standards from all the different colors Dorkings come in?
I traveled upstate to get some silver-grey dorking eggs from a man who purchased his now grown birds from Murray McMurray. Ended up hatching off 6 of those, and by all regards, they appear to be purebred dorkings. In every way.
I also ordered some dorking chicks online from Flip Flop ranch in California. Was told they raise a few kinds of the different Dorking color strains, so I opted to get a few chicks of each of their color lines. Including silver grey.
They came this morning, & I received more chicks than I ordered. Which I can't complain about, but some of the chicks have me wondering whether or not I even was sent purebred dorkings of any color. Most have the 5 toes (1 chick has 4 on one foot and 2 on the other) a couple only have 4 on both feet (which is sorta unacceptable as I was told they cull their chicks with less than 5 toes) & one chick I am 95% sure is in no way, shape, or form, a dorking. It doesn't have a comb. Instead it's a small fuzzy covered bump on its forehead. It has some kind of strange beak that kinda reminds me of a duck, large round eyes, and purple tinted colored legs. It's cute, but not a dorking.
What I need are sources showing pictures of chicks from all the dorking color lines for comparison, so I know how angry I need to be (or if I even should be) when I email the ranch. As I said, I can find plenty of pics of the silver greys, but none for others.
I waited 3 months & paid a lot of money for these guys. I just want to know what I have.

I'm sorry that you're having such problems with your new order. It can be very difficult to find good breeders, and good quality birds. I've been told that the Murray McMurray birds are quite nice for hatchery quality, but have never seen them myself. Other than Silver Grey, the only place to get the other colors is through private breeders, or through Sandhill Preservation Center. But even through private breeders, quality is still very much a work in progress. Some breeders are just much further along in the process than others.

It's hard to find pictures posted of the other colors in their chick down. I have Reds, and have seen Coloreds, and they are really quite similar to the Silver Greys before they feather out. There are some minor differences, but over all you're looking at chipmunk stripes over the back, Cleopatra eye liner, and a stripe or arrowhead on the top of the head, and white legs with 5 toes. No fuzzy topknot (you said bump -- could it be an injury?), no duck bill, and no purple tinting on the legs. (With a duckbill, are you sure this is a chick and not a duckling?? Flip Flop ranch does raise both geese and ducks as well as Dorkings.) Can you post a picture??

Here is a link to a site that has numerous pictures of the SG as chicks: http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGD/Dorks/BRKDorks.html. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to see the chick pictures.

Also, there is another thread on BYC that might help you more than this one: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/118388/b-y-c-dorking-club. That's the thread that's for both breeders and non-breeders. There's lots of pictures. If you go to the upper right side of the screen, you'll see a title that says "Recent Images in this Thread." Immediately under that title there is a colored bar, and to the right end of that bar there is a place to click "View All." That will load all the pictures that have ever been posted on the thread, so you can quickly look through them without having to go through hundreds of pages. There are numerous chick pictures of both the Reds and Coloreds. Also, if you post on that thread there may be several people that could post recent pictures for you.

Here is a link to the Dorking Breeders Club: http://dorkingbreedersclub.webs.com/. They have several photo galleries, and someone may have posted pictures of their chicks.

Good Luck.

 

[MacCana]

I have heard nothing but complaints from people who have bought Dorking chicks from that source. I don't think any of their birds are even close to standard or even hatchery quality, which is not saying much.
Ask her how she separates her breeding birds and for how long. She might flock mate with a mixed flock or not separate them long enough. Even her Dorking colors aren't standard. Only Silver Gray, White, Red, Colored & Cuckoo are accepted colors by the APA. It would take years and years to try to straighten out color issues from breeding mixed colors.

It's a shame that she has the url that she does because so many newbies get sucked into her marketing and end up with inferior mixed Dorkings. Which doesn't matter for the casual backyarder but certainly does if you are serious about breeding.

Well she never mentioned any colors other than those, so I assumed she just had different dorking flocks, but separated by color....The strange chick has had me thinking, so I've been sitting around staring at them & I notice all the chicks (though different base colors) have the "saddle" on their back, along with the other point markings my silver-greys from different sourced showed, too. I saw the similarity when they all ran and stood together when I was getting the different looking one out to take pictures. So I think either my original assumption when I was ordering was correct, or I've got some chicks from "mutt" eggs of two different coloring lines. I will take pictures of them as well. One though, is a darker, almost chocolate/red color with a saddle & is very handsome.
I am a newbie to Dorkings, but not to chickens. I am keeping the breed to supplement our current diets as well as build upon the breed & make my own line of birds. The long run hope is to have others in my area do the same to help the Dorking improve & gain in number. So it does matter to me what I'm mixing in if it's not purebred.
As far as being show standard, well even if poor in that area, but purebred with a couple fine qualities- I could work with that. That's just the trade-off for mixing genetics to make a new line. I'm willing to build upon what I end up with over time, but I do *not* want to start off with mixed breed birds.Thank you for your reply by the way. May be I should've asked around on here before ordering lol!