White Dorkings.....anyone?

[MountainFarmPeeps]

I've got White Dorkings coming home in May and I'm very excited to join the effort in my local farming community to strengthen this breed both in numbers and also in quality of stock (in both laying and tasty meat!).

I know this is a rare breed...it would be awesome to connect with someone on BYC who has them...you can hardly even come up with good pictures of a White Dorking online!

Anyone out there share my love for this heritage breed?

 

[MountainFarmPeeps]

Man, I know they're rare but I can't be the only one on BYC.....right?

Somebody's got to have some...anyone?

 

[tgrlily]

We love dorkings too, but my son chose red dorkings as his preservation project. We also have 2 lighter colored dorking girls that are the sweetest chickens in the flock.

 

[MountainFarmPeeps]

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I'm so happy to "see" you...I just KNEW there would be someone here! How do you like your dorkings other than that? I love Dorking for meat...but how decent are they for laying?

Do you have any pics of your girls?

 

[NHDoc]

Love my White Dorkings!

Are you getting yours from Yellow House Farm? We got 12 from them last year. We lost 3 hens over the summer (we think they suffocated- it was so cool that they were all piling on each other in the coop for most of the summer). We butchered all of the roosters except for one- and they were delicious!

We now have 3 hens and 1 roo. The hens started laying at around 25 weeks. We get between 2 and 3 eggs a day. I just built an incubator over the weekend, and we're hoping to have a successful hatch this spring.

Feel free to PM me with any questions.

 

[MountainFarmPeeps]

YAY!

Yes, I'm getting ours from Yellow House Farm, too! What awesome folks, eh? I absolutely adore Farmer Joe and am so honored to be in the area and able to bring some of their beautiful birds to my home.

Do you have any pictures of your Dorkings? It's so hard to obsess over such a rare breed...I can hardly get an online "fix" because there are no pictures out there to see!

Also, have any of your hens been broody? I would love "a bit of brood" in my gals...I also would like an incubator! Anyhow...thanks for replying!!

 

[sherrydeanne]

Oh I'm sooo jealous! I wanted to make a trip up there to get a few but I'm in Mass and it's just too far with two toddlers. If any of you ever have an extra pullet (or two) available, let me know!

 

[MountainFarmPeeps]

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I know what you mean, I have a 20 month old and a 3 month old....so, yeah, not so much with super long rides! I was going to get 12 day olds....but I'm bumping up my order to 25 cause, I mean, who are we kidding, right?

I will definitely keep you in mind as far as "extras" are concerned....I could even meet you half way or so! Let me get my feet under me with these chickies coming and we'll see where things go!

Somedays I swear I must be crazy....25 chicks, yeah, that's exactly what I need right now!

Whatever, I frakin' love chickeeeeens!

And you know, so does my toddler girl...she wakes me up every morning "Cheeekins!" and goes and feeds them with me, in the freezing cold, before the sun's even up. That's what you call love!

 

[NHDoc]

Mountain Farm- Where do you live? We should get together some time- I have a 6 month old and a 3 year old! I live in Rye.

Joe and Rob and the best!!! If you are planning on butchering any of your flock, they will let you do it at their farm- they will teach you how to do it, and they have the whole set up there!

I have some pics of my chicks at home- I'll upload them later. If you do a search on my post history, you can see a pic of them when I got them last year.

One of my hens just went broody. I'm trying to break her of it, since I think it's too cold now to hatch any chicks. If one goes broody at the right time, I'll let her set. If not, I've got the incubator as a back up. All the eggs I'm getting are fertile- I've been checking

 

[MountainFarmPeeps]

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Sweet! I always love meeting other mamas with human chicks! I live in Northwood...so, you're closer to the coast than me, but still definitely doable.


I'm really happy that I can process at their place...I plan to do so the first time around or so. I used to live in the midwest and as a teen was very involved in farm life...but it's different when you're all grown up and it's YOUR livestock, ykwim? So I'll be happy to have them over my shoulder the first time out with my own chickens. I suppose it's like riding a bike though..I've already scoped out my summer kitchen spot in back of the house and that's where I'll do my processing from there on out.

I can't wait to see your pictures!