Backyard Poultry Forum

Shouldn't The Dorking Comb be Flopped Over Not Straight up in the Air?

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I,ve Changed a Fair Bit Since The Explosion of fury in mid 2010 on BYP - But im back - bit more relaxed the usual - more funnier - and im now a DJ - How good can u get!!

The Australian Standard specifies upright for the single comb on the male and falling over one side of the face for the female.

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Dorking Breeders' Group of Australasia http://www.australiandorkings.com

Mine are not show quality just pets but nice birds to have all the same. Their mother had the falling over comb but theirs are not as big as hers

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Double Lace Gold and Blue Laced Barnevelders, Large BLS. Gold. BLG and SL Wyandottes, Pekins in many colours, 3 Rabbit, 2 Horses, a cat, fish, a Llama, a Alpaca, a Kelpie, a Maremma and a patient husband
http://shoalhavenpoultry.com.au/

Thats 100% Correct

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I,ve Changed a Fair Bit Since The Explosion of fury in mid 2010 on BYP - But im back - bit more relaxed the usual - more funnier - and im now a DJ - How good can u get!!

A Facebook group has recently been created called Australian Dorking Breeders, with 50 members at last count. The purpose is to help breeders keep in touch for the good of the breed in addition to forums such as BYP. Find us here https://www.facebook.com/groups/213522552161831/

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Friendly Faverolles and my daughter's Araucana. Also Damara & Dorper sheep

For fans of the Dorking and the Victorian farm TV programme, here's a photo that I took at Acton Scott in Shropshire, England back in 2007

Here are some silver Dorkings that they had there.

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http://www.overthegate.myfreeforum.org

Loved victorian farm! Thanks for posting. The first time i heard of the dorking was in the River Cottage series years ago. I now have a few dorkings,they are lovely.

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Devoted Caretaker of:Gold Campines, Silver Campines, Silver Spangled Hamburgs, Salmon Faverolles, Croad Langshans, Australorps, Lavender Araucanas and others

Original post 11 September 2012:
I've had a small hatch of silver grey dorkings growing for the past few weeks, and now I've finally managed to post the results of the weekly weigh-in. The birds are just over three weeks now. I didn't weigh at hatch, but weekly from day 7.

Day 7: weight range 68-94g. Average 86
Day 14: range 130-172g. Average 148
On day 14, chicks were moved from the indoor starter brooder to the cold brooder in the shed (no heat supplied but well insulated so they keep themselves warm)
Day 21: range 188-269g. Average 222
I've culled the two smallest from the group now so it'll be interesting to see next week's average.

They're on Laucke chick crumble, also Protexin in their water for the first week to get them started.
I've also got some red dorking x sussex chicks in the group, if anyone's interested in crossbred data I can post it. I'll get some red dorking data when I get a hatch from them too.

Original post 13 September 2012
OK, here are the stats for the sussex/dorking cross. They're second generation, the 2 grandmother hens are 3.1kg and 3.5kg and the grandfather red dorking was 3.7kg. I don't have adult weights for the parents of these chicks (haven't got a round tuit )

Day 7 weight range 73-105g, average 92g
Day 14 range 130-184g, average 168g
Moved out to the cold brooder with the silver grey chicks
Day 21 range 203-301, average 270g
The smallest was 50 grams behind the next heaviest so was culled

18 September 2012
4 week data on my chicks,
Silver dorkings:
Weight range 321-425, average 372.
The average has jumped a little as I've removed the two smallest birds. 6 birds now in this group, 5 pullets and one cockerel.

The red dorking x sussex are doing really well, average 434g, range 400-471. 6 chicks in this group too, 2 pullets and 4 cockerels.

I've also individually banded them and taken keel measurements with a set of calipers (79-82mm for the sussex x and 72-78mm for the silvers for those interested), I'm not sure if it's information that I can use practically but I'll store it away and think about it. I think measuring will be more useful as birds start to mature, but maybe the measurements now will correlate with later body length. We'll see.

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Dorking Breeders' Group of Australasia http://www.australiandorkings.com

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Backyard Poultry Forum

25 September 2014
Thanks for posting the video. It's always interesting to have a look at other people's birds. They look nice and solid, but not a huge amount bigger than Aussie birds. I'd love to know how heavy they are!

Week 5 weights for my little group of chicks now in:
Silver greys
range 442-582g. Average 513.
Red dorking x sussex:
range 548-672. Average 602.

They were moved early this week, from the cold brooder to a small grower pen. I thought the move would have more of an impact on their growth but they still seem to be doing OK.

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Dorking Breeders' Group of Australasia http://www.australiandorkings.com

That still puts your first cross chicks at the head of the pack. It will be interesting to see how they perform over the next few weeks. The average is probably slightly skewed as a result of the culling of the lighter birds. Its interesting that the range of our Sussex at the same age is 480 to 673g. If we removed the lowest 4 birds from our batch of 20 our average growth rate jumps to 600g. So bare in mind population sample change will affect growth rate averages. We will be culling in the next few weeks and this will alter our future averages as well. It is also interesting in the Coles Sussex trials the later growth rates were taken on a smaller sample, even though it was thought to be indicative of the original sample population.

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Lawnton Poultry Club

25 September 2012
Yes, it's difficult to make any scientifically valid observations with this little comparison! I have been quite surprised that the dorkings are keeping up with the sussex, historically they're known to be a slow growing, slow maturing breed. I'm guessing the growth rate will slow down sometime soon, the adult weights of these birds will be a lot less than your lights I think.

2 October 2012
6 weeks old and weights are as follows:
Silver grey range 561-728. Average 660
Red x sussex range 713-871 average 778
They've been on laucke chick crumble, the packaging suggests to move them on to pullet grower at this age. It's a small pellet rather than a crumb, 16% protein content compared to the 20% in the chick starter. I'm guessing the growth rate will slow considerably now.

9 October 2012
7 week data:
The silver greys range from 665-880, average 791
The reds x sussex range from 820-1000g, average 911g.

As expected, the growth rate seems to have dropped off, partly the change in diet but I think this week's sudden hot weather must have had an impact too. On handling they feel like they have more frame and less muscle this week,.

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Dorking Breeders' Group of Australasia http://www.australiandorkings.com

This Graph compares the average weights as recorded by Anna with the average weights of our Sussex and Wyandottes for that breeding season. Unfortunately Anna's Data only goes up to week 7 and we only collected data up to week 10. Her flock size was a lot smaller, but it provides an interesting comparison.



The graph below compares the heaviest birds in each of the flocks. So this is a one to one correspondence of the best and not indicative of the average. You will see, however when you compare the two charts there is reasonable correlation of data.



In our original data we included Anconas. However as they were not heavy soft feather, we left them out to give a better example of just some of the Heavy Soft Feather varieties albeit in small flock samples.

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Lawnton Poultry Club

Would like to see photos of good and bad points to strive for or cull for in the Silver Grey Dorking. Please in reference to Australian Poultry Standards.

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Regards Dan. If you see my little red rooster, please drag him home
There ain't no peace in the barnyard,
Since the little red rooster been gone! (Lyrics from Willie Dixon)

I would just grow the young ones out, removing any defects of comb, feet etc early. In the remainder select on type, then other details.

How many have you bred?

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