Admin: Admin: I'm going to drop some information in here by Anna under her name as It was not mine. It was waiting to be moved to this forum but is taking a bit too long so I will put it in.
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 2012OK, 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 20124 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.