Dorking Chicken

Dorking chicken is one of the most ancient of all domesticated poultry breeds. It is a large size, dual purpose breed and the origin of Dorking chicken is a bit of a mystery. This chicken breed is believed to have originated in Italy during the Roman Empire period. They were well distributed in the America before 1870 and were admitted in to the American Poultry Association’s Standard of Perfection in 1874. Dorking chicken breed was considered as a fast grower with good conformation during the nineteenth century. But nowadays it is criticized as a slow grower compared to the modern fast growing chicken breeds. Definitely, modern expectations of growth are now skewed toward the broiler production specialists. Although, Dorking chicken still possesses a good meat conformation and they are well suited to range conditions. Many of the modern poultry breeds derived from the Dorking chicken. For producing table birds Dorking cocks were used to cross on Indian Game chickens. They were also used for creating some new modern breeds such as the Buff Orpington and the Speckled Sussex chicken. They were introduced to Great Britain (they appeared in the very first British poultry show in 1845) where much of its development took place. Dorking chicken has always been prized for its white flesh and its eating qualities. Review characteristics, behavior and full breed profile of Dorking chicken in Full Details 

Characteristics

• Dorking chicken is large size dual purpose bird. 
• They are well known for their versatility as a good breed for both meat and eggs production. But they are mainly popular for meat production purpose. 
• They are of short, five-toed legs and have a rectangular body. 
• They have single comb and they are among the few chicken breeds with red earlobes. Dorking hens lay large size white shelled eggs. 
• They can tolerate and perform well in almost all climates. 
• This chicken breed has white colored skin beneath their feathers. 
• There are five recognized color varieties available of Dorking chicken. 
• The color varieties are Cuckoo, Dark, Red, Silver-grey and white. 
• On an average, an adult Dorking cock weights about 3.60-6.35 kg and a hen weights about 3.60-4.55 kg.

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