The Dorking Chicken breed is, to put it simply, worth saving. It is an intelligent, attractive, and gentle multi purpose bird. The Cocks are more docile than most, and if given sufficient room and female birds, can often be kept together. The hens make good mothers, lay delicious eggs, and the meat of both sexes is known for it’s excellent taste and quality.
The Dorking breed has a rich and varied history, and an uncommon number of toes. As far as the history goes, one of the earliest known mentions of the Dorking was by the Roman agricultural writer Columella during the reign of Julius Caesar. In his text, Rei rusticae libri, he described the breed as, “square-framed, large and broad-breasted, with big heads and small upright combs...the purest breed being five-clawed”. A similar bird with an odd number of toes was also described in Pliny’s Naturalis Historia.
They appeared in the first British poultry show in 1845, together with the Sussex breed, which is one of the many breeds that is believed to be derived from the Dorking. The birds are named after the market town of Dorking in Surrey, England.
My aim is not that this site be the be all and end all Dorking Chicken information site. What I am attempting to create is a search engine friendly site that will assist in getting people who are interested in the breed pointed in the right direction of finding clubs, websites, breeders, and other resources and information.
During my quest for all that is Dorking, I have found foreign sites that I am quite sure have just the information I am looking for, but not in a language I begin to understand. The nifty little Google Translate element at the bottom of each of the site’s pages is an effort to keep others from that frustration. At least they’ll know they didn’t miss anything.
The Dorking breed has a rich and varied history, and an uncommon number of toes. As far as the history goes, one of the earliest known mentions of the Dorking was by the Roman agricultural writer Columella during the reign of Julius Caesar. In his text, Rei rusticae libri, he described the breed as, “square-framed, large and broad-breasted, with big heads and small upright combs...the purest breed being five-clawed”. A similar bird with an odd number of toes was also described in Pliny’s Naturalis Historia.
They appeared in the first British poultry show in 1845, together with the Sussex breed, which is one of the many breeds that is believed to be derived from the Dorking. The birds are named after the market town of Dorking in Surrey, England.
My aim is not that this site be the be all and end all Dorking Chicken information site. What I am attempting to create is a search engine friendly site that will assist in getting people who are interested in the breed pointed in the right direction of finding clubs, websites, breeders, and other resources and information.
During my quest for all that is Dorking, I have found foreign sites that I am quite sure have just the information I am looking for, but not in a language I begin to understand. The nifty little Google Translate element at the bottom of each of the site’s pages is an effort to keep others from that frustration. At least they’ll know they didn’t miss anything.