White Dorkings, Frizzled Sumatrans, Broody Hens

Our favorite chickens are Dorkings - the squat, five-toed, calm bird that the Romans brought to England. There the breed was used as a superior dual purpose (meat and egg) fowl.  Though the bird became extinct in Italy, it hasn't changed much in Britain since Roman days and, in our opinion, that long domestication makes it much better with people. The standard color is grey,

and occasionally we can find red (or colored) ones, but the Romans probably had the much rarer white Dorking.

So we were thrilled to find an ad two weeks ago in the newsletter of the Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities (SPPA )

that the VP was selling White Dorkings. Shipping 3 hens and a rooster was prohibitive, but he said he could send fertile eggs in a month  or so basically for just the cost of packing materials. That sounded fine because we would have a month to empty out a coop and round up some broody hens. However, the eggs didn't arrive next month (so to speak, I know the tenses are screwy) but last week. We scrambled like crazy to empty out a coop and borrow broody Silkies from the Jacksons.

(A broody hen is one that wants to sit on eggs [or anything vaguely eggs shaped or even on nothing at all] for 3 weeks and only get off the nest once or twice a day to eat and poop. Their body temperature goes up, they fluff up their feathers to retain heat, and they scream and squawk if you try to bother them. Once a hen is broody, it usually stays that way until all hope of hatching the eggs is gone. Though of the 4 silkies we borrowed, 2 went out of broody as soon as they got to our coop.)

Silkies are bantams with fluff for feathers and are noted for setting eggs.  Two of our hens had gone broody, so we have four broody hens plus an extra nonbroody Silkie who may decide to help. Which is just as well since 18 eggs showed up. 14 are the White Dorkings but the surprise was 4 Sumatran eggs. Sumatrans are about as far from the long-domesticated Dorkings as a chicken can get! And, to top it off, these Sumatran eggs have a 50/50 chance of hatching out a frizzled Sumatran. Those are so rare I can't find a photo to show you. A frizzled chicken looks like its feathers are all blowing backwards. Here is a link to Philen Farms frizzles . And here are our ladies (Cuckoo Maran and Dark Brahma) and guest broody Silkie setting

and our footloose guest Silkie on vacation