Dorking chicken

Dorking
Traits
A Silver Grey Dorking cock
Country of origin	Italy
Weight	Male: 3.60-6.35 kg^[1]
	Female: 3.60-4.55 kg
Skin color	White
Egg color	White
Comb type	Single
Classification
APA	English
ABA	Single Comb and Clean Legged
PCGB	Soft Feather: Heavy^[2]
Chicken Gallus gallus domesticus

The Dorking is a breed of chicken that is believed to have originated in Italy during the period of the Roman Empire and was introduced in Britain at the time of the Roman conquest making it one of the oldest English breeds.^[3]

History

One of the earliest known mentions of the Dorking was by the Roman agricultural writer Columella, perhaps during the reign of the emperor Claudius. 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". Pliny also described a similar bird with an odd number of toes in his Naturalis Historia. Although Caesar noted that poultry was already raised in Britain prior to his invasions in 55–54 BC, the Red Dorking is believed to have been introduced in Great Britain by the Romans at an early date where much of its development continued to take place.^[4]^[5]

They appeared in the first British poultry show in 1845, together with the Sussex breed, which is believed to be derived from the Dorking.^[6] The birds are named after the market town of Dorking in Surrey which in the nineteenth century became one of the main centres of production.

They were admitted in to the American Poultry Association's Standard of Perfection in 1874.

Characteristics

The Dorking has a rectangular body with very short, five-toed legs. As with all single comb poultry, the comb points may require protection in extremely cold weather. Dorkings are also well known for their versatility as a breed for both egg and meat production. It is one of the few breeds with red earlobes that produces a white-shelled egg. The skin colour beneath the feathers is white. The weight is 4.55–6.35 kg (10–14 lb) for cocks, 3.60–5.00 kg (8–11 lb) for cockerels and 3.60–4.55 kg (8–10 lb) for hens.^[1] There are five recognised colour varieties: White, Silver-grey, Red, Dark and Cuckoo.^[1]

Gallery

Illustrations by Harrison Weir
Coloured Dorking
White Dorking
Red Dorkings
Prize Dark Dorkings

Notes

1 2 3 The Dorking Club. Poultry Club of Great Britain.
↑ Breed Classification. Poultry Club of Great Britain. Accessed August 2014.
↑ Hobson, Jeremy & Lewis, Celia. Choosing & Raising Chickens: The complete guide to breeds and welfare. David and Charles publishing. London. 2009
↑ Lewer 1927
↑ Dohner 2001
↑ Crawford 1990, p. 1033–1034

References

Crawford, Roy D. (1990), Poultry breeding and genetics, Elsevier Health Sciences, ISBN 0-444-88557-9
Dohner, Janet Vorwald (2001), The encyclopedia of historic and endangered livestock and poultry breeds, Yale University Press, pp. 421–423, ISBN 0-300-08880-9
Lewer, Sidney H. (1927), British poultry and poultry keeping, The Feathered World
Sturges, Rev. T. W. (1911), The Poultry Manual: A complete guide for the breeder and exhibitor (PDF), Macdonald and Evans

Media related to Dorking (chicken) at Wikimedia Commons

Livestock breeds of the British Isles

Cattle

Beef cattle	Angus Belted Galloway Devon Dexter English Longhorn Hereford Highland Luing Shorthorn South Devon Sussex Welsh Black

Dairy cattle	Ayrshire Guernsey Jersey Milking Shorthorn

Dual purpose	British White Gloucester Pembroke Red Poll

Primitive	Chillingham wild cattle Vaynol White Park cattle

Sheep

Extant	Beulah Speckled Face Bluefaced Leicester Border Leicester British Milk Cheviot Clun Forest Cotswold Dalesbred Derbyshire Gritstone Devon Closewool Devon Longwoolled Dorset Down English Leicester Exmoor Horn Galway Greyface Dartmoor Hampshire Herdwick Hill Radnor Kerry Hill Lincoln Llanwenog Lleyn Lonk Norfolk Horn Oxford Down Portland Romney Rough Fell Ryeland Scottish Blackface Shetland Shropshire Southdown sheep Suffolk Swaledale Teeswater Welsh Mountain Wensleydale Whitefaced Woodland Wiltshire Horn

Primitive	Boreray Castlemilk Moorit Hebridean Jacob Manx Loaghtan North Ronaldsay Soay

Extinct	Scottish Dunface

Pigs

Extant	Berkshire British Landrace British Lop British Saddleback Essex Gloucestershire Old Spots Hampshire Large Black Large White Middle White Oxford Sandy and Black Tamworth Welsh Wessex Saddleback

Extinct	Cumberland Grice Lincolnshire Curly-coated Small Black Small White Yorkshire Blue and White

Goats

Anglo-Nubian Bilberry British Alpine Golden Guernsey Irish

Poultry

Chickens	Burford Brown Cornish Derbyshire Redcap Dorking Ixworth Marsh Daisy Modern Game Modern Langshan Norfolk Grey Old English Game Old English Pheasant Fowl Orpington Rosecomb Scots Dumpy Scots Grey Sebright Sussex

Ducks	Abacot Ranger Aylesbury Orpington Khaki Campbell Magpie Shetland Welsh harlequin

Geese	Brecon Buff Shetland

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