Dorking

The Dorking is a long-established British chicken breed named for the market town of Dorking in Surrey. It is one of the classic table fowl: low-set, rectangular, broad in the breast, and carried on relatively short legs with five toes on each foot. Traditional varieties include Silver Grey, Colored or Dark, Red, White, and Cuckoo, with comb type depending on variety and registry. Dorkings have white skin and fine-grained meat, traits that once made them important in the English poultry trade.

Modern Dorkings are kept by heritage poultry breeders, smallholders, and exhibitors who value calm temperament, foraging ability, and breed conservation. They are slower to finish than industrial broilers and lay moderate numbers of white to tinted eggs, with many hens showing broodiness. Good housing should keep their low bodies out of mud, and large single-combed males may need frostbite protection in cold climates. Breeding work pays close attention to the fifth toe, body length, width, fertility, and preserving lines that have become uncommon in many countries.

Colors: Barred, Birchen, Black, Blue, Brown, Buff, Columbian, Crele, Cuckoo, Dark, Duckwing, Gold, Gold Laced, Laced, Lavender, Mille Fleur, Mottled, Partridge, Penciled, Porcelain, Red, Silver, Silver Gray, Silver Laced, Spangled, Splash, Wheaten, White