Dominique Thread!

[Cowpoke]

Good looking Doms, Delight! Mine are looking pretty straggly, right now, due to molting (2nd molt). I get 200-250 eggs per hen a year from 6-hens. less right now, during the molt. I have upped the protein and oyster shell.

Just wondering if anyone has a broody Dominique Hen??? None of mine are 2-yrs 4-months old, now. I'm still waiting ......

 

[JediJinx]

Delight, those are some nice birds. Are you going to the National? I will probably be there looking at everyone's Dom beauties. also wondering what part of PA are you? I have lots of family scattered in PA

For the question on eggs, I had some hens this summer who, although they were quite small in size, laid a med-large size egg nearly every day. These hens were just over a year old. So this fact gives me confidence that they will make themselves useful as they get older. The pullets here who are just now laying are giving me a small egg every day, but they just started laying 3 weeks ago at 5 months old. I think the egg size has been somewhat overlooked/neglected from what I hear from breeders.

When they were free ranging this summer, they ate almost no feed. But now that I have to keep them in the run (hawks) they are eating a lot of feed - I have not measured this, but I notice my OEG is the best forager, the marans are the least interested in foraging (Doms in the middle).

 

[Alaskan]

@Delight in Dominiques as always, I love your birds. I am very dissapointed with the birds I ended up with this year. I guess I had looked at too many pretty Dom pictures, and had my hopes up way too high.



Well, there is always next spring.

 

[Delight in Dominiques]

I started out the same as you six years ago. It takes time and a lot of learning and listening to those who know more around you to continue to improve what we have. There is always more to improve upon and we will never have perfect birds, that is what makes this hobby so enjoyable and challenging.

 

[Sylvester017]

Here are some of this year's birds. As usual tails are still not grown out fully for show. My males still need a lot of work in type and color.

They all look pretty good to ME! Look at those busy hens - almost a blur photo they are so industrious! I like the shape of your boy - beautiful "U" shaped back! There's always some little point not quite SOP but he is pretty with wattles not too big or too small. As for feathers I don't think I've ever read a critique where the feathers were "perfect" - not one! So yours all look beautiful to me.

 

[Sylvester017]

Good looking Doms, Delight! Mine are looking pretty straggly, right now, due to molting (2nd molt). I get 200-250 eggs per hen a year from 6-hens. less right now, during the molt. I have upped the protein and oyster shell.

Just wondering if anyone has a broody Dominique Hen??? None of mine are 2-yrs 4-months old, now. I'm still waiting ......

centracid in post #3244 above says "The broodiness is over stated at least in terms of ability to hatch and wean."

Unfortunately we lost our little pullet before we ever saw her have any eggs. Your egg ratio sounds pretty darn good for Doms!

My flock of various breeds is going through moult right now and at first they lose their appetite - but once the new feathers start coming in they really crave the protein and ignore the oyster shell (no need to eat it if they aren't laying). Most of them are pretty much ignoring the layer pellets also (has added calcium and is of no interest to them at this time) so we upped their veggie protein with sprouted greens and meat/fish/egg proteins which should help with new feather recovery plus an abundance of crickets in our yard adds to their protein intake.

 

[Sylvester017]

Delight, those are some nice birds. Are you going to the National? I will probably be there looking at everyone's Dom beauties. also wondering what part of PA are you? I have lots of family scattered in PA

For the question on eggs, I had some hens this summer who, although they were quite small in size, laid a med-large size egg nearly every day. These hens were just over a year old. So this fact gives me confidence that they will make themselves useful as they get older. The pullets here who are just now laying are giving me a small egg every day, but they just started laying 3 weeks ago at 5 months old. I think the egg size has been somewhat overlooked/neglected from what I hear from breeders.

When they were free ranging this summer, they ate almost no feed. But now that I have to keep them in the run (hawks) they are eating a lot of feed - I have not measured this, but I notice my OEG is the best forager, the marans are the least interested in foraging (Doms in the middle).

Interesting that your experience with Marans was like ours. Not only was ours a lazy forager, she was calm yet aloof around humans, ate like a pig, grew to 7-lbs and for all that feed-to-egg ratio only gave us 2 to 3 eggs per week at hardly #4 on the egg chart. She was combative towards the alpha Leghorn but the little Leg put the fat Marans in her place. Later the Marans claw-attacked a 6-month old Silkie and that's when we had enough of her and rehomed her to an egg-seller before she was a year-old.

Your Dom egg sizes are impressive. I'd be happy with those pullets and hens!

I have never had a forager as busy as our little Dom pullet. She was the most active, friendly, outgoing, curious, busy little breed of any we've ever had. These chicks seem to imprint on their humans almost immediately at first sight. All chickens will forage but our little girl was just a dynamo taking dust baths on a rug or in a hair net or outdoors in the veggie garden and she moved non-stop with only 30-second snoozes in between! She ran after us everywhere we walked and squealed if she lost us and couldn't see us. If a chicken could ever be on crack she would be the poster child!

 

[JediJinx]

I am just starting out with Doms, and have not been able to get good breeding stock yet, so these two hens, although far from the SOP in color and size, have many other admirable qualities. They were sturdy, good layers, so I set some of their eggs. Of 15 eggs I set from these two, only 2 failed to hatch. Every chick was up and running around within minutes, and they are still quite the characters now at 6 weeks. I can't wait to see how they turn out by spring.

 

[Gardenlady2]

Do your Doms lay eggs through the winter? My first batch is a year old now, and second batch is almost 6 months old, so this will be my first winter with laying hens and I'm not sure what to expect. I'm in southwest Indiana.

 

[JediJinx]

This too will be my first winter. It has gotten into the low 30's here already and the doms seem to not even feel the cold. Leghorns not liking it.