Dominique Thread!

[Jungleexplorer]

The breeder is counting the Dominique strains as pure.
The 2 Dominique strains were crossed with American Game
strain. That's where the foreign blood comes from. Maybe
worth investigating the Voter strain?
Best,
Karen

What is this hen in your Avatar? I have a pullet that looks like her that I don't know where she came from (genetically). What I mean is, I don't have any breeds like this. She was produced (I think) by a free range mix hen that hid her nest in the woods and hatched out some chicks. Her mother was a mix of red sexlink with BBRed American Game and her was most likely an AG or another mix rooster that is the same mix as her mother. Is the hen in your Avatar a breed or just a mix?

 

[buffalogal]

I will get spanked to be sure!

Not by Fred; he's a pretty nice guy.

Your first show; you'll really enjoy it. If you've not prepped a bird for the showroom before, if you can, gently bathe it several days in advance. You can either blow dry, or what I do; wrap the bird fairly tightly in a towel with the wings folded against the body to absorb most of the water, then put the bird in a plastic dog crate with deep sawdust in a warm room to finish drying and arrange it's feathers. Even if you don't bathe the bird, scrub the legs and feet, wipe the face and comb and wattles. Lightly oil the non feathered parts with a tiny dab of either vaseline or baby oil gel to bring out a nice red color and give those shanks a healthy shine. Clean the dirt from underneath the toenails, and trim and file the sharp edges if they need it.

If you think about it, when you see Fred tell him I said hello and that all the Okies are looking forward to seeing him in December. (and if you happen to get down this way for the show in Shawnee, we'll save you a seat at Aubilita Rosa's.

 

[centrarchid]

WE SURVIVED FIRST SHOW

This was my first legal show and it was very different from what I expected. As you will see, I did not have much to choose from owing to molt. Fred had same problem. Contestants I put forward as follows. Click on images to album to see details.

I will give break down later.


Cock took best of breed. I do not feel comfortable with that assessment.


Fred liked this cock better but color was light on top and comb was not quite perfect.


Missouri Dominique cockerel that was simply a place filler.




Missouri Dominique pullet, also a space filler.

 

[NYREDS]

WE SURVIVED FIRST SHOW

This was my first legal show and it was very different from what I expected. As you will see, I did not have much to choose from owing to molt. Fred had same problem. Contestants I put forward as follows. Click on images to album to see details.

I will give break down later.


Cock took best of breed. I do not feel comfortable with that assessment.


Fred liked this cock better but color was light on top and comb was not quite perfect.


Missouri Dominique cockerel that was simply a place filler.




Missouri Dominique pullet, also a space filler.

Have you been to many illegal shows?

 

[Alaskan]

Wow, the comments you out under the pictures (in your album) are exactly the kinds of things I need to read. It makes it so much easier to start looking for the right points, when you explain it like that.

Thanks for taking the time...very educational.

 

[centrarchid]

Have you been to many illegal shows?

Not recently. Setup very different in some ways. Advertising a tad more discrete. No NPIP testing requirements. Weights or birds determined very accurately, no guessing in hand. Color and conformation not important. Everybody had their birds on their own respective table. A given group of birds had two or more people with specialized roles seeing to their needs. Everybody agreed on winner. Similarities include entrance fee of sorts, good affordable food, and people that varied greatly on their strategies / logic, some peddling going on, egos from hell and almost always somebody got mad (like at high school football games). You often see birds at both in the hands of folks that should not have birds,

Both systems are very educational in respect to effort put forth before show day. Almost everybody has a mentor.

 

[centrarchid]

Wow, the comments you out under the pictures (in your album) are exactly the kinds of things I need to read. It makes it so much easier to start looking for the right points, when you explain it like that.

Thanks for taking the time...very educational.

I will try to take pictures of combs, especially the one with a nearly second point.


What bothers me a bit is those birds with best combs are the same ones giving me fits with fertility. Those with combs big enough to make a sandwich out of can make eggs hatch very well. It is not an issue of homozygous versus heterozygous for rose comb, something else is at play.

The worminess bit as it impacts comb color did not appear to catch attention of judges. I was holding my breath hoping they would not see it.

 

[centrarchid]

Something else of interest that caught my attention at the show and that was far from uncommon involved the less than thriftiness in behavior often accompanied by a sleepy look. My free-range birds having such a look are the ones that have something bad to them such as getting really sick or caught by predator before dogs step in. If the bad does not happen then I cull them because such birds are slow and generally do not grow or lay as well when I make choices about who goes and who stays. Such poor birds were very common in the show. If I were I a judge, then such birds would be scored lower. If many of the production breeds shown are to be valued for apparent production quality, then clear eyes might be something to strive for so as to advertise to judges a given bird is in peak of health, not just of proper color and type. Judges may have been aware of this but they did not seem to make the concern evident.



Something else that caught my eye deals with the load the judges had on them. They had to judge many different breeds in rapid succession. Memorizing SOP for each breed seems easy enough but judges will likely have problems of bleeding ideals between breeds because they do not reboot their brains when changing breeds.

 

[Delight in Dominiques]

Good to see you putting some Doms in the show. It is an incredible feat these judges put on when selecting a BB and class champion. I am always in awe of their knowledge and experience. If you want to slow them down fill as many holes as possible with some good typed Dominiques to give them something to ponder over. I will always try to put in a display, or this time of year fill in with 4-5 pullets and cockerels. I have only been showing for a couple of years and have never been disappointed by a judges selection. Selecting birds with the standard takes all the guess work out of it. And staying with one breed is always the way to go for those of us that are new to the show. It is a fun and challenging hobby.

 

[centrarchid]

Good to see you putting some Doms in the show. It is an incredible feat these judges put on when selecting a BB and class champion. I am always in awe of their knowledge and experience. If you want to slow them down fill as many holes as possible with some good typed Dominiques to give them something to ponder over. I will always try to put in a display, or this time of year fill in with 4-5 pullets and cockerels. I have only been showing for a couple of years and have never been disappointed by a judges selection. Selecting birds with the standard takes all the guess work out of it. And staying with one breed is always the way to go for those of us that are new to the show. It is a fun and challenging hobby.

I agree staying with one breed is the way to go. It requires so many broodfowl to compare mating combinations and lots of chicks reared to see how a given mating performs. This year I am overwintering a little over 30 adult American Dominiques and it is expensive. It is also more fun to have larger cohorts of American Dominiques that you go through every month or so to see how they are advancing. I still cannot look at even a five month old pullet and guess how good she will be at 7 or even 6 months when type seems to settle down which means you have to get a lot up to advanced sizes before making choices.