Dominique Thread!

[daniellecm]

Quote:
thanks !

 

[topdog24]

I just wanted to throw this out there, my 5 Doms and their 5 friends, Black Sex Links, my broooder needs cleaning doesn't it?​

 

[Sylvester017]

I just wanted to throw this out there, my 5 Doms and their 5 friends, Black Sex Links, my broooder needs cleaning doesn't it?​

A clean brooder? Where do you find those? My birds are much cleaner as adults now that they free-range.

 

[Sylvester017]

So after 3 days of living outside my girls are loving their coop and have put themselves to bed two nights in a row ! Even sleeping on their roosts.
yay for Doms such smart birds!

The friendliest, smartest, curious, busiest, outgoing, unafraid, softest feathered breed we've ever encountered. They actually seek human contact where other breeds are aloof or just come up if you have a treat in your hand. At first I thought they were BRs but after now having both BRs and Doms the Doms far outdo anything BRs do and the Doms have that beautiful rose comb with the leader at the back - how unique is that! More economical on the feed bill than dual purpose BRs. Doms are supposedly dual purpose but at one pound less than BRs I don't understand how they are dual purpose. I couldn't possibly eat the best darn chicken breed I've ever owned!

 

[topdog24]

A clean brooder? Where do you find those? My birds are much cleaner as adults now that they free-range.

Well, it was clean when i first built it,lol and when i change them out to the coop, i always give it a good washing and then use bleach water with a garden sprayer to saniatize it before putting new chicks in it, i will be moving these out to the 4x4x10 elivated coop to grow out for about amonth and then it is on to the ground and if al goes well, the chicken mansion pictured below with limited free range

 

[Sylvester017]

Well, it was clean when i first built it,lol and when i change them out to the coop, i always give it a good washing and then use bleach water with a garden sprayer to saniatize it before putting new chicks in it, i will be moving these out to the 4x4x10 elivated coop to grow out for about amonth and then it is on to the ground and if al goes well, the chicken mansion pictured below with limited free range

Free range, even limited, is wonderful. Provide some doghouses or board planks on cinderblocks or plant a couple rosebushes or a small stickery shrub in the pen for the girls to snooze/dive under from aerial predators during the day. They like to forage but love to hide for security from aerial view. We have a small city yard but have many lean-to planks on cinderblocks against walls and fences, a popup canopy for shade, a log slipped through cinderblock holes as an outdoor perch, a doghouse, and several chicken-friendly bushes like roses and shrubs and stickery berry bush against the fence. Your open pen is screaming a predator invitation where a chicken cannot dive under anything for safety. The aerial predators don't go after hiding chickens. Our Cooper's Hawk (chicken hawk) will watch our flock 5 feet away from the girls and won't go under anything to get to them. We also plan a curved walking bridge over a fake river bed in the middle of the yard for them to hide under. Meanwhile our shelters are not the prettiest but functional.

For night critters or digging canines/foxes put either a cinderblock or paver stone walkway around the pen perimeter to keep out digging predators as you will have them and never see them in that wooded area behind your coop photo. Our city Raccoons come out about 2 a.m. to forage through the neighborhoood and 'Coons are nasty critters that kill just for the sheer frenzy of the kill and not necessarily for food.

No offense intended and hate to be the bearer of bad news but 1" poultry wire does not hold up against rats, canines, weasels, or coons. It keeps chickens in but doesn't keep predators out! Poultry wire is easily mangled and clawed apart. Personal experience in the city! Use 1/2" hardwire around the pen and bury it way more than a foot deep into the soil around the pen. You can attach it right over the existing useless poultry wire. This advice from many on the "post your coop pictures here" thread on BYC. Hardwire is expensive but better than finding a precious flock's blood and feathers scattered in the yard.

 

[Alaskan]

I just wanted to throw this out there, my 5 Doms and their 5 friends, Black Sex Links, my broooder needs cleaning doesn't it?​

A clean brooder? Where do you find those? My birds are much cleaner as adults now that they free-range.

Are the same age? It looks like the doms are way more feathered in than the sex-links. Are they?

 

[topdog24]

Free range, even limited, is wonderful. Provide some doghouses or board planks on cinderblocks or plant a couple rosebushes or a small stickery shrub in the pen for the girls to snooze/dive under from aerial predators during the day. They like to forage but love to hide for security from aerial view. We have a small city yard but have many lean-to planks on cinderblocks against walls and fences, a popup canopy for shade, a log slipped through cinderblock holes as an outdoor perch, a doghouse, and several chicken-friendly bushes like roses and shrubs and stickery berry bush against the fence. Your open pen is screaming a predator invitation where a chicken cannot dive under anything for safety. The aerial predators don't go after hiding chickens. Our Cooper's Hawk (chicken hawk) will watch our flock 5 feet away from the girls and won't go under anything to get to them. We also plan a curved walking bridge over a fake river bed in the middle of the yard for them to hide under. Meanwhile our shelters are not the prettiest but functional.

For night critters or digging canines/foxes put either a cinderblock or paver stone walkway around the pen perimeter to keep out digging predators as you will have them and never see them in that wooded area behind your coop photo. Our city Raccoons come out about 2 a.m. to forage through the neighborhoood and 'Coons are nasty critters that kill just for the sheer frenzy of the kill and not necessarily for food.

No offense intended and hate to be the bearer of bad news but 1" poultry wire does not hold up against rats, canines, weasels, or coons. It keeps chickens in but doesn't keep predators out! Poultry wire is easily mangled and clawed apart. Personal experience in the city! Use 1/2" hardwire around the pen and bury it way more than a foot deep into the soil around the pen. You can attach it right over the existing useless poultry wire. This advice from many on the "post your coop pictures here" thread on BYC. Hardwire is expensive but better than finding a precious flock's blood and feathers scattered in the yard.

No offense taken, in fact that is very good information to pass along, I know what you are saying and avised others with the same advice, the one thing i worry about is the hawks, the fence is only to keep them in, i have a 95 lb boxer that would just love for a varment to come anywhere near, or a wild house cat which is my biggest predator threat, he does not bother the squirrels that play around him, he thinks they are ammusing, but when i upgrade, extra precautions are in the works.

 

[centrarchid]

No offense taken, in fact that is very good information to pass along, I know what you are saying and avised others with the same advice, the one thing i worry about is the hawks, the fence is only to keep them in, i have a 95 lb boxer that would just love for a varment to come anywhere near, or a wild house cat which is my biggest predator threat, he does not bother the squirrels that play around him, he thinks they are ammusing, but when i upgrade, extra precautions are in the works. 

Great-horned Owl is who I would be worried about with your setup and dog may have to be able to get to owl to stop it. Otherwise if your dog is up to the task, then you have a Fort Knox.

 

[topdog24]

Great-horned Owl is who I would be worried about with your setup and dog may have to be able to get to owl to stop it. Otherwise if your dog is up to the task, then you have a Fort Knox.

I hear you, but we do not have many if any of the great horned owls, we do have an abundance of crows and blue jays that team up on owls and run them out of the area, but your point is well taken