Dominique Thread!

[Sylvester017]

Does anyone else find their dominiques to like climbing on things? All of mine are often on the top of my pheasant pens, 8ft up. They only have to jump four feet to climb up. With my other chickens they usually only climb up once before they seen to grow out. Is this a normal dominique trait or are they just being different? Anyone else ever had this happen?

Doms are lighter-weight than most dual purpose breeds and therefore more agile. Our lightweight Leghorn and Ameraucana were excellent flyers and jumpers so we had to gently and slowly usher them away from restricted areas and smartly they figured out the "rules of the yard" without our embarrassing them by chasing them. However breeds like Icelandics, Fayoumis, agile bantams, are almost impossible to contain as they are escape artists, flyers, and explorers. Doms may explore but they have the wonderful habit of staying close to the barnyard.

 

[PheasantsFirst]

Ok, that makes a lot of sense. I'm amazed that they haven't noticed and tried to jump into the garden or yard yet, hopefully they won't....

 

[Sylvester017]

How are Dom's at eating ticks? Most chickens I've had won't touch a tick.
Sylvester 017, where did you get your Doms? My experience with Doms hasn't been as good as yours.

Hi gootziecat - just read a bit about Guinea Hens being decent at eating ticks. I suggest you read through the BYC "Guinea Hens and Chickens" thread to get a feel about mixing Guineas with Chickens to see if that might work for you. I have too small a yard to get Guineas and I certainly don't get males of any poultry but thought I'd give it a mention to you.

 

[lazy gardener]

My 3 Doms are becoming more human friendly. One or more of them will often be milling around my feet when I'm out in the yard. In spite of not spending any time socializing this year's chicks, I'm finding that as they reach sexual maturity, they are just as friendly as the chicks that got a lot of handling last year. It's all seemed to balance out.

 

[Sylvester017]

Ok, that makes a lot of sense. I'm amazed that they haven't noticed and tried to jump into the garden or yard yet, hopefully they won't....

Smart breeds like Doms will usually respond to their owners lifting them out gently or ushering them out slowly without embarrassing them with a chase. Eventually they will learn a fenced off area is not a place to be unless "invited" - our hens wait all Summer for the garden to go fallow and then we open it up for them - it's a special treat for them to dig in the beds for a couple months turning the soil, digging up hibernating caterpillars, and dust-bathing in all that soft earth! But once the fence gets closed off again in the Spring they will dutifully stay on their own side of the yard. Now mind you our fence is only a 2-foot tall rabbit fence but they all respect it!

 

[ShadyGroveFarm1]

My Doms can come anytime between tomorrow and Friday!!, so excited.

 

[Sylvester017]

My 3 Doms are becoming more human friendly. One or more of them will often be milling around my feet when I'm out in the yard. In spite of not spending any time socializing this year's chicks, I'm finding that as they reach sexual maturity, they are just as friendly as the chicks that got a lot of handling last year. It's all seemed to balance out.

This is what amazes me about the Doms. As chicks they will be the ones that run up to you and explore your fingers, hair, eyeglasses, and then jump into your arms or on your shoulder to snooze a bit. They want to follow you from room to room and panic if they don't see you and start chirping to get you to answer them back. It's like they're always happy to see you and run to meet you at the brooder or cage. Other breeds might run up to you but once they find no treats they get bored and run off but not the Doms who stay to chirp to you. This behavior continues into their adulthood. It's hard to explain unless you've actually had this breed from the time they were chicks. They bond quite instantly to their humans with absolutely no fear.

 

[lazy gardener]

I've not found the chick behavior you describe in my Doms from last year and this year (both MMc.) Mine, as chicks were quite aloof. Curious, absolutely! Most likely to be the first to try the new treats. Still love them, both their demeanor and coloring, auto sexing, great foragers... what's not to love??? Can't wait for my first eggs from these gals. They are now 19 weeks old.

 

[Sylvester017]

I've not found the chick behavior you describe in my Doms from last year and this year (both MMc.) Mine, as chicks were quite aloof. Curious, absolutely! Most likely to be the first to try the new treats. Still love them, both their demeanor and coloring, auto sexing, great foragers... what's not to love??? Can't wait for my first eggs from these gals. They are now 19 weeks old.

Our Dom chick was from a feed store who gets their stock from Privett Hatchery in NM. I've never seen bad stock in the Privett chicks. Our Dom was delightful for as long as we had her before she passed.

Don't be surprised at how small pullet eggs are. We once had a Buff Leghorn whose first egg was as small as our Silkie eggs. What a shock! But she eventually got bigger eggs at 2 oz and the White Leg eventually layed 2.25 oz eggs.

I love Doms too. However I have pink, tinted, and blue egg layers and want white eggs so ordered a couple gentle small Breda for next Spring.

Two years later after the Breda we will get a couple Doms again. We're working on keeping gentle under 5-lb breeds in our flock. I'm tired of dealing with Mediterranean class breeds or the dual-purpose LF - at full maturity they start getting obnoxiously aggressive with the gentler hens in the flock plus the heavy dual purpose eat so much more.

We have a small yard and ordinance for only 5 hens. Don't want to do the chicken math thing and get over-populated all at once!

 

[lazy gardener]

Doms are squatting!!!