Dominique Thread!

[centrarchid]

I actually favor an extreme color contrast, with a super light male... Also, slightly lighter females helps clear up any excessive dark cast on the feet of the females.

I have seen two variants within the light colored birds. Some were contrast will well developed and some where contrast is soft / fuzzy giving a smokey look. It is hard to discern them most of my photographs. Bird shown above has the smokey look.

I do not have any darker females as adults. Plenty as chicks and juveniles but the fade out as they grow. This make early culling based on coloration not productive for me.

The type is the most expensive problem as it does not show until birds sexually mature. It is kind of cool watching type come in on the male side. Process is behavioral and takes only a couple of days. Once in it stays in. Later I will post bird above as he goes through transition.

 

[Zone3Dakota]

Are the two color variations (dark and 'smoke') up to standard? I cannot tell from photos if they both are 'nearly black on nearly white' and there is just a difference in 'shade'. Is one shade preferable? Do you put darker cocks onto lighter hens to keep things...'even'/not letting the flock color drift too far to one shade or the other? Farther back in this thread, I read that someone was having a challenge with the feathers ending with the correct color(and now of course, I don't recall which is to standard) and am wondering how a person could keep their line 'pure' and correct a problem that just doesn't happen in their lines? Is it really important that the feathers end in the correct color or is a certain shade, as far as practicality is concerned?(better camouflage?)

I have many feather questions.

Does the U in the back come later in maturity? Is that what 'type' is? in showing my other critters, type had a lot to do with the 'silhouette' and being readily identifiable at a glance, even if certain 'parts' were not perfect. Not exactly sure what 'type' means in the chicken world.

 

[Alaskan]

You always want the males lighter than the females... ALWAYS.

However... the exact shade you are aiming at for the males and females is dependent on the breeder.

According to SOP, Doms should be "not quite black on not quite white" but that still leaves lots of room for interpretation.

Humm... I haven't paid attention to what color my Dom feathers end in... However,
I do pay attention to making sure that the pattern is broken... Looks like Dom pattern not Barred Rock pattern.

If you look at a Dom feather there is blurring between the colors... The dark fades in and then fades out... A BR feather has clearer distinctions between the colors.

Yes, the silhouette is very important, and no they do not reach it until they are mature.

 

[Alaskan]

The ideal that we are working towards.

 

[shary]

 

[centrarchid]

Those birds are not American Dominiques (no rose combs) nor are they pure Barred Plymouth Rocks. They appear too gracile to be Cuckoo Marans so if pure first guess will be they are California Greys.

 

[blueclip]

Can the apha male status change among roosters as they grow up? I'm starting to notice that the beta male is starting to make my alpha male submit more in play fights...I think.

 

[centrarchid]

Yes. I pick breeders rather than let them do it by rank. Otherwise you select for more aggression rather what is desired in American Dominique.

 

[Sylvester017]

The ideal that we are working towards.

Hi Alaskan - I always drool over these two old photos. I see a lot of photos of male Doms that look very close to the male photo. However, I've not seen many (if ANY) photos of female Doms that look like the female photo above. Mostly I've been seeing a lot of cushion obstructing the clean U-shape back. The only fairly clean U-shape on a female breed that I've seen lately is on the Langshan females only. The Dom males are not that varied to me but the Dom females on various breeder websites show such a difference in type that I am becoming less critical about how detailed the Dom female looks and accept the ballpark overall look as long as it doesn't have the big cushion like a BR and at least has a bit of spike/leader at the end of the rosecomb. I don't envy the Dom breeder job - I think I'd be bald pulling out my hair by now!

 

[centrarchid]

Artistic liberty was taken with those images. They were drawings, not photographs, Sickle lengths of male IMO exaggerated. Curve not natural, almost as if compass or protractor used to guide outline. Distal ends should either closer to vertical or slightly extended on a cockerel.