Dominique Thread!

[Sylvester017]

Hi everyone! I just got Oreo, our first Dominique!
View attachment 1293590
She's not a fan of pictures so this is the best I could get of her, lol! Quite the squeaker!

If you think Doms are hard to photograph as chicks, wait til she's grown -- she won't stay put for a still photo -- not for love nor money! I can't get a decent shot of my 3 grown Dom girls with my point-and-shoot Nikon so will need to get out my 3 frames per second Canon out or I won't get any pics of anything but blurs or tail butts in the air!

 

[PouleNoire]

Oh great! lol!

 

[Sylvester017]

Darn Dana keeps flying over the divider fence but I have to keep patiently putting her back on the other side. With both garden beds netted off there's nothing of interest left so maybe she'll stop now. The young pullets take patience to train them to stay on their side. Doms are extremely inquisitive -- somewhat a landrace temperament like Icelandics or Fayoumis -- it just takes a little extra patience with them in a free range situation. Glad I have a high block wall with added privacy fencing on top so she can't soar over the backyard. The other two Dom pullets same age have learned to stay on their side but she's taking the longest to train -- spoiled girl!

Baby Dana

7-month Dana -- had to gray out her camera-flash red eye in the photo -- look at that full crop!

 

[Faraday40]

Yep. Our Bubbles (& sometimes the Sebright) are the only 2 chickens that can figure out how to get into the garden. The good news is that they can get in/out by themselves & don't do as much damage as our flock of 10 lb orpingtons.

*In the 3rd year of keeping chickens, Bubbles figured out the 4' fence and taught the orps
No gardens for us that summer!!!

The 4th year we added a thin 6' fence - all except an area near the gate which has a handy spot to jump up & over. I had to put something inside the garden to allow the girls a way to get back out.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@Faraday40
Sigh. I thought I was done with the fence hoppers after all the SFH left. Is this what I have to look forward to again?

Our fence has a metal top rail (chain link fence) so they could catch that top rail and hop over...or just fly the whole way depending on their mood. I went out and got some really light-weight garden fencing panels and stuck them on top of the fence thinking that they would be deterred if they couldn't catch that top rail since the garden fencing was flimsey. Nope. I even tried stacking them 2 high. Only deterred them till they figured out how to overcome that obstacle - and they did figure it out within a couple hours.

The prize was the compost pile.

 

[Chickassan]

@Sylvester017, I think you jinxed me Hobo molted right after we talked about molting. She's still going strong, chasing squirrels and being Hobo, almost has her tail back now.

 

[Sylvester017]

Yep. Our Bubbles (& sometimes the Sebright) are the only 2 chickens that can figure out how to get into the garden. The good news is that they can get in/out by themselves & don't do as much damage as our flock of 10 lb orpingtons.

*In the 3rd year of keeping chickens, Bubbles figured out the 4' fence and taught the orps
No gardens for us that summer!!!

The 4th year we added a thin 6' fence - all except an area near the gate which has a handy spot to jump up & over. I had to put something inside the garden to allow the girls a way to get back out.

Someone here on the Dominique thread said Doms can get into mischief and agree with first hand experience with our 3 pullets. They're still young and I think it'll take their full year to understand/respect their boundaries. After the rain we'll thread some higher barriers or as a very last-last-last resort cut one side of their wings. I do love the Doms but they just aren't the sweet docile behaviorally good girls like our Breda have been. It's actually a good thing Doms are so resourceful especially in a free range situation but it takes a bit more patience to curb their mischief.

@Faraday40
Sigh. I thought I was done with the fence hoppers after all the SFH left. Is this what I have to look forward to again?

Our fence has a metal top rail (chain link fence) so they could catch that top rail and hop over...or just fly the whole way depending on their mood. I went out and got some really light-weight garden fencing panels and stuck them on top of the fence thinking that they would be deterred if they couldn't catch that top rail since the garden fencing was flimsey. Nope. I even tried stacking them 2 high. Only deterred them till they figured out how to overcome that obstacle - and they did figure it out within a couple hours.

The prize was the compost pile.

It's hard to say what keeps the Doms (or any breed) on their side of the fence. I plan to add new sand to their dust bath box and see if that keeps their interest over there -- maybe for a whole 5 minutes?

@Sylvester017, I think you jinxed me Hobo molted right after we talked about molting. She's still going strong, chasing squirrels and being Hobo, almost has her tail back now.View attachment 1296251 View attachment 1296253

Makes no sense why most chickens molt during the cold Winter -- maybe their birth cycle? or maybe to hurry and grow back feathers before they start laying or brooding in the Spring? I love your Hobo's head, comb, leader (spike), and wattle size. Looks a lot if not exactly like our Dana. All my Dom's have funny looking tails, almost like a rooster sickle but not quite. But I've seen some show winner Doms that had the same issue so I guess it's not a complete DQ for show. Don't laugh at the pics I took in the rain -- I'm lucky to get any bird to walk past the camera instead of running!

My Doms started growing out some nice combs - at least, I'm pleased with them

Cuckoo Breda -- I can spot her amidst the Doms 'cause of her white earlobes. She's very well behaved but then she's trained and mature at 2 yrs.

Dana

Funny tails

Dana again -- I grayed out her red camera eye in the photo

Hate these tails

A Murray McMurray Dom pullet (Sonia Schaffer on youtube) shows these same kind of Dom tails yet my pullets are from Privett Hatchery. i also noticed the girls got cushion feathers at the base of their tails after the colder weather set in. Wonder if the cushion will thin out in summer?

 

[Faraday40]

Here's the Dom we kept. They pretty much all looked the same, so I either hatched 5 males or 5 females.

The darker feathers, black wash on legs/beak, and longer wings should mean female.
The headspot & lighter chick down made me initially think male.
It's so much harder to sex one's own chicks!

Male or Female?

 

[Alaskan]

Here's the Dom we kept. They pretty much all looked the same, so I either hatched 5 males or 5 females.

The darker feathers, black wash on legs/beak, and longer wings should mean female.
The headspot & lighter chick down made me initially think male.
It's so much harder to sex one's own chicks!

Male or Female?

girl

 

[Sylvester017]

Here's the Dom we kept. They pretty much all looked the same, so I either hatched 5 males or 5 females.

The darker feathers, black wash on legs/beak, and longer wings should mean female.
The headspot & lighter chick down made me initially think male.
It's so much harder to sex one's own chicks!

Male or Female?

Personally, I think all your chicks were female and if they were in a brooder bin I would've probably chosen them all. The dark shading down the legs/toes and the darker beak spot should be a good indication. The head spots seem too iffy to judge alone, but with the leg shading, and darker beak spots I think you're safe. LOL -- let us know how this one grows out! Mischievous for certain .

My mischievous Dom pullets kept launching over the 2-foot rabbit fence so we worked on putting up a cheap 40-inch plastic barrier net and removed a stack of paver stones they used to launch from. So far so good. These 3 Doms are the first breed that didn't respect the shorter rabbit fence. I love that these Doms are so free-range savvy -- fast as lightning when they move! I mean all chickens are foragers but these Doms forage with such a ZEST for life and so-o-o darn friendly! They trust DH enough to fly up into his arms. Sometimes he's walking and gets 2 or 3 Doms flying up to his arm, back, or shoulder. I don't dare bend over to garden or a couple of them will launch for my back, sit down, and settle there until DH takes them off my back. They're always scratching and pecking and pulling at my shoes or pant legs like when they were chicks. I think maybe we spoiled them terribly when they were babies and now we've got the friendliest, pesty-est, outgoing, curious chickens we've ever owned. And we're getting a flood of pretty brown pullet eggs from them -- more eggs than we need for just the two of us! I sent a dozen home with my son because I've got eggs in both our 2 fridges, a dozen in an egg carton on the counter, and the egg skelter is full. I'm enjoying it though because Spring is the season for fertility!