Dominique Thread!

[nekker57]

My ladies enjoying some fresh watermelon.

 

[Faraday40]

Predators are always first and foremost a big issue having poultry -- whether aerial predators or ground slinkers! Every Spring we have issues with breeding Cooper's Hawks and when the young are fledged they wander into our yard because we are situated close to the trees where they nest. Every year a curious young one sits on our yard's block wall or one of our lawn furniture to stare at my girls who are too smart and stay hidden. But this Spring we had an adventurous young Hawk that flew at the wire walls of the pen where my girls were taking refuge and knocked itself out to the ground! As long as the fledgling Hawks stay stupid like that my girls do well when hiding. Hawks can see my hens but don't engage in battle on the ground. Hawks seem to prefer swooping down on running or flying prey and my girls don't do either when a Hawk is in the yard. In 7 years so far, so good!

We had a very bold (hungry) hawk take out 1/2 our quail. It entered through the open garage door & was on the ground against the far wall pulling bits & pieces of quail through the 1" hardware cloth. As I was cleaning up the carnage, it kept returning to attempt to finish off the rest.

Here it is on the fence next to the garage - just waiting for me to turn my back & give another opportunity to sneak into the garage.

 

[centrarchid]

Immature Coopers Hawk, looks female. Can you pen a fully adult rooster next to you quail pen, like right up next to it? I would even press plywood or anything that can block hawk's line of site. Record how hawk tries to get in.

 

[Faraday40]

With great sadness, I'm here to share that our dear sweet Bubbles died yesterday. She was starting to molt and looked slightly off. Then a big, young cockerel decided she was easy pickings to mate. (He had a bad habit of jumping on any weak hen or young pullet. He's in the freezer now.) He took Bubbles by surprise & injured her. Her comb quickly went from pink to dark purple. She couldn't stand & laid on her side trying to catch her breath. About an hour later, she was walking around & coming out of shock. I was hopeful when I saw her eat, drink, & even spend some time outside with the flock. She lived for a few days but must have had some unseen injury. With all the mischief in that little hen, I'm so surprised that a rooster was her cause of death. i can't begin to describe my sadness over the loss. She will be missed by not only her family & friends, but by 300+ school children who look forward to seeing her at school presentations, parades, & special events. Bubbles was a very special girl.

RIP dear Bubbles 7-4-2015 - 8-17-2018

 

[Alaskan]

With great sadness, I'm here to share that our dear sweet Bubbles died yesterday. She was starting to molt and looked slightly off. Then a big, young cockerel decided she was easy pickings to mate. (He had a bad habit of jumping on any weak hen or young pullet. He's in the freezer now.) He took Bubbles by surprise & injured her. Her comb quickly went from pink to dark purple. She couldn't stand & laid on her side trying to catch her breath. About an hour later, she was walking around & coming out of shock. I was hopeful when I saw her eat, drink, & even spend some time outside with the flock. She lived for a few days but must have had some unseen injury. With all the mischief in that little hen, I'm so surprised that a rooster was her cause of death. i can't begin to describe my sadness over the loss. She will be missed by not only her family & friends, but by 300+ school children who look forward to seeing her at school presentations, parades, & special events. Bubbles was a very special girl.

RIP dear Bubbles 7-4-2015 - 8-17-2018

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So sorry for your loss.

 

[centrarchid]

With great sadness, I'm here to share that our dear sweet Bubbles died yesterday. She was starting to molt and looked slightly off. Then a big, young cockerel decided she was easy pickings to mate. (He had a bad habit of jumping on any weak hen or young pullet. He's in the freezer now.) He took Bubbles by surprise & injured her. Her comb quickly went from pink to dark purple. She couldn't stand & laid on her side trying to catch her breath. About an hour later, she was walking around & coming out of shock. I was hopeful when I saw her eat, drink, & even spend some time outside with the flock. She lived for a few days but must have had some unseen injury. With all the mischief in that little hen, I'm so surprised that a rooster was her cause of death. i can't begin to describe my sadness over the loss. She will be missed by not only her family & friends, but by 300+ school children who look forward to seeing her at school presentations, parades, & special events. Bubbles was a very special girl.

RIP dear Bubbles 7-4-2015 - 8-17-2018

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I am disappointed for somebody. Hen passed from either heat stress or something impacting blood, possibly high worm burden. Purple coloration of comb is indicator. Now send me to freezer camp.

 

[Sylvester017]

With great sadness, I'm here to share that our dear sweet Bubbles died yesterday. She was starting to molt and looked slightly off. Then a big, young cockerel decided she was easy pickings to mate. (He had a bad habit of jumping on any weak hen or young pullet. He's in the freezer now.) He took Bubbles by surprise & injured her. Her comb quickly went from pink to dark purple. She couldn't stand & laid on her side trying to catch her breath. About an hour later, she was walking around & coming out of shock. I was hopeful when I saw her eat, drink, & even spend some time outside with the flock. She lived for a few days but must have had some unseen injury. With all the mischief in that little hen, I'm so surprised that a rooster was her cause of death. i can't begin to describe my sadness over the loss. She will be missed by not only her family & friends, but by 300+ school children who look forward to seeing her at school presentations, parades, & special events. Bubbles was a very special girl.

RIP dear Bubbles 7-4-2015 - 8-17-2018

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I'm devastated for your family! There have been so many close calls with Bubbles and she came through with flying colors. I'm gonna miss that girl! How is DD taking it? She has spent so much time training Bubbles! Let DD know how sorry I am and it's only been a couple months since we lost our Dom "Opal" -- it hurts too much to lose these spunky Doms.

 

[Faraday40]

I am disappointed for somebody. Hen passed from either heat stress or something impacting blood, possibly high worm burden. Purple coloration of comb is indicator. Now send me to freezer camp.

Her comb was only purple immediately following the crushing incident. He jumped on her & she went flat. Then he pecked at her because she was not standing. I pushed him off & her comb color returned.... but she did not stand back up. Before the roosters were let out, she seemed fine other than some new feather growth on her neck. She was a top hen - except when molting when she preferred to stand back. She never returned to "normal" after the rooster assault but I had a little hope when she was able to walk around a couple hours after the attack. That cockerel had done similar things to my 6 yr old hen, pullets, and even tried to mate bantams when he could catch them. Our mature roo doesn't pray on the weak and moves on to the next if a hen doesn't squat. Sadly he was across the yard & couldn't discipline the cockerel. I'm tolerant of a little hen chasing, but if a male injures hens repeatedly, he's got to go.

I'm devastated for your family! There have been so many close calls with Bubbles and she came through with flying colors. I'm gonna miss that girl! How is DD taking it? She has spent so much time training Bubbles! Let DD know how sorry I am and it's only been a couple months since we lost our Dom "Opal" -- it hurts too much to lose these spunky Doms.

Shock and sadness sums it up. Although Bubbles was technically DD's hen, I borrowed her all the time for presentations. She was overly friendly and demanded attention. She was a top hen, so the backyard dynamic is very different now. Our son is especially weepy. Throughout the weekend, DS has been going to the garden spot where we buried Bubbles & quietly sitting there saying his silent Good Byes. Poor little guy.

Because we loved Bubbles so much, we hatched some more Doms in spring. We kept one, but she doesn't have the same "look at me" personality. She's pretty - IMO, but doesn't have the sleek Dom body shape. She's laying now, so at least I finally know she's female. (her light color was throwing me)

This is BB2

 

[Sylvester017]

@Faraday40 I'm so devastated about Bubbles. I know what you mean about a "look at me" gaze that a pullet gives you and you know it's the special one. BB2 has the nice light silvery feathering and wish I knew what we could do to lose the cushion on those Dom girls! BB2 has a nice spike/leader comb very similar to Bubbles. But i have to admit that Bubbles had it all -- Brains, Beauty, and Body for the 3 B's in her name!

 

[Sylvester017]

@Faraday40 I forgot to share -- I went on MyPoints image search for Dominique photos and saw a bunch of your DS pictures with his pet chicken LOL! There were about 40 pics of my assorted flock on there too that weren't even Dominiques but I guess IT people don't know the difference between Doms and other chicken breeds LOL! A lot of yours and my images were from BYC pics we've posted.