Dominique Thread!

[WallTenters]

To the red Dominique owner - I too read somewhere there were these crele Dominiques, they had more gamy tendancies and were used for cock fighting and eventually got dissolved into what we know as crele american games, but that bird there looks a bit heartier, would be wonderful to see more photos of them and find out weights, laying habits, etc.

 

[chicken pickin]

That would depend on what they were crossed with and which one was the sire/dam - do you have a bit more pedigree information on them?

Yes. The rooster is a full Dom and the Hens are 1/2Dom 1/2Wyandotte, 1/2Dom 1/2Plymouthrock and the 3rd Hen is full Australorp.

 

[WallTenters]

Then no sadly the spots will not let you know sexing. The male will give equal barring genes to all of his offspring - the females it's all over the place in that flock lol so some cockerels may end up with two barring genes but many of the cockerels will only have one barring gene and thus will look a lot like the pullets do (who can only carry one barring gene even in the purebreds, that is why we can color sex them at hatch the pullets are much darker and more concentrated light spot)

 

[DraigAthar]

Then no sadly the spots will not let you know sexing. The male will give equal barring genes to all of his offspring - the females it's all over the place in that flock lol so some cockerels may end up with two barring genes but many of the cockerels will only have one barring gene and thus will look a lot like the pullets do (who can only carry one barring gene even in the purebreds, that is why we can color sex them at hatch the pullets are much darker and more concentrated light spot)

Actually, I think the 3/4 male chicks (full Dom roo on a half Dom hen) would still get two barring genes. The father would be B/B and the mother would be B/-, so the male chicks would all get two copies of the barring gene. But for the Dom roo on the full Australorp hen, I think you're right. The father is B/B and the mother is b/- so the female chicks are B/- and the male chicks are B/b and you wouldn't be able to tell them apart easily.

 

[centrarchid]

Actually, I think the 3/4 male chicks (full Dom roo on a half Dom hen) would still get two barring genes. The father would be B/B and the mother would be B/-, so the male chicks would all get two copies of the barring gene. But for the Dom roo on the full Australorp hen, I think you're right. The father is B/B and the mother is b/- so the female chicks are B/- and the male chicks are B/b and you wouldn't be able to tell them apart easily.

I am unable to distinguish gender based on down coloration if B/- and B/b are involved with my crosses. Just for giggles look at feet of all birds that appear B/b or B/-. You may see something that is gender related. Sort biddies by foot size and mark, then raise them up. See if marks then correlated with gender at about 12 weeks.

 

[WallTenters]

Actually, I think the 3/4 male chicks (full Dom roo on a half Dom hen) would still get two barring genes. The father would be B/B and the mother would be B/-, so the male chicks would all get two copies of the barring gene. But for the Dom roo on the full Australorp hen, I think you're right. The father is B/B and the mother is b/- so the female chicks are B/- and the male chicks are B/b and you wouldn't be able to tell them apart easily.

You are right, but if all these hens are mixed in a breeding pen together how would you know which ones are which? So I think it's safer to say no, don't count on the down coloring.

 

[WallTenters]

I am unable to distinguish gender based on down coloration if B/- and B/b are involved with my crosses. Just for giggles look at feet of all birds that appear B/b or B/-. You may see something that is gender related. Sort biddies by foot size and mark, then raise them up. See if marks then correlated with gender at about 12 weeks.

Centrarchid I have noted foot size on hatches and only had about 75% sexing rate, you don't see the pullets have darker legs or beaks, or that the cockerels have more of a chipmunk striping pattern only with light grey/dark grey? I notice if you look hard you can see the chipmunk stripes on 80%+ of Dominique strains in the male chicks - instead of dark brown stripes it is lighter grey stripes. Sometimes they are obvious but far more often they are very difficult to see unless you are looking. I don't see this striping at all in the pullets.

 

[centrarchid]

Everything I look at works consistently only on some strains. My Voters (not really my strain yet) the gray stripe on males is pretty good in part because they will mature into relatively light colored birds. Foot size works great for my largely Voter strain but not so good with Cackle Hatchery strain although foot coloring works great on those. A while back I posted on how I looked at multiple characters (white spot, foot size, foot color) and if two out of three agreed, then I went with that sex. Using stripe might make error rate even lower. I did not use it then.

Have tried to look at stripes under different types of light? It may make them stand out better.

 

[DraigAthar]

You are right, but if all these hens are mixed in a breeding pen together how would you know which ones are which? So I think it's safer to say no, don't count on the down coloring.

Yes, true. It would work only in one direction because the trend is toward all chicks looking like females regardless of actual sex. So if you had some lighter chicks, big scattered head spot, lots of the body frosting etc., you might safely assume they are males and you might end up being correct. But you can't do the reverse and assume that all the darker chicks are females, because some of them (the ones with only one copy of the B allele) would turn out to be males. Interesting!

 

[WallTenters]

Yes I have looked at the stripes under different light for me they are most visible under slightly dark room lighting - not bright out in the sun, but that's my eyes and my birds and who knows what is the best light to look under for someone who wears their glasses like they should.

If you are having a hard time color sexing them, vent sexing is not that hard to learn, I am getting pretty confident at it after practicing on Dominiques where you can also know the gender by color to confirm what you see in the vent. I think part of the reason there's so much hype about vent sexing is larger operations want people to think it's difficult lol...