Dominique Thread!

[gootziecat]

Might I ask what hatchery - is she from Cackle?

Yes. And they should be better next year since they will have some help from top Dom breeders in selecting matings.

 

[Zone3Dakota]

Just a dumb newbie question, but do breeders ever cross the bantam doms to LF doms, in order to bring down size? Wondering how the genetics work. Is there a 'bantam' gene (like in cattle that have that 'dwarf' gene), or were banties bred down in size from LF?

Are banty eggs any bigger than 'normal' pigeon eggs?

 

[redrooster99]

Just a dumb newbie question, but do breeders ever cross the bantam doms to LF doms, in order to bring down size?  Wondering how the genetics work.  Is there a 'bantam' gene (like in cattle that have that 'dwarf' gene), or were banties bred down in size from LF?

Are banty eggs any bigger than 'normal' pigeon eggs?

I do not know the answer to your question, but I can tell you that there is no such thing as a dumb newbie question. We were all there once.

 

[JediJinx]

I read somewhere that a breeder was crossing in some good but smaller LF into her bantam line to fix issues. But yes, many bantams were produced by breeding down the LF. From what I understand, you probably would not want to use a bantam in your LF breeding program. You will have to make concerted efforts to keep LF size large, otherwise, they will tend towards a more medium size naturally. I know of a Dom breeder whose doms ended up lacking size because he did no outcrossing for several years. I think you have to keep size in the forefront or in just a few generations, you will have smaller birds.

 

[vpatt]

I have four Dominique girls. Two are older hens. They are both the same size and color. The two POL's are larger and darker. All four came from the same farm. Can the lightness be because they are older? I was told they were one or two years old and the younger two were 3 or 4 months old at the time. The younger ones have really grown since then and are the biggest chickens I have except for the rooster. I guess I don't understand why they look so different.

 

[Sylvester017]

Sylvester017---If they are darker it probably means they are pullets.

Yes, jane s chickens - the older pullets are darker while the cockerels are lighter. However, at day-old that is not true. Other identifiers like leg color, beak color, and head spots, are better to separate day-old males/females. Thanks for the input

 

[buffalogal]

I have four Dominique girls. Two are older hens. They are both the same size and color. The two POL's are larger and darker. All four came from the same farm. Can the lightness be because they are older? I was told they were one or two years old and the younger two were 3 or 4 months old at the time. The younger ones have really grown since then and are the biggest chickens I have except for the rooster. I guess I don't understand why they look so different.

The older a hen is, the lighter she will look after each molt. Even though they're all from the same farm, the younger pullets may be maturing into bigger birds because the breeder is now using a different cock or different hens in the breeding pens.

 

[buffalogal]

Just a dumb newbie question, but do breeders ever cross the bantam doms to LF doms, in order to bring down size? Wondering how the genetics work. Is there a 'bantam' gene (like in cattle that have that 'dwarf' gene), or were banties bred down in size from LF?

Are banty eggs any bigger than 'normal' pigeon eggs?

Not dumb. I have heard of the idea of using a too small but otherwise excellent LF cock over bantam hens to improve their quality, but have not tried that myself. When I acquired bantam Doms this past spring, I had just such a male bird (small, but typey) but he was over twice their size, and the bantam cockerel was just fine, so I didn't.

As for breeding a bantam cock to a LF hen to decrease the size of the LF, I suppose you could, but the bantams I've seen pretty much all have crappy wing set as well as some blechy comb issues, and you would have your birds too small, probably narrow as well; I'd think that would create more trouble than it's worth. IMHO, it would be better to just use the smallest adult LF cock you have to get the size back down. If you have no clear "smallest", then at least weigh everything and don't breed anything that is oversized. (7,6, 5,4 for C,K,H and P.)

 

[buffalogal]

reply- barring is a dominant gene. When you bred her to her brother and got white chicks they both had to have a white gene, even if you can't see it in the roo brother. Ratio of white to barred sould be 1:1. Simple genetics

Yes, that's what you'd expect to see; white chicks when bred to a closely related male (that you could assume was carrying the gene for white) as opposed to outcrossing to an unrelated male that is not carrying the gene. In my experience, the ratio of white to barred has never been anywhere near 1:1 which doesn't surprise me because genetics in real life don't always neatly follow the formula.

 

[vpatt]

The older a hen is, the lighter she will look after each molt. Even though they're all from the same farm, the younger pullets may be maturing into bigger birds because the breeder is now using a different cock or different hens in the breeding pens.

Thank you.