Dominique Thread!

[Alaskan]

his personality is great... He didn't kill the moose, but he is eating the brains.

 

[vpatt]

He has amazing confirmation! Does he have a good personality? Also, did he kill that Moose?

He has amazing confirmation! Does he have a good personality? Also, did he kill that Moose?

If he did kill the moose can I buy some of his offspring? He is really pretty .....my Dom roo is very friendly to me. He will eat out of my hand but he is not a lap bird.

 

[Sylvester017]

Drop the Game part when it comes to reducing the broodiness in BR's. The Game part would increase broodiness. In order for my Dom hens to get into breeding pens, they have to demonstrate the capacity for broodiness in their second year and come of with a brood of chicks with that effort. This means my hens must be three years old before they can contribute to my breeding efforts. The utility of of broodiness is not lost on me. My post in this thread are solid evidence of that.

Hi, centrarchid - yes, Game or Cornish as they're currently called, were used not for brooding qualities but for their massive body for infusing some meat into a breed to make it more dual purpose. Malay will increase the skeletal size and Cornish Game increase the meatiness. Both of these breeds are not particularly broody breeds so the poor BRs kind of lost the brooding quality which the Doms managed to retain.

As you say, a good broody momma takes a while in LF to develop maturity and by 2 years should be a dedicated broody. Of course, with bantam Doms they'll brood at the drop of a hat -- but then most bantam breeds do that anyway - lol

During summer I'm kicking the Silkies out of the broody nests every 6 to 8 weeks! They can't help it -- bantams were just born to be mommas!

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Couple of my roosters from last year.

 

[nate1the1great1]

Yah my dominique FINALLY started to lay DOMS FORDAYZZZ

 

[Sylvester017]

Couple of my roosters from last year.


Hi jungleexplorer: I've got to ask why there's no leader (spike) at the back of this cock's rosecomb. I've seen other ppl's roos and sometimes they have the same thing - no leader. Has it been nicked off by another roo or was it always missing or is this a young boy that hasn't fully developed his comb?

Now this boy and girl have beautiful leaders at the back of their rosecombs. I guess anything can show up in Doms -- even a straight comb occasionally which is how the BRs branched off last century.

More nice leaders!!!

 

[Jungleexplorer]

More nice leaders!!!

He lost it to frostbite.

 

[Sylvester017]

He lost it to frostbite.

How sad. Such beautiful majestic birds. Well, I can't have roos so hope frostbite won't affect the hens' leaders. Leaders is one of the most endearing unusual charms about Doms in addition to their stately stance. I love the boys but will never be able to keep one.
For temperatures projected under 32 degrees - per our vet's recommendation - we use vitamin A or vitamin E oil (Spring Valley 12,000 units liquid bottle from Walmart) to massage into the combs/wattles/feet/toes of our hens and it absorbs overnight into their skin without greasing up the feathers. I once made the mistake of using vaseline against frostbite on a Leghorn's big floppy comb/wattles/feet/toes and her feathers and comb remained stained until her next molt. Nothing more disgusting than a White Leg that stays dingy. I don't keep straight or floppy-combed birds any more but continue using the vitamin E oil on the other breeds. It's good for ordinary skin-health reasons in addition to frostbite or scaly-leg preventions.

 

[Zone3Dakota]

How often does one re-apply the vitamin E oil?

 

[Sylvester017]

How often does one re-apply the vitamin E oil?

Vitamins are natural so there's no limit to how often to use it. We use the vitamin E but A is ok too per the vet. It helps keep the combs/wattles/legs/toes/beaks/toenails nourished. Sometimes combs/beaks/etc start getting really brittle/dry and the vitamin nourishes these areas to be supple again. I believe the Spring Valley vitamin E also has a coconut oil base which is another good nutrient. I don't particularly like soybean oil since it is known to interfere with egg laying/reproductive issues which Spring Valley has in its vit E oil. A capsule of pure vitamin E or A oil is good to use too but I find it a bit messy to puncture open a capsule but it is pure oil with no additives that way. Anyway, the oils are nice on my hands too after I massage into the legs/toes/etc of my chickens. I do the chickens about once a month each. But there's no limit to how often you want to do it. I do it after roost time when the chickens are calmer and more easily handled and bring them in one at a time for maintenance and return them to roost. This way the oils absorb nourishing their skin overnight and I don't see greasy feathers on the girls in the morning. Even if some of the vit oil gets on their feathers it doesn't hurt the protein feathers. Vitamin oil is unlike vaseline that leaves a greasy petroleum thickness on feathers that never really comes off and dust-bath dirt sticks to the grease on the feathers. The vit oils are great as preventative maintenance against scaly-leg mites or preventing frostbite combs/wattles. If freezing temps are an issue then use the vit oil every night during cold weather. Our Silkies don't have much of a comb but I still swath them and their beaks with vit oil and it gives them a nourishing shine and no problems if some gets on the feathers.

After our vaseline fiasco on a White Leghorn a couple years ago we don't keep white feathered chickens any more. Too hard to keep free-range white chickens from looking dingy.