Dominique Thread!

[redrooster99]

Hello everyone, I have a couple questions, I hope you don't mind me asking. Does anybody know where I can get show/breeder quality dominiques, without spending a lot of money? I would like to obtain a nice old heritage breed to breed, and try to improve, I only need one breed, and am kinda stuck between doms, or heritage rir.
I don't mind working with the birds to get them closer to the SOP, but I want decent birds. I am ok with chicks or hatching eggs. Also what are the best Dominique lines?

 

[Lucky Lemon]

Here is my beautiful Dominique at one year old He's a fiesty mean fellow though!

 

[Alaskan]

Hello everyone, I have a couple questions, I hope you don't mind me asking. Does anybody know where I can get show/breeder quality dominiques, without spending a lot of money? I would like to obtain a nice old heritage breed to breed, and try to improve, I only need one breed, and am kinda stuck between doms, or heritage rir.
I don't mind working with the birds to get them closer to the SOP, but I want decent birds. I am ok with chicks or hatching eggs. Also what are the best Dominique lines?

I had also looked into heritage RIR and got the impression that the doms laid better... I could be totally wrong though, I never bought any to try them out.

As to buying quality Doms....

Easiest, and decent stock: buy from Cackle hatchery

Not quite as easy, but the stock is much better: Duane Urch... Here is a thread going over how to contact them...calling AT THE SPECIFIED TIME is easiest.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/842143/duane-urch-list

Best stock I have ever seen: from @centrarchid1 here on this site. But he doesn't ship, you need to drive to his place.

 

[Sylvester017]

Hello everyone, I have a couple questions, I hope you don't mind me asking. Does anybody know where I can get show/breeder quality dominiques, without spending a lot of money? I would like to obtain a nice old heritage breed to breed, and try to improve, I only need one breed, and am kinda stuck between doms, or heritage rir.
I don't mind working with the birds to get them closer to the SOP, but I want decent birds. I am ok with chicks or hatching eggs. Also what are the best Dominique lines?

Quality and Less Money don't usually go together. When I was looking for a private breeder I went through the Dominiqueclub.org. Not everyone on the site responds back but a couple people answered my queries. These are show breeders and not egg production breeders and most will not ship their birds but want you to usually pick up your order at one of their Dominique shows. I did find one person in TN willing to ship a juvenile pullet but most will not ship their live birds. These birds are breeders pride and joy and hard to get them to part with their stock but will probably be worth it in the end if breeding is truly your passion to preserve this wonderful breed. Doms are very personable birds and I prefer the breed over the larger more combative personality of the BRs or RIRs. JMHO. Hopefully there is someone on this thread close to you that can ship either hatching eggs, or juveniles to you. Mark from the American Dominique website dominiquechicken.com is helping Cackle Hatchery improve their stock and you could sample a City/Town pullet special of 3 or 5 chicks if you want something right away. If nothing else you will find that these amazingly friendly outgoing curious youngsters will continue into adulthood with the same personalities. We recommended Doms and/or Buckeyes to Colorado acquaintances and they got a quad of Doms with a couple Buckeye pullets added and they loved them for the climate conditions. Doms have the wonderful reputation of being around since Colonial days even before RIRs and Doms have better personalities but again JMHO

 

[Sylvester017]

I had also looked into heritage RIR and got the impression that the doms laid better... I could be totally wrong though, I never bought any to try them out.

As to buying quality Doms....

Easiest, and decent stock: buy from Cackle hatchery

Not quite as easy, but the stock is much better: Duane Urch... Here is a thread going over how to contact them...calling AT THE SPECIFIED TIME is easiest.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/842143/duane-urch-list

Best stock I have ever seen: from @centrarchid1 here on this site. But he doesn't ship, you need to drive to his place.

Hi Alaskan - since RIRs aren't known to be broodies their egg production is probably slightly higher. But I like the easy feed bill with the lighterweight Doms, plus their active foraging skills, the times they give their bodies a rest from egg-laying to brood, and of course the outgoing friendly curiosity of the temperament are pluses. I catergorize the Dominique in fulfilling a good all-around breed requirement - personality, good feed-egg ratio, brood their own young, decent production and egg size, foraging skills, predator savvy, and a good family pet. As for meat the roos should make a decent carcass although we don't eat our birds. For brown eggs Dom is the only breed we considered - too many brown egg breeds are either too large or too combative in nature for our backyard flock. We eliminated the Marans, Wyans, Wellies, Barnies, RIRs, NHRs, BRs, Orps, 'Lorps, Sexlinks, etc because they are way too large and/or have unpredictable temperaments IMO. It was quite a challenge settling on a brown egg layer that wasn't large or have an overly assertive nature.

 

[BlueOrpington]

I have some dominiques, but they're really shy. Usually, they don't come near me.

 

[Sylvester017]

I have some dominiques, but they're really shy. Usually, they don't come near me.

All depends on how much you interact with chickens. We'll keep new juveniles in-house for quarantine and they are such loves but once outdoors in the main flock they can be reclusive. We socialize our outdoor flock several times a day with hand treats and eventually shyness wears off as the newbies realize they have to come up to you like the other chickens if they want to get in on treats. And sometimes there are those personalities that turn out special and will follow you around like a puppy or actually want you to pick them up or pet them or want to sit in your lap!

 

[Alaskan]

There are production RIR and heritage RIR and the heritage ones were what the original poster was talking about.

The heritage ones can go broody, I researched them in detail, they tend to reach laying age much later than Doms, and they also sounded like their rate of lay is lower.

But yes, you are correct in that the RIR, both production and heritage, tend to have a heavier body than the doms.

 

[Sylvester017]

There are production RIR and heritage RIR and the heritage ones were what the original poster was talking about.

The heritage ones can go broody, I researched them in detail, they tend to reach laying age much later than Doms, and they also sounded like their rate of lay is lower.

But yes, you are correct in that the RIR, both production and heritage, tend to have a heavier body than the doms.

We had a NHR by herself years ago given to us by a neighbor that found her in the street. No one claimed her so she was ours living alone. Really a sweet hen because we socialized her and she regularly layed every other day and daily foraged thru the vegetable garden for those big worms and grasshoppers - never bothered the veggies either. We had no idea how old she was, what her flock temperament would be like, and she made a nest under the bushes by the back door. As much as we enjoyed our experience with her we would never incorporate a NHR into our current gentles backyard flock. NHRs are about 1/2-lb lighter than RIRs but still are large birds. As for heritage vs production, you still never know what you'll get. We had 3 production Legs yet one went broody - go figure chickens?

 

[redrooster99]

Will cackles standard size dominiques be good starter stock?