Dominique Thread!

[Faraday40]

I suppose this is more of a roo question than a Dom question:
Does keeping 2 roos make them more people friendly than keeping only 1 roo in the flock?

Last year I had a nice orp who went hormonal between 8-12mo. When the kids were afraid to clean the coop, I had remove the unpredictable (but beautiful) male. This year I held on to 2 males (brothers) in hopes that one would be a keeper. They're over 9 mo & have never pecked people or each other or even raised a hackle feather. I have 13 hens & the roos work as a team to protect them. Just wonder if I accidentally did something right or if I should still keep waiting for that 1st sign of aggression. Or, Could it simply be that the former roo was a bad one?

 

[JediJinx]

All I know is there are bad individual apples in every breed. Most dom breeders avoid any meanies in the breeding pen, but a few I know will put up with some cockiness if the bird is exceptional in other ways. I have a policy, if the bird flares on me more than once as I am doing chores, he goes to the cone. All cockerels go through a nasty stage when just learning to mount, etc. usually settle down soon and cooperate.

 

[Alaskan]

Quote:
in that photo he is a year. He is 2 years now, and he has the best personality ever.

In the off season I can put any other rooster into his flock, and he will put the rooster in his place, but that is it. As a result I do not have to worry about fighting. Also, he is great at fertility, he covers a large flock with no problems.

I will have to see how his tail looks now (after the molt, the tail feathers are the last to grow in), if his tail is looking good, I will take another photo...might be one more month though, tail feathers are slow growers. He looks dorky without his full tail.

 

[Alaskan]

Here is a better picture

funny, in that photo they look like all three could be girls!

OK, photo examples, I picked photos of mine where they look about the same age as yours.

here are 4 males, in a diagonal like \ male, female, male, male, male and all of the rest are female.


the two in the back are girls, both in the front are boys. Notice that the boys already have red faces and wattles showing. The girls have paler faces and almost no comb or wattles.

I suppose this is more of a roo question than a Dom question:
Does keeping 2 roos make them more people friendly than keeping only 1 roo in the flock?

Last year I had a nice orp who went hormonal between 8-12mo. When the kids were afraid to clean the coop, I had remove the unpredictable (but beautiful) male. This year I held on to 2 males (brothers) in hopes that one would be a keeper. They're over 9 mo & have never pecked people or each other or even raised a hackle feather. I have 13 hens & the roos work as a team to protect them. Just wonder if I accidentally did something right or if I should still keep waiting for that 1st sign of aggression. Or, Could it simply be that the former roo was a bad one?

Raising two roos together does not make them better with people. It DOES make them more likely to get along with each other.

 

[JacobandMeagan]

Haha wow! I have no idea! Guess I'm going to have to wait until they are a few weeks older! I wish I could have picked them out as chicks, I know what to look for then.

 

[Faraday40]

All I know is there are bad individual apples in every breed. Most dom breeders avoid any meanies in the breeding pen, but a few I know will put up with some cockiness if the bird is exceptional in other ways. I have a policy, if the bird flares on me more than once as I am doing chores, he goes to the cone. All cockerels go through a nasty stage when just learning to mount, etc. usually settle down soon and cooperate.

Mine were very "early bloomers." I heard crowing & saw mounting at 3.5 months. (Only with hens, they left the pullets of same age alone.) I was very nervous that the fast maturing would equal even more hormones as they aged. So far, that's far from the case. Perhaps I just got lucky with these boys. I suppose March-April will be the next test.

 

[blueclip]

Also, I wanted to share my experience with doms vs their flock mates. Doms are definitely the leaders no matter what else I have in there with them, except my American games which I keep away from everyone else. The doms will chest butt anyone doesn't matter if its young pullet against a full grown rooster of larger breed. However they are not mean or pecky, very fair. The older hens are much more reasonable than the pullets.

With this said, it is important to choose flock mates that are not overly shy - Ameraucana and olive egger was a poor choice and we got rid of them, they just couldn't hold their own with the doms. I would NOT put silkies in with them, or probably even orpingtons unless you have lots of space or free range them. Australorps prob ok, also Marans which were a good match. I keep mine with Buckeyes now and it is a very good match.

My doms are not overly tame (except those I got from another breeder), they do allow me to pet them when they're on their roost at bedtime, but if I have to pick one up, the males are no problem but the girls say "talk to the wing!" and dash away. I raised them all and handled as chicks daily but they grew out of their tameness at puberty. I guess they are used to getting away from the boys!!

ETA - about boys, I just trimmed my flock down to only 3 roosters, all doms now and I have to say I cant be more pleased with the dom roosters, they do not fight, the orig cock is so even tempered he is happy to share his favorite wives with his sons and if he does have a problem with anything, he just walks up and the son runs off, no fighting. They are level headed around the kids too.

You and Alaskan seem to have gotten good Dom rooster strains. I just don't know about my guy, I mean I guess he's okay in that he hasn't attacked me yet but the fact that his breeder said that his father has attacked him and doesn't like it when he goes into the coop for eggs concerns me. He's never pecked me, he walks away when I reach out to pet him (I do it to see his reaction, not because I expect him to be a lap pet) but he is super domineering and mean to his hens. He'll peck them when it's time to eat and when they're dust-bathing close to him. It's weird, sometimes when he calls them over for food he'll let them eat what he's found and then peck them to get away as if to say "alright that's enough now get out." Douche bag rooster lol. I'm also a little concerned now that I've come across new information stating that they are able to attack you anywhere from 6-10 months, and my guy just hit 6 months. Oh well, worst comes to worst I'll get another rooster...I guess.

 

[blueclip]

Haha wow! I have no idea! Guess I'm going to have to wait until they are a few weeks older! I wish I could have picked them out as chicks, I know what to look for then.

I'm telling you those chicks are all roos. In that second pic you sent, you can see their combs turning orangish-red already. Also in the first pic you can see waddles. No dom pullet would have that at that age.

 

[Alaskan]

@Blueclip your rooster is young enough, really just leaning. He might mellow out into a great guy by a year of age, at six months it is mostly just guesswork as to what kind of a flock leader he will turn into.

Also... How can you tell that @JacobandMeagan's chicks have wattles? I can't see those at all (I freely admit that my eyes are not that great). I am not even all that sure just how red those tiny little combs are. And yes, I did make the photo larger by clicking on it. I can just tell that in the second photo they all do look dark, like pullets.

I dunno... That is why I posted some of my own photos, so people with better eyes could contrast and compare.

 

[abbevilleoz]

Haha wow! I have no idea! Guess I'm going to have to wait until they are a few weeks older! I wish I could have picked them out as chicks, I know what to look for then.

I still say a backwards trio. Two Roos and a hen. And Clemson wins the National Championship