Dominique Thread!

[ceceuu]

I have a strange phenomena with my two Dominique pullets. They won't get on the roost for the night! I They stay on the floor (in the poop tray).

I bought 4 other chicks of different breed/variety and these two Dominque make 6 for the cohort. They are about five months old now. I had seven other two year old hens they were integrated with. The Dominiques did well with the integration. They seem confident and not easily intimidated. All are getting along really well now. The hen house is large and there is ample room for roosting, lots of extra space on the three level perch. The other four babies are putting themselves to bed on the roost with the other chickens but the two Dominiques will not get up on the perches for the night!! They stay on the floor (in the poop tray). I put them on the perch every night when I lock them up after all the other chickens are on their perches. What is the deal? This breed like sleeping on the ground instead of up in a "tree?" Anyone else have this phenomena with their chickens?

 

[Sylvester017]

I have a strange phenomena with my two Dominique pullets. They won't get on the roost for the night! I They stay on the floor (in the poop tray).

I bought 4 other chicks of different breed/variety and these two Dominque make 6 for the cohort. They are about five months old now. I had seven other two year old hens they were integrated with. The Dominiques did well with the integration. They seem confident and not easily intimidated. All are getting along really well now. The hen house is large and there is ample room for roosting, lots of extra space on the three level perch. The other four babies are putting themselves to bed on the roost with the other chickens but the two Dominiques will not get up on the perches for the night!! They stay on the floor (in the poop tray). I put them on the perch every night when I lock them up after all the other chickens are on their perches. What is the deal? This breed like sleeping on the ground instead of up in a "tree?" Anyone else have this phenomena with their chickens?

Could be so many reasons. You don't really want to hear that, I know, but here's some reasons maybe. Unless you get to know the interactions of your birds with each other you won't really know for sure. I have 2 Silkies that sleep nowhere except in a nestbox for the last 5 years - I like that better than their alternative resting spot on the coop floor. I have a Breda that as a pullet alternated between sleeping in a nestbox or on the perch - as a hen she is now using the perch exclusively and shared it with the Ameraucana before we lost the Amer. In our previous coop the roosting perch was the same level as the nestboxes so ALL the pullets and cockerel chose a nestbox to sleep in rather than using the perch. At roost time, dominant birds might hog a "favorite" place on a perch - makes all the other birds want the "same" spot. Of course the dominant birds will fend off the more docile birds - maybe the perching spot has less draft at night, maybe it has a window with a choice view, maybe it's a spot where the alpha can survey the coop interior at a glance. In any case the Dom pullets may have decided to let the alpha have the choice spot and not challenge her for it and therefore just pick the tray to sleep in to avoid conflict. Doms are sweet and generally non-combative so I wouldn't be surprised that they would choose the tray rather than be chased off a place on a perch by a challenger. Sometimes a bird can have a bruise or injury that prevents them from jumping to a perch but since you have two Doms on the floor the chances that both are injured at the same time is improbable. Maybe the Doms want a nice wide ladder ramp leading to the perches. Who knows? Only you can be the firsthand source to determine what's going on. Some owners have had other breeds with the same roosting problem. They kept putting the juveniles on the perch every night until lo-&-behond the juveniles started perching on their own. Some owners have problems getting the juveniles to enter the coop altogether. Give us an account when the Doms finally get the idea to perch.

 

[Alaskan]

He's a youngster at 23 weeks. I think he's got decent potential though. Thoughts?

I think he looks very good. I like his tail angle, wing carriage, general shape, comb, wattles are a touch large but not bad, good feather color, beak color and leg color.

 

[Chaos18]

I think he looks very good.

I like his tail angle, wing carriage, general shape, comb, wattles are a touch large but not bad, good feather color, beak color and leg color.

Thanks for the reply. That's what I was hoping somebody with more knowledge then me would say

You mention the wattles being a touch large. How big should they be?

 

[Alaskan]

See how his wattles ripple? They should be smooth, maybe with a bit of a wave, but not so much material that they fold.

 

[Chaos18]

See how his wattles ripple? They should be smooth, maybe with a bit of a wave, but not so much material that they fold.

Thanks again.

 

[Chaos18]

Are a large comb and wattles fairly easy to breed out?

 

[Alaskan]

I wouldn't think it would be too difficult.... Haven't made a study of it.

 

[Turk Raphael]

Well...there must be a glut of baby Dominique chicks at Cackle Hatchery. I only wanted 5 but many of you know 15 is the smallest order without having to pay a big 'shortage fee' so, I ordered 15. When I got them back home, Betty (chief cook and bottle washer) had everything all ready for them and she counted them as she 'dipped' heads. 23 live ones with one deceased. I can live with that.

I am planning on leaving in about 30 or so days for my exxxxtended vacation but since I haven't gotten around to making reservations, I may have to stay about another week or ten days in order to caponize at least half (or more) of these because I only really wanted/needed 5 cockerels. At least with these, there won't be any problem of having to poulardising any because they are ALL little cockerels, with their very obvious light spot on their heads.

I'm still fairly young but I've been around chicks/chickens all my life and I still get as excited about baby chicks as I did when I was 5 or 6 years old.

Oh, another good thing about these chicks is they came from stock that was left after Mr. Mark Fields had come into Cackle Hatchery's Dominique breeder pens and 'Cleaned House'. He was also partly responsible for getting some very good stock in to replace the culls. Even though these are all cockerels and will be used in a meat bird cross, I think it's still important to have reasonably good stock for that situation. Plus, when I get back from vacation, I might (almost certainly) decide to locate a few older pullets from a good private breeder and keep a few purebreds around.

Aaron

 

[Sylvester017]

Well...there must be a glut of baby Dominique chicks at Cackle Hatchery. I only wanted 5 . . . Betty counted them as she 'dipped' heads. 23 live ones with one deceased. I can live with that.

. . . because I only really wanted/needed 5 cockerels. At least with these, there won't be any problem of having to poulardising any because they are ALL little cockerels, with their very obvious light spot on their heads.

So you actually WANTED to order just Dom cockerels? Did you NOT want Cackles' pullets for some reason?

Oh, another good thing about these chicks is they came from stock that was left after Mr. Mark Fields had come into Cackle Hatchery's Dominique breeder pens and 'Cleaned House'. He was also partly responsible for getting some very good stock in to replace the culls. Even though these are all cockerels and will be used in a meat bird cross, I think it's still important to have reasonably good stock for that situation. Plus, when I get back from vacation, I might (almost certainly) decide to locate a few older pullets from a good private breeder and keep a few purebreds around.
Thanks for the input re Mr. Fields. Hopefully his input has greatly improved Cackle's Doms. I would love a Cackle pullet except I can't use the minimum City/Town Special of 10, 5, or even 3 chicks.