Dominique Thread!

[Sylvester017]

@Faraday40 Poor Bubbles! When hens go through a drastic molt they get so reclusive, lose appetite, and shy away from handling. My Leghorn years ago lost all her neck and tail feathers during the coldest season -- makes no sense. Maybe Nature's way of getting them back to health by Spring when it's ideal to hatch and raise new chicks? Our 3 Dom girls have been in perpetual molt and new feather growth for 3 months! Every time I check them over there are newer longer feathers on their wings and tails.

Happy New Year!

 

[Faraday40]

Someone's unhappy about the temp this morning.

(It was -7'F when this pic was taken, but still much colder outside of the coop with the windchill.) All of my birds sounded like they were complaining.

 

[Sylvester017]

Someone's unhappy about the temp this morning.
View attachment 1224589
(It was -7'F when this pic was taken, but still much colder outside of the coop with the windchill.) All of my birds sounded like they were complaining.

Bubbles is so cute! Can't wait til my 3 Doms get to looking like adults. They still have pinkish combs and little wattles growing in yet!

Do you keep your flock enclosed during your minus temps? I can't imagine trying to keep our girls penned. Just one day penned because of downpour rain and they go nuts! Guess I should be thankful for our SoCalif 30 and 40 degree winter nights.

 

[duluthralphie]

Bubbles is so cute! Can't wait til my 3 Doms get to looking like adults. They still have pinkish combs and little wattles growing in yet!

View attachment 1225323 View attachment 1225324 View attachment 1225325

Do you keep your flock enclosed during your minus temps? I can't imagine trying to keep our girls penned. Just one day penned because of downpour rain and they go nuts! Guess I should be thankful for our SoCalif 30 and 40 degree winter nights.

I keep all my Dom girls in cages this time of year. They are showgirls and I am breeding them. I have 3 to a pen with a rooster for each pen. I do have a couple of losers that did not make show quality they are in my free range layers flock..
@Sylvester017 If that pullet develops a better U back, Which will happen most likely as she ages, you may want to show her. I like her front half a lot!
I like the barring, the breast and keel and she seems to have that show girl attitude. The skirt is good for her age..

Nice bird!

 

[Sylvester017]

@duluthralphie TY! Your comments mean a lot to me. Dana has been my prettiest girl from her first day home. She was the tiniest of the 3 chicks and for a couple days had to treat her for pasty butt but she bounced back.

A couple weeks later these 2 other Dom chicks were gangly and not much to look at -- sweet but so awkward.

Just when I get a good camera shot, Dana moves or turns her head so the lovely U-shape distorts! Dom is a calm breed temperament but they are active chickens.

I am getting such enjoyment watching Dana mature -- she's much more independent and a more active forager and explorer than the other 2 girls. Right now the pullets are growing in their adult feathers and still losing some smaller feathers here and there but so far Dana has the best comb, wattles, tail, and U-back stance. She's also a tad more silver in her feathering which I also like -- the other 2 Dom girls seem darker, or maybe it's because they are slightly larger in size so that their larger feathers just look darker? The other 2 Dom girls have tails longer than I like so Dana would be my show girl entry if we had any shows nearby. The only poultry shows are far in NoCalif and there's some sort of poor attempt at poultry showing at our September County Fair and that venue is not one I'd care to participate in -- it has such a trashy atmosphere. A couple years ago the Fair had chicks on display (it was 100 degree weather) and about a third of them were dying in their "aquarium" glass cage and it took waiting 45 minutes after reporting it before a teen came out to remove the sickly chicks to another aquarium. Really? The large livestock are kept in a public giant barn display where pregnant cows give birth w/no monitoring vet or human nearby, and suckling piglets and sows are transported in jostling vehicles at a time when they really need peace and quiet in their own home friendly environment. And forget the smells in that big barn! They used to race horses in the ungodly heatwaves but heard they finally stopped that practice at least. I never returned to that Fair!

Yesterday morning a turnip truck must've lost a cage of chickens it was transporting to market because 19 chickens were corralled by the Highway Patrol and sent to the local animal shelter. Sadly, 2 chickens were dead, 7 were so badly injured from highway traffic they had to be euthanized, which left the rest to be adopted. The shelter charges $25 adoption fees so each chicken won't be someone's free dinner! Yesterday DH and I signed a cage-free petition to go to ballot -- not much but we all need to do whatever we can to fight big poultry business from being cruel to animals. Maybe chickens are "just chickens" or food to some people but that's still no excuse for cruelty. It's like M. Ghandi says, a nation can be judged by how it treats its animals.

 

[duluthralphie]

If you plan to show her you have to condition her early.. Like this:

You have to start getting them ready young so they look good and know how to wear the winning purple ribbons... Nothing worse than a champ that cannot pull off purple right...



I did not comment when you first posted Dana because the angles and pictures made her seem less than she was.. I like the picture here and it really shows her well.

I wish you could find a place for her. I find the lighter colored ones tend to fade or brown in the sunlight. Be aware of that if she is outside too long.

 

[Sylvester017]

@duluthralphie

I think the "browning" fading effect is more from dust-bath stains but sunlight does damage too -- sun made my black chicken turn rusty red until her new black feathers came in after molt.

I have no prospects for nearby poultry shows -- plenty of chicken breeders in the Inland Empire and North L.A. County -- so I can't figure why there are no shows. There are a couple meet-ups each year but no shows. With the AI scare last year even the meet-ups got cancelled. I'm not going to travel hundreds of miles w/ a chicken in tow just to show one bird! There's a nice "Doms only" show once a year in NoCalif but again, way too long to travel and I won't put myself or my bird through that.

Wish I knew what the parents of Dana looked like. That's the problem w/ hatchery stock -- never know what you're gonna get -- but after having Dana I can vouch that it IS POSSIBLE to get a nice hatchery bird. I picked her out as a chick and she was the littlest chick out of 25 Dom chicks -- I picked the other 2 Dom chicks because they looked active and healthy. I only wanted one Dom but brought home 3 chicks to allow for chick mortality. Never thought all 3 would survive. I keep them on a well-fortified diet and supplements -- my vet is always stressing to keep them on vitamins.

 

[duluthralphie]

Many times hatchery birds come from breeders. They may not be their best pairings but you can get some good ones now and then.

It seems the semi-common/semi-rare ones give the best chances. I bought some Yokohama's a couple years ago from a hatchery. I never showed them but other have (I decided I did not want the hassle of the LOOOOOONG tails.) One got Grand Champion at a County fair and others have done well with them.

They are breeding new generations from them and should do better...

So you did well and got lucky with her! Good Job. (as long as her tail comes up)....

 

[Sylvester017]

"Opal" our biggest Dom pullet layed her first egg today. A pic of her 1.5-oz tan egg next to our Cuckoo Breda's 2.25-oz tinted egg with someone's little cuckoo feather above LOL!

 

[Faraday40]

Congrats!
Such a great feeling to get that 1st egg.