Dominique Thread!

[Alaskan]

Hobo is queen of the yard now and as such is the first hen to check out this latest round of chicks
She does have one in there, half Faverolles so she's going to be an interesting bird.View attachment 2295611View attachment 2295617

Ah, interesting, looks like a single comb on the chick... so mom must be hetero for rose comb.

 

[Alaskan]

Our new Dominique, Maxine Wanda

Cute

 

[Chickassan]

The little hen is the 3rd try, there were two rose combed males before her.
They were messy but definite roses.

Ah, interesting, looks like a single comb on the chick... so mom must be hetero for rose comb.

 

[Alaskan]

The little hen is the 3rd try, there were two rose combed males before her.
They were messy but definite roses.

Often a messy rose comb means heterogeneous for rose comb.

 

[Chickassan]

Ahh, o.k !
Im still learning the ins and outs of genetics.
I'm hoping she's a nice hen, the mix of the two are really easy to sex early on and are worth mixing if they grow pretty and productive enough.

Often a messy rose comb means heterogeneous for rose comb.

 

[Sylvester017]

Dominiques are such a joy -- until you lose one! We lost one 2 years ago and last Friday our Jewlz -- both died from our infernal CA heatwaves!!! Both Dom hens were trying to lay an egg in over 100 degree weather. Both girls layed their egg, ate and behaved as normal, went under the coop and suffered a stroke. We do all the usual heatwave things -- 3 canopies, 4 lean-to benches, and trees for shade, water mister, ice cube water pans, cool produce some w/ light sprinkling of Himalayan salt during heatwaves, and constantly monitoring/looking for any problems. Yet some birds can't handle it while others sail through w/ flying colors.

We got 3 Dom chicks 3 yrs ago and now have one Dom left -- our surviving Dom's body ("Dana") had the good timeclock sense to stop laying when our humid summer started back in late June but our Jewlz never stopped laying -- poor baby had no control over her body that insisted on continuing to lay. It's been my experience with two similar hens in the past that when their laying patterns aren't quite "right" I've lost them. Jewlz like the other two hens were extremely agitated and very vocal when laying their eggs -- coincidence? I don't think so -- I have a Breda and one Dom who are not agitated layers -- in fact are quite calm about it (other than the normal egg song that hens sing after laying). But the 3 hens I lost in the past were never quite "right" -- something I felt in my gut and confirmed with one of the hens at my vet's office.

One Silkie I lost to a bleeding ovarian tumor, the Dom lost 2 yrs ago had a strange leg and also would be vocal and agitated laying eggs, and Jewlz was overly agitated and vocal during her laying cycles and all her eggs had anywhere from small black spots to large black spots in every egg she layed since she was a pullet. I was nervous that she was having reproductive problems -- this past month she would go in-and-out of the nestbox for 2 to 4 days agitated before finally laying. I still have her last egg and will be cracking it open after my sadness subsides to see if her last egg still had the black hard spot in it.

Our surviving Dom "Dana" as a chick

All 3 chicks together with Opal in the back, Jewlz in the middle, and Dana (who is my favorite and has the most silver coloring)

Opal's leg was always in this split position and how we discovered her in this same position when she suffered her heatstroke a year later.

To DH and me these were not just chickens or just to have eggs -- they were our pet babies -- and no matter how many birds we've had in 9 yrs it's still so hard to lose one!

 

[Faraday40]

Dominiques are such a joy -- until you lose one! We lost one 2 years ago and last Friday our Jewlz -- both died from our infernal CA heatwaves!!! Both Dom hens were trying to lay an egg in over 100 degree weather. Both girls layed their egg, ate and behaved as normal, went under the coop and suffered a stroke. We do all the usual heatwave things -- 3 canopies, 4 lean-to benches, and trees for shade, water mister, ice cube water pans, cool produce some w/ light sprinkling of Himalayan salt during heatwaves, and constantly monitoring/looking for any problems. Yet some birds can't handle it while others sail through w/ flying colors.

We got 3 Dom chicks 3 yrs ago and now have one Dom left -- our surviving Dom's body ("Dana") had the good timeclock sense to stop laying when our humid summer started back in late June but our Jewlz never stopped laying -- poor baby had no control over her body that insisted on continuing to lay. It's been my experience with two similar hens in the past that when their laying patterns aren't quite "right" I've lost them. Jewlz like the other two hens were extremely agitated and very vocal when laying their eggs -- coincidence? I don't think so -- I have a Breda and one Dom who are not agitated layers -- in fact are quite calm about it (other than the normal egg song that hens sing after laying). But the 3 hens I lost in the past were never quite "right" -- something I felt in my gut and confirmed with one of the hens at my vet's office.

One Silkie I lost to a bleeding ovarian tumor, the Dom lost 2 yrs ago had a strange leg and also would be vocal and agitated laying eggs, and Jewlz was overly agitated and vocal during her laying cycles and all her eggs had anywhere from small black spots to large black spots in every egg she layed since she was a pullet. I was nervous that she was having reproductive problems -- this past month she would go in-and-out of the nestbox for 2 to 4 days agitated before finally laying. I still have her last egg and will be cracking it open after my sadness subsides to see if her last egg still had the black hard spot in it.

Our surviving Dom "Dana" as a chick
View attachment 2306281

All 3 chicks together with Opal in the back, Jewlz in the middle, and Dana (who is my favorite and has the most silver coloring)
View attachment 2306282

Opal's leg was always in this split position and how we discovered her in this same position when she suffered her heatstroke a year later.
View attachment 2306283

To DH and me these were not just chickens or just to have eggs -- they were our pet babies -- and no matter how many birds we've had in 9 yrs it's still so hard to lose one!

So sorry to hear of your loss. I remember all those pics from when they were chicks. Doms really are a great breed and we all understand what it feels like to lose a beloved pet. I still miss our dear Bubbles.

 

[Sylvester017]

A bunch of itchy scratcy molting birds! Feathers everywhere during this heatwave

FRONT -- Dominique MIDDLE -- Partridge Silkie REAR -- Cuckoo Breda

 

[Sylvester017]

Well, I finally broke open , my Dom hen (Jewlz) egg that she layed the day she died. She's the one that had egg-laying issues -- complaining a lot and every egg she layed was always spotted -- from small soft dirty spots, bloody spots, to large 1/4-inch hard dark spots in her eggs. It was not an intermittent problem but EVERY egg she layed since her first egg were all tainted this way. She definitely had reproductive issues -- just like 2 other different breed hens I had who passed away from their reproductive issues:

JEWLZ had my favorite Dominique comb (3 yrs old)

Here is Jewlz' last egg which didn't have a large spot but a blood vessel runs through the yolk from the slightly visible dark spot. Wish I had taken photos of her largest hard dark spot which was about 1/4-inch, very black, bumpy round, and hard! We always knew which eggs were Jewlz when we cracked them open.

Here is evidence of our Silkie's reproductive issues -- she layed a coupe peewee eggs in early Spring and by summer she started laying a couple enormous-sized eggs (for a Silkie) -- at first we thought the first large rubbery egg was from a standard-size hen but then the Silkie's 2nd enormous rubbery egg was stuck to her vent feathers (on the outside). It felt soft, was dark, so I thought it was poop -- when I soaked her in warm water piece of the egg dropped in the water but some was still stuck to her vent so we rushed her to the vet's office -- we have a lovely vet who used to work in the poultry industry. He was genuinely concerned when he realized her egg was stuck to her bleeding ovarian tumor -- there was blood everywhere on the exam table. We asked him to put her down. The first time we ever had to sit in a vet's office to put down a beloved pet! We had her for six years and every time she layed an egg since she was a pullet she would be agitated for hours complaining and going in-and-out of the nest box until she finally layed. I always wondered if or how painful it was to lay her little eggs because of the agitated moods she was in? Otherwise when she wasn't in laying season she was the happiest spunkiest sweetest hen in the flock!

 

[centrarchid]

Any of you in driving range interested in some pure juvenile American Dominiques? They are Voter strain, not hatchery stock, and have been in my possession for about a decade. I have to down size owing to family health issues. Sex ratio this round skewed more towards males. Will be between 15 and 20 birds.