Dominique Thread!

[Zonoma]

I had no intentions of getting Dominiques but I'm so very glad I did! They were an impulse buy at the local feed store when one jumped into my hand and settled down like she belonged there. How could I NOT bring her home!?

 

[WallTenters]

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Lol... I love the shavings fling they do. Unfortunately, they'd rather bury their feeders than get food out of them!

I just have to scatter some of their chick feed down for them so they find something besides little bits of shavings at the bottom of all their digging.

So happy to have some of our older chicks (4 weeks-7 weeks) moved outside permanently now. They're still here at my house, today DH built them a nice little hoop house (10ft x 5ft) for now, they will get moved to Rhonda's probably next week sometime. They're safe and snuggly, I've got a big tarp on the top and sides and some hay bales around the edge to make sure everything is nice and cozy. So far they aren't using the heat lamp in there at all, but they probably will if we get another cold night. They love it! All the grass they can eat 24/7!! No more relying on me to be home to go in their "playpen". Ahh, bliss for the little chicks!

 

[jenkassai]

Hi all! First timer here. I already have an order of chicks in place, but the more I read about the Dominique, the more I think I'd like to try and change my order and replace the Wyandotte with the Dominique. However, one comment I read said that they are not very cold hardy. I live in Northeast Ohio, and we get some cold, snowy winters here! I don't plan on heating the coop (well I was planning on it until hubby said he wouldn't do it - lol!). From what I hear as long as the coop is insulated well then they should be okay without heat. Anyways, are the Dominiques cold hardy? I like the history behind the breed, like how their personalities sound, and think they are just overall interesting. Just want to make sure they'd be a good fit in my climate.

Thx!

 

[centrarchid]

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They should be able to handle NE Ohio winters just fine. You may not even require an insulated coop, just protection from direct wind and excessive drafts. If winter quarters too air tight, then high humidity / waste buildup may me a stressor as with any chickens. My birds in central Missouri get protection from north winds and direct precipitation under a lean-too and thrive. Just be prepared to bump up feed allotment as temperature drops and wind picks up.

 

[wsmith]

Assessing breeding hens and cocks

In my quest for knowledge, and in preparation of getting Doms and my own flock, i have been reading alot. The most recent has been some stuff from the ALBC on breeding stock assessment of the birds in regards to the standard, egg production, meat suitability, etc. They list many criteria in selecting those birds which should be kept for breeding. So my question is: Has anyone out there who has experience in breeding dominiques ever quantified things on their hens or roosters such as Keel spread, pelvic spread, pelvic bone thickeness, back width, weight etc? I was thinking that a good tool could be created that takes these things, (i'm sure there are many more that could be added, such as comb size, color, etc) and give them a 1-10 score, 10 being the best, and use this as an aid in choosing the best birds for their breeding program......
Just some thoughts and questions.

 

[vnsseed]

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Our Dominiques are in a unheated, but insulated, coop and it drops well below zero here for January and February. We have not lost one yet to cold (going on 3 years)

 

[WallTenters]

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We do these evaluations on all our stock. We have not gotten to a point of being able to cull only on combs, wattles etc., but we keep these in mind when making breeding pens. We hope to match the best pairs to compliment each other and work out some of the negatives we're dealing with. So far we have had outstanding success with this in the short term. I have six week old pullets brooding that have better pelvic spread than many of the hens we started with before culling.

And we have weighed all our breeding males this year. Next year we will weigh the females as well. We have matched heavier males with some of the smaller females, which falls right into width and length of keel, etc.

We do not use a 1-10 system, instead we write down notes for each bird, combine that with their ID#, a few photos of each bird to help us ID them and to see what their conformation is (along with our notes on their conformation), their measurements, weight on the males, age and bloodline, etc. All of these notes really are informative and help us cull with confidence. If a hen is laying well but has other faults we don't want to breed on, we will move her to the egg laying pen or sell her as an egg layer. However, if she's not laying well, she becomes chicken soup. We check the hens again in about three months before doing them in to make sure they weren't going through a slow period. If a hen goes through these lulls but picks up, we will give her away with a pet and full disclosure that she is not an A+ layer.

Will keep everyone updated in the many years to come as we continue to improve our flock! We are very excited about some of the progress we've made in this first generation, and look forward to the road ahead!

 

[centrarchid]

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I do same with fishes now. It requires recording lots of numbers per bird which is (very) labor intensive. When I process 2400 fish in a day, 30 people required for effort. In all likelihood, fewer birds will be processed in a year per operation although recording data will still be very demanding. To make selective efforts worth while, you will also need to keep track how birds are related so a yet another dimension in data recording. In the end broodstock will be selected to limit inbreeding. Classical linebreeding also has limits for such selection efforts as it makes for slower improvements of a given trait if "perfection" not already realized.

I think such an effort will require cooperation between individuals and frequent swapping of broodstock in a logical manner to control inbreeding. Scoring on 1 -10 scale will be a bugger. A 1 to 3 or 1 to 5 would be easier. Process must not be mentally demanding while underway or else you will loose your marbles.

Statistics also must be considered as to how they can be used to select breeders.

 

[NYREDS]

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They do fine here in upstate NY where winters are long & temps of 20 below zero aren't uncommon.

 

[Kuvasz]

Newbie here, and out of my dozen hens, my dominique is my FAVORITE! She's a perky, smart and affectionate girl. Now about 10 months old. This is a recent youtube I posted of her!