Dominique Thread!

[centrarchid]

I wouldn't worry about it. We had a bantam hen when I was young - she hatched 32 eggs in our feed shed after laying all those eggs herself (and raised over 20 of the chicks to adulthood!). I know one case is not enough to make a rule, but I have certainly heard of far too many instances of hens secreting off and brooding large clutches to believe for a second that an old egg can't hatch. The hens know far better than we do what they are doing. If the eggs don't hatch, then they don't hatch. Not the end of the world.

A bigger concern in this warm weather is that the oldest eggs will hatch a few days earlier than the youngest eggs, so you may have to incubate the youngest eggs an extra couple days or put them under another hen until they hatch. Then you can sneak them back under the original momma at night and she should raise them with the rest of her clutch, even if they are a day or two younger.

I already went through business with another dom hen that had a good percentage of her eggs hatch starting about day 11 of incubation because of excessive heat. All nesting sites now much more shaded but we have had a good 10 days of >100 F during interval of last clutches being set. When the staggered hatch business occurs, the whole clutch is pulled and placed in incubator. I am just using the hens going broody as a barometer for my measure of quality. Hens that pass will have next years hatching eggs incubatored and brooded artificially.

 

[WallTenters]

I believe the research has been done and finding that broody tendancies are actually passed through the male line, so you get your highest percentage of broody hens by linebreeding to the broody hen's brother or father (prefer father). I don't have the article with me but I am sure you can find it with a bit of digging. Interesting study. Need coffee before I could explain this any further, perhaps someone can take it from here and find more information.

 

[centrarchid]

I believe the research has been done and finding that broody tendancies are actually passed through the male line, so you get your highest percentage of broody hens by linebreeding to the broody hen's brother or father (prefer father). I don't have the article with me but I am sure you can find it with a bit of digging. Interesting study. Need coffee before I could explain this any further, perhaps someone can take it from here and find more information.

I do not believe the genotype is inherited from only one parent or another unless genes of interest only on W-chromosome or in mitochodria. Chicks inherit neither from father and genes of interest not restricted to those chromosomes.

 

[Poultry Friend]

I do not believe the genotype is inherited from only one parent or another unless genes of interest only on W-chromosome or in mitochodria.  Chicks inherit neither from father and genes of interest not restricted to those chromosomes.

From what I read, broodiness is carried on the Z chromosome. Since hens only have one copy they only give it to their sons who get a Z from both parents. Any daughters get their Z from their fathers, so a rooster out of a broody hen has a 50% chance of having broody daughters unless you breed him back to his broody mom, then keep a son from that mating. Then you might have a rooster that would pass on broodiness to all his daughters.

 

[centrarchid]

From what I read, broodiness is carried on the Z chromosome. Since hens only have one copy they only give it to their sons who get a Z from both parents. Any daughters get their Z from their fathers, so a rooster out of a broody hen has a 50% chance of having broody daughters unless you breed him back to his broody mom, then keep a son from that mating. Then you might have a rooster that would pass on broodiness to all his daughters.

I see your logic. With that sytem, my selection simply uses rooster as a mechanism to mix alleles between hens that cannot mate directly. Roosters will be selected for broodiness of mother and sisters. So far selection for growth and SOP have in themselves really wittled the number of birds down needed to select further from. That will not be employed until next season using surviving male siblings of hens making grade now.

 

[Sumatra503]

A bit of an update for you all...

Okay, so the results came back from the autopsy on 3 of the chicks that died in those batches awhile back. The chicks all died at 3 weeks of age and i lost 80% of the birds. I was a bit devasted, but I've been raising chickens for 10 years and have learned to keep a strong head when facing the reverse side of Chicken Math.

Anyway, the autopsy shows that they had contracted Viral Enteritis and this was the cause of death. It seems to be a pretty nasty strain of it the way they described it to me. There was no medication that could treat this strain either, so i did all I could and that makes me feel a little better about the whole thing.

Glad to know that it isn't a hereditary trait that killed these guys, but still a sad thing to have happen. Now that i know it isn't hereditary I feel confident about moving on with my breeding project as planned and will be working hard to keep things going.


And Now for the Good News!

I hatched out my first batch of Dominique chicks!!!!

I set 8 eggs and had 5 healthy babies hatch out. I'm no expert at color sexing just yet, but they look to be 2 pullets and 3 cockerals. Everyone is healthy and eating well and poop looks normal. Everything is great!!!

My birds are Urch/Turnland Poultry Dominiques and I am super excited to see my breeding project coming along so well after my first little speed bump.

 

[centrarchid]

Out of nealry 100 American dominique pullets hatched last year, only about 75 made it to 24 weeks and only about 15 were allowed to produce eggs. Now only 4 made final cut for use as breeders. Hopefully all will survive winter and produce good hatching eggs.

 

[Sumatra503]

Out of nealry 100 American dominique pullets hatched last year, only about 75 made it to 24 weeks and only about 15 were allowed to produce eggs. Now only 4 made final cut for use as breeders. Hopefully all will survive winter and produce good hatching eggs.

It's good you were so selective. That's the key to maintaining a good breeding program. To be selective. It has to be for the right things, though.

Good luck with your remaining birds for the winter!

 

[Sumatra503]

Of the 5 Dominique chicks all are doing well. They are now 2 weeks old and beginning to feather out nicely and right on track!

It is still looking like I'll have 2 pullets and 3 cockerals.

I have a small number of birds, due mostly to space issues, and will only be hatching small batches of chicks to build my breeding projects from. I like working with a smaller group of birds for my projects, as it allows me to really focus on each individual bird more so than if I had 50-100 birds to work with.

 

[Peaches Lee]

How often do Dominiques end up with single combs?