- May 12, 2020
- 17,345
- 178,686
- 1,416
We've had 4 Doms over the years. Peppy outgoing people-friendly unafraid as chicks where other chick breeds seem scared of humans. Dom chicks were our favorite standard breed chicks & calm as adults and great conversationalists -- whereas Leghorns, Marans, etc are a bit less sociable. We've had some decent Leghorns but nothing beats a Dom personality from chicks to adults.
I miss Dom babies
View attachment 3854329
Barred Rocks have Dom ancestry & reportedly have calm temperaments occasionally but BRs have been cross-bred to be bigger as dual-purpose while Dom fanciers strove to keep the original medium size of the Dom & to keep the Dom's maternal brooding instincts. Unfortunately it is believed hatcheries have meddled w/ cross-breeding Doms to make them bigger or better egg-layers so hatchery Doms are compromised. Leghorns will be a lap chicken w/ treats but Doms hop on your lap just to say "hello".
"Hello" -- surprise jump onto my knee
View attachment 3854365
Mark Fields wrote "The American Dominique -- a Treatise for the Fancier" (Amazon books) and Cackle Hatchery enlisted him in 1982 to develop their pure line of bantam Doms. I coveted but never got any of Cackle's bantam Doms but we did get 4 standard Dom chicks from Privett Hatchery (New Mexico) via our local feed store. They had good temperaments and had the sweet personalities but physically were not show quality, and no broody tendency. We have one Privett hatchery Dom left and she's been a good Alpha hen to our 5 littles (Silkies). She lets them know she's alpha w/o injuring them.
"Dana" in rear w/ a couple Silkies
View attachment 3854341
What's nice about Doms or BR chicks is that the sex of female chicks is determined immediately by tight white spot on skull, dark shading down front of legs & toes, & a somewhat darker strip across middle top beak -- male chicks have larger white splashing on skull, no dark leg/toe shading, & paler beak strip. I guess this is what is referred to as "auto-sexing" chicks w/o using vent-sexing (vent-sexing is what the hatcheries use for other chick breeds but dont need to on Doms -- or BRs either I suppose).
We loved the calmer shy personalities of our Blue Wheaten Ameraucana (my BYC avater pic) and Blue Bredas (from private breeders) but for a great Dominique from a hatchery/feed store we have not been disappointed w/Privett Doms for good temperaments and outgoing friendliness. Doms don't shy away from our visitors either who feed them treats and the visitors aren't scared by the calm Doms.
such a miserable loss. 
