Researching a flock

[centrarchid]

As mature hens, American Dominiques are poor fliers.

 

[TheBeardie]

I personally have a dislike for Dominiques. The one I had was skittish, aggressive towards small children and was too dumb to go into the coop at night. You know how you can go up to a sleeping chicken and pick them up? He would not let anyone pick him up even when sleeping. I think I only managed to grab him once or twice at night. His (accidental) children where also quite skittish but where never as bad as their father.

Remember, this was just my experience with Dominiques. I'm sure others enjoy this breed, I just had a bad experience with them.

I have a love for beards, so the majority of my flock are EE and or Ameraucana mixes. Any breed can can be loud. My girls can easily be louder than my boys crowing.

 

[centrarchid]

I have about 30 American Dominiques. Good natured, calm and rather hardy.

 

[Acre4Me]

Of the breeds you mentioned, I have 3 Black Australorps. They are 11.5 months old and reliably lay eggs. They are very friendly. One is named "Baby" as she will literally let you hold her like a baby or anyway, really. Sometimes if you stand around watching the chickens (we have several breeds) the BA are looking for attention. I've had one fly up onto the 3.5ft fence right in front of me just to get some attention and scratches then turn around and fly back down into the run after satisfied with the attention. Of the three, one has gone broody twice. We gave her chicks to raise (purchased hatchery chicks) and she did an amazing job with the chicks, and she was only 8 months old at that time. The other two have never gone broody. They aren't very talkative either. The occasional egg song, but not overly loud or long. Overall, good birds in our flock.

 

[Brahmachicken240]

I have Brahmas!
Planning on breeding them this year.
They’re Gentle giants, very quiet, friendly, docile, good egg layers, great broodies/mothers being able to cover many eggs as they’re so big.
They are very cold hardy also.

 

[Folly's place]

California hot' sounds pretty warm to me! If you have lots of 95F weather, that's a concern for big fluffy birds. Slightly below 32F is fine though for almost anyone.
Consider that raised coop; will you be happy crawling under it? A walk-in coop is a lot nicer!!!
Fix any possible drainage issues first, because wet bedding is a disaster.
Mary

 

[centrarchid]

Heat bigger concern than cold.

 

[Mrs. K]

On another aspect.... are you getting a pre-fab coop? What made it cross my mind was the 6 head... which is frequently given as the number that will fit in that set up. That and you said the coop part would be elevated, a pretty common set up for them.

Thing is, they really are NOT enough room for 6 birds. Cramped birds can develop some very ugly behaviors.

One of the threads on here, is: What was the worst mistake when getting started? A pre-fab coop is one of them. Worth a read.

MRs K