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Calm
and Friendly Chickens
Hens are friendly,
docile, genial, and easy to work with. You can walk among your flock, and
they stay calm. Dominiques make good show birds because of their easy-going
disposition.
If you want especially friendly chickens, spend time with them right after
they hatch and as they are growing up. Chicks like being held. They will
imprint on you.
"The Dominique hen was smallish, a stable kind of bird who didn't fly up
if the mill whistle blew." -The Day I Et the Last Dominique, 1930s
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Good
with Children
"Dominiques
are so hardy, so even, so steady in reproducing their like, so homelike,
so motherly, so easily kept, and so generally liked by farmers, that they
will always be favorites with those who are content with a medium-sized,
good layer, and a bird they can always count on." -Burnham's New Poultry
Book, 1877
This photo is a girl holding a Dominique rooster in 1915. This image is copyright KatyDids Cards and may not be used without written permission. Contact katydidscards@gmail.com for more info.
Chicken Print - Girl Hugs Rooster - Dominique Bird Print.
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Farmyard
Happiness
"The old gray
hen with the yellow leg,
That lays her master many an egg."
-poem from Burnham's New Poultry Book, 1877
This photo is a boy in a farmyard with Dominique chickens in 1915. This image is copyright KatyDids Cards and may not be used without written permission. Contact katydidscards@gmail.com for more info.
Chicken Boy Card - Boy with Chickens in Barnyard - Repro Photo Greeting Card.
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Alert
Hens, Protective Roosters
The roosters
protect their hens from predators. Roosters are more easily excited than
hens but are calm compared to most other chicken breeds.
Dominiques are alert to what is going on around them. They will quickly
and quietly hide if a hawk flies overhead. They are curious about the world
around them. Even the chicks are adventuresome.
This photo is an adult rooster with 3-month-old pullets.
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Good
Foragers
Dominiques
are self sufficient and will scratch for their own food, making them less
expensive to maintain than many of today's specialized, commercialized breeds
of chickens. They confidently range far and wide looking for food.
Dominiques are good foragers looking for greens, fruit, bugs and seeds.
Be sure to provide adequate protection against predators especially dogs.
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Active
Birds
They do adjust
well to non-range conditions as long as the enclosed area gives each chicken
enough room.
"They are active and very free from disease; seldom become over-fat." -Dominique
Doings, 1914
"I am looking forward to have these cute chickens join my chicken family!" -Frederique, Elgin, Texas
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Old Speckled
Hen
"My
mother asked me why I didn't get some of the old speckled hens like my grandmother
always had on the home farm, which never failed to give good results. No
matter how much grain the fowls had before them they would eat only what
they wanted, leave the rest and go off scratching- no gluttony and no loafing
so common in most fowls when grain is before them."
"The Dominique requires about two-thirds the amount of grain that any other
American variety requires, and at the same time produces more eggs than
any of them." -A.Q. Carter, The Old Speckled Hen Or Dominique-a Breed that
Made Good, 1913
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Chickens
Go to Coop at Night
Dominickers
will not roost in trees if they have been trained to sleep in their coop
so it is easy to close up the hen house at night.
At dusk they come back to the coop to roost for the night, usually with
each chicken roosting at the same spot. It is interesting that the older
chickens go into the coop sooner than younger chickens. The pullets and
cockerels like to hang outside longer just like human teenagers do.
They like being let out of their coop a little after dawn...eager to start
a new day of foraging.
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Dust
Bathing
They like
a good dust bath that they make themselves by digging a hole in dry dirt.
You can add sand if your soil is not very loose. They especially enjoy dust
bathing in the sun.
In this photo hens are dust bathing together. |
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Prices
and availability of Dominique hatching eggs.
"We are hatching these Dominique eggs in my autism classroom, and the kids are very excited about them." -Blakeley, Woodstock, Georgia
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