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Livestock Conservancy: Dominique

Shipping and How to Hatch Eggs
Shipping Hatching Eggs
Types of Incubators
How to Incubate Eggs
How to Help Hatching Babies
How to Brood Poultry
Make A Poultry Incubator

Dominique Chickens
Dom History: Colonial to 1900
Dom History: 1915 to Present
Dom Looks: Adult
Dom Looks: Chick/Pullet/Cockerel
Dominique Personality: Friendly
Dominique: Eggs, Broodiness
Dom: Determine Sex After Hatch
Photos Dominique Chicks
Photos Chicks with Mother Hens
Photos Roosters & Hens
Dominique Chicken Personality:
Laying Eggs & Broodiness
Broodiness in Hens

Eggs are usually laid in the morning. The hens are somewhat broody. They are excellent mothers, being very protective of their chicks. They are more tolerant of other hen's chicks than most breeds of poultry. Sometimes several hens will stay in a group and look after all of the chicks together.

Broodiness in poultry is influenced by the length of daylight with broody behavior being strong in spring. You can increase broodiness in hens by leaving eggs in the nest, rather than collecting all the eggs every day. If you want the eggs, you can keep wood or plastic dummy eggs to encourage them to set.

Setting Hens

"I find that, although not persistent sitters, if allowed to get broody the Dominiques will handle a setting of eggs with more care than any breed of my acquaintance, and after the chicks are hatched they will raise them better than any other and will bring a larger percentage to maturity."

"The chicks, being very hardy, are easy to raise, and they feather so quickly about the wings that their bodies are well protected in from two to three weeks." -The Old Speckled Hen, A.Q. Carter, 1913

Egg Laying and Molting Feathers

"After the chicks were hatched the Dominique mother would start laying in from two to three weeks and keep it up until the molt began, laying fairly well through the first part of the molt."

"The Dominique starts the molt early, molts slowly, is never bare, does not appear to weaken and lays throughout the greater part of the molting period." -The Old Speckled Hen, A.Q. Carter, 1913

Family Farms Love Broody Hens

Broodiness is a valuable trait on a small, family or hobby farm. You can increase the broodiness of your flock, by letting broody hens hatch eggs and then keeping these chicks that carry the trait. It's fun to watch them with their babies.

Pullets are not as good as older hens at hatching eggs so it is better to wait a year before having them sit on eggs.

This photo is a Dominique hen with the chick she hatched.

"I received my Dominique eggs in beautiful condition. I placed all 12 of them under my broody hen. This last weekend they all hatched out in great condition. I was so pleased with the obvious care you took in packaging and selecting the eggs." -Susan, Anderson, Indiana

Dominique Hens Lay a Lot of Eggs

"No breed possesses better qualities as an all purpose fowl than the American Dominique. Nor do the hens stop laying after a year or two of usefulness." -Dominique Doings, 1914

This photo is Dominique eggs that Dolly and Richard in Mississippi received from me.

"I've been very successful in the past on hatching my Production Reds (cross between Rhode Island Red and New Hampshire Red)...just wanted to switch to heritage breeds after reading how they have become endangered, and Dominique's seemed like a great fit on eggs/meat and foraging, just like my Production Reds." -Caroline, Kinta, Oklahoma

Shipped Hatching Eggs

This photo is fertile Dominique hatching eggs that I shipped. They are in a Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco incubator.

These eggs were shipped by me from North Carolina to Atlanta, Georgia. From there a man took them with him on a plane flight to Romania. They were even X-rayed when going through Customs. Out of 20 Dominique eggs, 15 hatched! An amazing hatch rate considering the long trip they went on.

Male American Dominique

"It is a fact well established, that the medium-sized fowls afford the most eggs and flesh for the amount of grain or food consumed. In this respect Dominiques have no superiors as barnyard fowls. They are perfectly hardy, bright and active. The plumage is at once beautiful, not only on near inspection, but at a distance on the yard or lawn." -Illustrated Book of Poultry, 1855

This drawing is a male Dominique from "The Perfected Poultry of America" book in 1907 by Thomas McGrew. The book was "a concise, illustrated treatise of the breeds of poultry, turkeys, and water-fowl".

"Dominiques have a great consistency in their lay - in a nestbox, they are relatively friendly, and I have not had a bad experience with any Dominique roosters. They also handle our heat rather well." -Debra, Hico, Texas
Female American Dominique

"She (Dominique hen) is a good layer, is hardy, is not given to an undue amount of incubation fever, and yet is an excellent mother and care-taker." -The Poultry World, 1884

"We know the value of these fowls, and so far as we are informed, would prefer them today to any others. These are at least as docile as any fowls we have ever owned." -Massachusetts Ploughman, August 1870

This drawing is a female Dominique from "The Perfected Poultry of America" book in 1907.

A Dominique Pastoral

"Never the word 'Dominique' falls on my ears but it conjures up images and recalls old memories. It conjures up images of the hill farm in Chester County where my mother was born. I see the old stone house, its white-washed walls dimming in the November twilight but white enough to still afford relieve to the shapes of fowls perched high up in the Sheldon pear tree. Dominiques, of course!" -Cornelius Weygandt, Dominique Doings, 1914

This photo was taken around 1935.

Beautiful Blue-Gray Birds

"Dominique conjures up, too, bright springs of boyhood when I made pilgrimages with Uncle Pliny from Germantown to Yerke's for Dominique eggs. How wide the Dominiques ranged that summer. All living their lives with zest and paying their way with bonus on bonus to their admiring owner."

"Much as they delight me in the yard, however, they delight me more among the sere weeds and ruddy grasses. The brown-red background brings out the beauty of their blue-gray." -Cornelius Weygandt, Dominique Doings, 1914

This photo was taken sometime in the late 1800s. In the corner it says USDA.

The American Dominique

A book about Dominique's was written by Mark A. Fields: "The American Dominique: A Treatise for the Fancier". Only 550 were printed in 1997. It is out of print. However, it is available now as an ebook.

There also is a Dominque chicken group you can join Dominique Club of America. It was founded in 1973. They work to preserve both standard and bantam Dominiques. They encourage the breeding and showing of this wonderful bird.

Buy Dominique Hatching Eggs

 

Feed Comfrey to Poultry How to Hatch Eggs
Types of Incubators
How to Incubate Eggs
How to Help Hatching Babies
How to Brood Poultry
Make A Poultry Incubator

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