Dominique News - Dominique Club of America

Dominique News
Quarterly Newsletter
July 2007 – It’s Summertime!
Volume 34 / Issue 3
Published Quarterly since 1973 by the Dominique Club of America
Boosting America’s Oldest Breed – Large Fowl and Bantam
Annual Dues $ 10.00
www.dominiquechickens.org
CLUB OFFICERS
Eddie Martin, Interim President
3740 Hwy. 413 / Anderson, SC 29621
E-mail: Eddie.Martin@sc.usda.gov
Ned Newton, Vice President
427 Horseneck Road / South Dartmouth, MA 02748
E-mail: enewton@110.net
Bryan K. Oliver, Secretary/Newsletter Editor
943 W. Bear Swamp Road / Walhalla, SC 29691
E-mail: BRYAN_K_OLIVER@yahoo.com
Tracey L. Allen, Treasurer
113 Ash Swamp Road / Scarborough, ME 04074
E-mail: Domchickens@maine.rr.com
Elizabeth Newton, Meet Secretary
427 Horseneck Road / South Dartmouth, MA 02748
E-mail: enewton@110.net
Joe Minieri, Webmaster
158 Hodson Road / Pownal, ME 04069
E-mail: webmaster@dominiquechickens.org
President’s Message
I hope that all of you and your Dominique’s are making progress this summer. I do not know what
you want to read in this article or in the newsletter, but I am willing to do what I can to help promote
the breed and help you by my writings. Just let me know. I would tell you about how little rain we
have had at the farm but I went through Georgia, Alabama and eastern Mississippi a few weeks ago,
and comparatively, we have no problems! We have been trying to get some eggs hatched and chicks
growing. The early hatching rate was good but the hatching percentage on our most recent batch
was apparently hurt by the hot weather. We are rotating roosters in the breeding pens and keeping
up the program. I hope that your breeding programs are working well.
We have a meeting to look forward to in November in conjunction with ALBC and I’m sure that
Bryan will address it properly in the coming pages. A lot of good should come from the educational
sessions and by just getting to meet fellow breeders. I hope that a number of breeders can get
breeder-quality birds to this event and other events across the country for folks to pick up. There is
a lot of interest in quality breeding stock these days. Remember to get your NPIP or other state
required flock health status work done so that you can participate.
One of the most interesting new tools we have today to discuss and improve Dominique’s today is a
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combination of the internet and digital cameras. In a matter of minutes we can email a picture and
either show folks what we have, the good traits, the bad traits or just get an opinion on a particular
bird. Give it a try and you’ll soon get to see and hear (read) what others think about your birds and
you get to see what they are doing as well. Getting your chickens to pose is another issue!
And let’s not forget our old tools. I once asked Gurney Davis if he ever did trials on his hens for egg
size. I was amazed by the ease and function of his answer. He said, “I never set a small egg.”
We all owe Bryan Oliver a round of applause for his tireless efforts to build the Club. He is a hard
worker and has not only maintained a long heritage of strong service but is looking for new ways to
serve and is breeding some nice Dominique’s. Next time you see him, give him a call or write him
an email give him a well deserved “thank you”.
Until next issue,
Eddie
Eddie Martin holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Clemson University and currently works with the United States Department of
Agriculture as an Agricultural Engineer. Eddie and his wife Pam own a farm in rural Anderson County, South Carolina, where he enjoys
raising donkey, beef cattle, St. Croix sheep, and the Dominique chicken.
New Members of the Second Quarter, Welcome!
17 NEW MEMBERS!
John d. adamik, jr., The henry ford, Dearborn, mi
Joseph clark, new york, ny
Laura f. cooper, fredricksburg, va
Sylvia s. danenhower, pomfret, ct
Steven r. frostad, oak harbor, wa
Linda h. hargis, europe (turkey)
Monica Harmon, battle ground, wa
Ted johnson, elliottville, ky
Kathleen c. jordan, vine grove, ky
Amy lowichik, salt lake city, ut
Janet d. minnich, slatington, pa
reggie ogg, winterville, ga
Mary a. sonier, whitinsville, ma
charles s. swanson, san francisco, ca
robert l. vance, glasgow, ky
kincey h. worthington, macclesfield, nc &
dale a. zimmerman, jonestown, pa
From the Club Secretary
We truly welcome and appreciate all of our new members, not to forget each of our old
members who continue to support the Dominique Club of America with their annual
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renewal. If any member has a question or concern please contact me via my e-mail
address or feel free to contact me by telephone, before 9PM EST. If you have had a
change of address, telephone number, or e-mail address please contact me either by
phone or e-mail and I will make that change. Lastly, be sure and make your check or
money order payable to ‘Dominique Club of America’.
As Eddie mentioned in the opening paragraph, the Dominique Club of America’s national
meeting will be held in conjunction with the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, 30th
Annual Conference in Sanford, NC. The date for this conference will be November 2nd –
4th, 2007 at the Dennis A. Wicker Civic Center. Everyone is encouraged to attend this very
informative conference, primarily on Nov. 2nd & 3rd. Friday, Nov. 2nd will be the day for
dealing with poultry, all day. At this point in time it looks like our meeting will be held on
Saturday, Nov. 3rd. Updated information concerning this conference will be posted on the
home page of our web-site. For further information or if you have any questions please
contact Bryan or Tracey.
Well, I hope that each of you have had a very nice summer and vacation. Hopefully the
heat will soon be over and we can then enjoy fall, my favorite time of year. Keep the
chickens cool and be sure you supply them with fresh water each day. I hope to see many
of you at the national meeting in Sanford, NC.
Take care and may God bless each of you.
Bryan K. Oliver, Secretary/Newsletter Editor
Dominique’s in Kansas by Monte Bowen
Since I do not parles vous Français; I am not a Francophile, and the only thing the
French ever did for the United States is present us a very large statue on July 4th,
1884, I don’t often use the word ‘Dominique’, as it just simply sound too ‘French’ for
me. It is usually ‘Dominicker’. My grandfather kept a large flock of these birds in the
early part of the 1900’s and he called them Dominicker’s, as did most of the folks in
most parts of the nation. Seems like a good American word for an American breed of
fowl, so that is what I call them. If that upsets anyone, I reckon that will just have
to be the way it is. I don’t much hold to fanciness and ‘Dominique’, just sounds too uptown for me.
If there were room in this yard I would enjoy the large Dominicker’s, but space being
limited, due to too many rare breeds of fowl already in residence, I must keep the
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bantam form of this wonderful breed. I keep only rare breeds of birds and a few
“just for fun” breeds. I have Black and Mottled Java’s, Black LaFleche (oops, more
French), a few Buff Wyandotte’s and Buff Plymouth Rocks in the large fowl. On the
bantam side, there are the Dominicker’s, single and rose combed Nankin’s, single and
rose combed Kentucky Specks, Black Dutch, Delaware’s, Partridge Wyandotte’s,
Partridge Plymouth Rocks, a few Black Plymouth Rocks, and a couple of projects I am
working on which are not for public announcement at this time. It is a millinery
secret; I am keeping them under my hat until I get them to the point that they breed
true and are worthy specimens of the breeds. I will say that they are both breeds
that are listed in the Standards, but we never see them in showrooms today. There
are currently about 450 birds in the back yard, so there just isn’t room for any large
Dominicker’s at this time, perhaps someday. I have always been partial to birds in the
American Class, and first started with large and bantam White Plymouth Rocks back in
the early 1960’s. Poultry has been a major part of my life since then.
I keep pure-bred poultry only, as I figure it costs no more to feed a good bird than it
does to feed a poor one. Every couple of years, I like to place an order with a
hatchery to see what sort of stock, be it good or bad, they are foisting off on the
general public. This is one of my ‘pastimes’. I often cull out all the birds and don’t
keep any of them. I have kept some in the past, and enjoyed working with the stock I
acquired. This is how the Dominicker’s came to be here. I was reading through the
Cackle Hatchery catalog, from Missouri, and saw they carried Dominicker’s. I called
them to see about availability and spoke with the owner. She told me that their
original stock came from Mark Fields, so I figured that there was a good possibility of
getting fairly good birds from them. Hatcheries are notorious for obtaining good
stock, then over the years letting it deteriorate somewhat due to poor breeder
selection or mismanagement. I enjoy ordering hatchery stock and working with it for
several years, if need be, to get the quality up. There are two or three hatcheries in
the United States that this can be done fairly easily with their stock. There are also
some that are a complete waste of time and energy. I ordered fifty chicks from
Cackle and the day they hatched, the owner called to say they got a smaller hatch off
than expected and could they substitute something or ship the rest later. I told them
to ship all they could and fill in the numbers with some Barred Plymouth Rock bantams.
All those Rocks were culled, to make a long story short. I kept all the Dominicker’s
(34 or 35 of them) and raised them to the point I could cull out the bad ones. The
worst trouble I found was in the comb. Some of the females had almost non-existent
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spikes or inverted spikes, and some of the males had inverted spikes. I believe in
using hatchery stock the first year to hatch as many chicks as possible and culling
hard. I tell people, ‘hatch a million and cull like hell’ when using hatchery stock. I do
that in this yard. I culled the Cackle males down to three with fairly good combs. A
couple of them had over-blown combs that were too wide, but had fairly good spikes.
One had a smaller, more compact comb, but his spike followed the shape of the head
too closely. These three were the best of the lot, so they stayed in the pen. I kept
all the females, except those two or three that had inverted spikes. I made a colony
mating of these birds the next year and hatched out 149 chicks before I ran out of
space for them.
When culling time came, I caught up the males (74) and put them into show coops.
This was the point I began to wonder WHY I had hatched so many! On the first
culling, I took the seventy-four down to fourteen and put that fourteen back into the
pen to grow some more. I then caught the seventy-five females and culled them down
to forty. Those forty went back into the growing pen. The next cull saw the fourteen
males reduced to five and the females went from forty to thirty. I had some doubts
about some of those I kept, but there seemed to be a good point or two in each of
them, so I kept them all over the winter.
This year I have hatched out about one hundred chicks, and they are currently looking
quite nice. I am finding fewer bad combs and good color throughout the flock. I have
noticed that some of the birds which carried far too much of a “Rock look” as young
birds have turned into some nice looking Dominicker typed birds. I was worried that
the females would never develop the proper tail angle, but they are coming around. I
surmise that in this breed, like so many of the rare and heritage breeds, that the
birds simply need at least a year to turn into the specimens we want to see. I do not
like to cull my birds until they are about a year old, simply because I feel the old
breeds need at least that long to grow the muscle and feathers to go with the bone
structure that comes along early. Many of the old breeds will look a bit thin until
nearly a year old, so I let them grow and forage to build the muscle and size to go with
the undercarriage. Only the obvious defects and disqualifications cause a bird to be
culled any sooner than that. Really bad combs, improper leg color, feather pattern,
knock knees, bad eyes; things like this will get a bird culled before it is a year old.
The Dominicker is a bird that lays very well. I can depend upon eggs from those girls
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when nothing else on the place is laying. They lay well all through the winter, and will
go broody sooner than the other breeds. I encourage broodiness in the birds and let
them set when and where they want. I find I can move a broody hen to a quieter spot
with no trouble. They will stay on a nest and do a marvelous job of raising their young.
They are calm, gentle setters and are not hazardous to the health of the keeper.
They squawk and ruffle up when I check the nest, but never peck. Once the chicks
arrive, they become a bit more territorial, but I also encourage that in the birds. A
hen that won’t protect her clutch is not worth too much.
The Dominicker's are here to stay, and not all the breeds I have had over the past
forty-seven years have that distinction!
Monte Bowen is a fellow DCA Club member, serves as 1st Vice President of the SPPA, President of the Nankin Club of America and has
been raising and showing chickens since the mid 1960’s. Mr. Bowen is most fond of the ‘American Class’ of poultry and today he has
seven breeds of that class in his yard. In his ‘spare’ time, Mr. Bowen works with the Reno County 4-H Poultry Club. You may contact Mr.
Monte Bowen by mail: PO Box 7 / Plevna, KS 67568 or by e-mail: javacock@hotmail.com
by Tracey L. Allen
$ $ $
Dominique Club of America Treasurer’s Report, July 2007
Deposits:
April: $188.00 Dues and Merchandise sales
May:
$150.00 Dues and Merchandise sales
$ 10.00 Donation from DCA Club member Michael Supak,
Flint, MI. Thank you Mike!
$ 78.00 Donation from DCA Club member BRYAN K. OLIVER,
Walhalla, SC. (1 year ad In Backyard Poultry)
June: $206.00 Dues and Merchandise sales
Debits:
-$766.95
-$ 50.00
-$ 84.63
-$ 86.90
-$ 27.49
$1,015.97 Includes the following:
DCA Coffee Cup purchase, Qty. 144 (Bel Mug, Miami, FL)
ALBC advertisement for 1 year (Pittsboro, NC)
January ‘Dominique News’ printing & postage cost
April ‘Dominique News’ printing & postage cost
general postage, US Postal Service
Balance as of June 30, 2007:
$ 1,546.48
Your membership dues and donations allow this club to continue to serve
‘America’s Oldest Breed’!
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DOMINIQUE NEWS
‘The American Dominique’
by Mark A. Fields
Only a few of these books are left for purchase
from the author (approx. 43).
This is a wonderful book and ‘a must have’ for
any Dominique fancier. Get your copy today!
Send your check or money order in the
amount of $55.00 to:
Mr. Mark A. Fields
3750 Yeager Road
Columbia, MO 65202-7298
-This cost includes the standard UPS shipping‘The American Dominique’ is a hardback book with a dust
jacket showing long-time Dominique fancier Carol Voter.
If you have questions, you may contact Mark via his
e-mail address: fatfarm@tranquility.net
- PICTURES FROM OUR MEMBERS -
Dillan Corey, Maggie & Leigh-Anne Acker.
Mr. Gurney Davis holding one of his fine Dominique hens.
These kids love their pet Dominique hens and
Photo taken Oct. 2006 at his farm in Trinity, NC.
the eggs are great!
Photo by DCA member Paula Acker, Raleigh, NC.
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DOMINIQUE NEWS
New Club Merchandise - Now Available
CLUB COFFEE CUPS with the DCA Logo, order yours today!
The cost for each coffee cup
is $10.00 + $5.00 per cup
for shipping. Mail your check
or money order to Bryan if
you would like to purchase one.
These cups will be available
for purchase at the Sanford,
NC meeting.
Allow 2 weeks for delivery.
Cup Volume, 11 oz.
Currently, we have plenty of cups
available.
Poultry Breeding – Improvement/Maintenance, Part 2 by Eddie Martin
Last newsletter we went through a discussion of breeder bird selection to minimize or control
inbreeding. If the numbers overwhelmed you, just remember this basic recommendation: Keep and
use at least 3 breeder roosters, if not more, and continue to turn over the generations when possible.
To continue on the same trail with a different gait, let’s think about the case of two nearby flock
owners who want to work together to minimize inbreeding in their Dominique’s. Both persons
would have to have similar interests, goals for their birds, disease control and have mutual trust in
each other’s breeding programs. The number of hens and pullets can be low in each flock. Please
remember, in each of these articles, the artificial assumption is that no birds can be shipped or
carried across state lines due to government rules due to a disease outbreak, so inbreeding is a
concern. But day in and day out, these breeding principles are sound.
Once the decision is made for these two flock owners to cooperate together, they would never swap
a hen or pullet between the flocks nor would they trade fertilized eggs. Each time one of them
decided to replace a breeding rooster, it would come from the current year’s cockerels produced in
the other breeder’s flock. This would keep the incoming rooster only as close as a first or second
cousin to the hens, rather than being a half brother or uncle, to talk in human terms. If you go back
to the last article and assume that both owners are keeping 3 roosters each, then the total number of
roosters in this scheme is 6. If the total number of females was 4 or 5 for both flocks, then the
inbreeding coefficient would still be less than 5 percent.
In case this system sounds like it might not work, you will want to know that two of the most
successful Horned Hereford ranches in the US have been using this same procedure for decades.
They still bring in breeding stock from another closed, line bred herd, at times, but largely build
from each other’s breeding program through bull purchases.
www.dominiquechickens.org
Please contact Bryan or Tracey if you are unable to login on the website. You will need
a user name and pass word to access the member’s section of the web-site. You can
then view/print the newsletters, breeder’s directory, etc. and in turn save the Club money
as postage continues to increase.
Please send newsletter comments to Bryan at: BRYAN_K_OLIVER@yahoo.com
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