Use : Dual - purpose Dominique chicken consist a respectable numeral of small- to average - sized , brown nut yet are meaty enough to roast when untested or stew in old age . Historically , Dominiques were expect to forage their own feed and still excel as fend - for - yourself , detached - range fowl or in crop - fowl situations . Because of tightly arrange feather , they hold out frostbite . Dominick are also capable to adapt well to hot climates . They get along in both large fowl and bantam size .
account : The exact line of descent of the Dominique chicken breed is uncertain , but the American Poultry Association postulates that the Dominique ’s ancestors original ancestors were mortarboard - colored or gray fowl imported to New England from Europe . The APA also refers to Asiatic and Hamburg bloodlines .
Barred chickens with both rose and individual combs were well - launch in the easterly United States by 1750 , where they were have intercourse as Dominics , Dominickers or Dominiques . In 1871 , the New York Poultry Society decreed that only Gallus gallus with rosaceous combs would become the standard of the chicken breed and that chickens with single combs were to be call Plymouth Rocks .
Dominique chickens remained pop until the post - world-wide War II industrial enterprise of domestic fowl breeds provide most heritage breed obsolete . By 1970 , only four known flock of purebred stock remained . When the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy print reports about their plight , chicken keeper so rallied behind America ’s first breed that even though it ’s still uncommon , the Dominique no longer faces extermination . It ’s presently listed in the ALBC ’s Watch category .
Conformation : The American Poultry Association ’s standard for Dominique chicken calls for large - miscellanea cocks to average 7 pounds and hens to average out 5 pound . Bantam - variety cock average 28 apothecaries' ounce and hens average 24 ounces . They come in a slating - and - white barred pattern known as cuckoo or hawk - colored , which attend to as camo to protect them from depredation . Roosters have rose combs that heighten to a typical , slightly - overturned spike at the tail ; hen ’ go up comb are smaller . Dominiques are broad - corporate , meaty and sensationalistic - skinned chickens . Their abundant but near - lying feathering , along with their smallish rose combs , service to make this a cold - stout stock that also adapts to hot , humid mood .
Special Considerations / Notes : Dominique chickens are unagitated and gentle . Ideally , they should experience in free - compass term , but they also abide confinement well . Hens are decent layer of light- to average - brown egg , and historically average out 230 to 275 egg per year . Hens brood their own doll and are attentive , protective mothers .
