What Sam Was Guarding

If you missed my ?????????????? post the other day, then you missed the exciting build-up (and fun comments) for Dan’s latest homestead project. 😉 Here it is!

Dan’s plan is to set up a small yard with portable fencing off the run’s front chicken door.

Here are its future occupants.

They are Dominiques, also known as Dominikers. I bought them at Tractor Supply Co. This is the first year I recall TSC selling chicks in the fall, and the timing was perfect. I had already ruled out mail-order chicks from a hatchery, so we hoped to find something on Craigslist. This was even better. The chicks were selling fast, however, so it took a couple of weeks to get a breed that was suitable.

By suitable, I mean a breed that has a tendency to go broody and has good mothering instincts. While our Black Australorps have been excellent layers and have good personalities, they haven’t been very good at perpetuating themselves. Our best brooders were Buff Orpingtons, so that’s what we were looking for again. But the varieties at TSC vary week by week, and they don’t know beforehand what they’re getting. Often it’s hybrids or the agricultural standards (White Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, and Plymouth Rocks) but these aren’t bred for broodiness, so self-sustaining chickens is iffy.

One day last week, I called TSC at lunchtime, just as they were unpacking a new delivery of chicks. I checked their four breeds on Henderson’s Handy Dandy Chicken Chart and learned that of those four, Dominiques are considered good brooders and good mothers. This is just a breed tendency, of course, and there are individuals amongst every species that are uniquely themselves, but I have higher hopes we can raise our own chicks again with a breed that’s inclined that way.

Our ideal number of chickens is six hens and one rooster. This batch is straight-run, which means they haven’t been sexed so it’s theoretically a 50/50 mix. Anyone who’s purchased straight-run chicks, however, will likely agree that they often tend toward the cockerel side. We’ll just have to wait and see.

It will be awhile before they’re ready for the chicken tractor.