Dominique Chicken

The Dominique Chicken is considered to be one of the first chicken breeds to originate from the United States and is a close relative of the Plymouth Rock chicken breed.

General
The Dominique Chicken is a moderately good dual-purpose chicken breed, providing a decent sum of eggs annually and working decently as a broiler due to its size.

The Dominique was originally considered to be endangered in the 1970s due to the little amount of them being born and traded into the commercial market, but as of the modern day being given only a watched rating.

Behavior
Dominique chickens are known to be extremely docile and friendly towards humans, but roosters have been known to attack small animals such as kittens, mice, chicks and mink. Although once it comes to their hens they are of typical behavior.

They're typically extremely good foragers due to their evolution as a breed born long before modern commercial chicken environments.

Appearance
Dominique appear very similar to the much more common breed, Barred Plymouth Rock, apart from their larger size and much more prominent tail feathers compared to the Plymouth Rock Breed. They are generally more feathery and fluffy compared to other similarly colored chicken breeds. The males also have decently sized crows.

As chicks they appear completely black apart from some light blonde regions.

History
Dominique Chickens are believed to have first originated in the early colonial period of the United States, being created via natural selection and selected breeding of chickens brought to the United States from Europe during that period of time. They soon become a very popular breed in New England and surrounding early colonies.

By the time of the 1870s, many breeds became to branch off the Dominique chicken such as the Barred Plymouth Rock, which was designed to be a superior layer to the Dominique chicken.

They became endangered in the 1970s due to a lack of interest in the breed and lack of commercial breeding of the breed, but have recently become more stable in numbers and are now considered an average chicken breed once again.

Trivia

 * The Dominique is considered one of, if not the first chicken to be developed in the United States.