The American Dominique, or Pilgrim Fowl

The American Dominique is the oldest breed of chicken in America. Many believe that some of the ancestors of these tough, hardy, active, gentle, friendly, and good foraging birds came over on the Mayflower, the Fortune, the Arabella, and other early ships to New England. These are the birds that Sam  Adams, Ethan Allen, and Nathan Hale probably had in their poultry yards.

The Dominique is what is known as an "improved landrace" breed; they are a landrace because they weren't originally selectively bred, they arose from the natural selection of the environment and uses of fowl in town and country poultry yards, and those who survived were tough, good foragers, hardy, and durable. In the early years people were not interested in buying poultry products other than feathers as people tended to keep their own poultry for meat and eggs. Perhaps the heavy down and feathering of the Dominique was encouraged by people keeping heavily feathered birds long enough to reproduce in order to have more feathers for the markets.

The Dominique figures heavily in the ancestry of many other American and European breeds through its descendant, the Plymouth Rock. The Plymouth Rock is a selectively bred created breed that resulted from crosses of various fowl, including the Dominique and the Java. The barred coloring of the original Plymouth Rocks came from the "hawk" or "cuckoo" coloring of the Dominique. Early farmers preferred this color since they believed it made it more difficult for predators to see the birds.

Dominiques do not lay as large or as many eggs as the Plymouth Rock, but they are very active in foraging and quite friendly. They are fascinating to watch as they are always busy with big biddy business.