Apex domains cannot have CNAME records.
Question and response
Question
dig nic.homes. NS
Answer
nic.homes. 5 NS d.nic.homes.
nic.homes. 5 NS b.nic.homes.
nic.homes. 5 NS a.nic.homes.
nic.homes. 5 NS c.nic.homes.
Authority
The response has no authority records.
Additional
a.nic.homes. 136042 A 194.169.218.132
b.nic.homes. 136042 A 185.24.64.132
c.nic.homes. 136042 A 212.18.248.132
d.nic.homes. 136042 A 212.18.249.132
a.nic.homes. 136042 AAAA 2001:67c:13cc:0:0:0:1:132
b.nic.homes. 136042 AAAA 2a04:2b00:13cc:0:0:0:1:132
c.nic.homes. 136042 AAAA 2a04:2b00:13ee:0:0:0:0:132
d.nic.homes. 136042 AAAA 2a04:2b00:13ff:0:0:0:0:132
. 0 OPT ; payload 1232, xrcode 0, version 0, flags 0