CX and Pioneer side-by-side

[Triple Willow]

I have 12 CX. One bird died the day I got them but TSC replaced the bird free of charge. One bird had some sort of leg problem as a chick and I thought seriously about culling it but in a little over a week the leg problem went away. The leg problem may have been a vitamin deficiency of some sort, don't know. They were raised on fermented feed. The birds are now 16 weeks old (not a typo). All 12 are still alive, healthy and very mobile. They still run (waddle), jump (not so high) and try to fly. They even run uphill. They had free range about 2 hours most every day and were not over fed. One pullet has laid an egg. The roosters are breeding the pullets.

16 week old CX rooster

 

[BayWest Farm]

Your CX looks pretty good willow !!
Have you weighed it at all ??
I am putting together a plan here to try 10 or 15 on free range most of the day and fifteen minutes of FF morning and nite to see how it works !! John

 

[rudy6482]

Thanks for the helpful data hoffy. I'm curious to know how well the hen pionners lay. I have 20 pioneers from mcmurray myself that are 4 weeks old now. If I were to breed them, would the offspring have the same traits?

 

[LindaB220]

Thanks for the helpful data hoffy. I'm curious to know how well the hen pionners lay. I have 20 pioneers from mcmurray myself that are 4 weeks old now. If I were to breed them, would the offspring have the same traits?

Hey Rudy, I do believe that they do. They replicate quite well.

 

[Hoffy]

Thanks for the helpful data hoffy. I'm curious to know how well the hen pionners lay. I have 20 pioneers from mcmurray myself that are 4 weeks old now. If I were to breed them, would the offspring have the same traits?

Well, the Pioneer pullets are now the largest birds in my flock (compared to a Welsummer, Australorp, and Barred rock here). They are without a doubt the most friendly chickens in my flock.


They just started laying eggs last week (about 18 weeks old). Here is an early Pioneer pullet egg between an Australop and Welsummer egg. I'll let you know about production as they lay more consistently.

 

[dpenning]

For meat birds, I used to raise a lot of dual purpose breeds (white rocks, barred rocks, australorp, orpington, etc). For what it's worth, I would raise Pioneer over any of those breeds for meat.

At what age would you process those breeds for meat?

 

[Hoffy]

At what age would you process those breeds for meat?

I would process the DP cockerels at 18-20 weeks; too much sooner and there wasn't much meat, too much longer and the meat got a bit tough for anything but slow cooking recipes. Comparatively, the Pioneers were distinctly larger and were ready by 12 weeks.

After eating a few, they are a great compromise between DP cockerels and Cx meaties. They have more flavor than the Cx and are more tender than DP birds.

 

[LindaB220]

I would process the DP cockerels at 18-20 weeks; too much sooner and there wasn't much meat, too much longer and the meat got a bit tough for anything but slow cooking recipes. Comparatively, the Pioneers were distinctly larger and were ready by 12 weeks.

After eating a few, they are a great compromise between DP cockerels and Cx meaties. They have more flavor than the Cx and are more tender than DP birds.

Good to know. Thanks.

 

[LonelyPageTurne]

So if you had to choose for a very small flock to do every few months what would you choose?

 

[rudy6482]

Hey, I haven't been online in a while. My pioneers are now the largest birds I have and the calmest as well. I've tried to do more research on their genetics and can't find out much. Murray McMurray now has on the page for pioneers that they are a hybrid and wont breed true. I've read about some people breeding Dixie rainbows that did however. My goal was to keep the pioneers I have for breeding meat birds. I'm not sure what's going to happen now. I'm going to try anyway. Do you know much about this Hoffy?