Dixie Rainbows/Pilgrim chickens - first meaties

[chicknboots]

[/IMG]

That should say Pioneer, not pilgrim I've raised a lot of layers but this is my first attempt at raising chicken for the freezer. I started this thread to document my experience with this variety of chicken. I can't find a lot of info on them. All I can tell so far is they are very active and seem to grow fast. The first pic is the 40 chicks at one day old and the 2nd is one of the chicks today at 6 days old. I'm going to get a average weight tommorow and keep weighing weekly. I weighed a chick picked at random when they were a day old and it was 37 grams. They seem huge to me compared to the chicks I have had in the past.

 

[UPCluck]

Just ordered my first meat birds - Pioneers.

 

[lazy gardener]

Let me play the devil's advocate here, and ask, "Why can't they be bred?" Yes, they are hybrid birds. Evident by the barred feather on males, and non-barred females. They don't seem at all prone to the issues that plague the CXR. The females make respectable layers. So, they won't breed true. We know that. But, they do have nice meaty stock in their gene pool. So, if you want to hold back a pullet or two, and a rooster, go for it. You should get some nice meaty mutts out of them.

 

[LBKS]

Some of their size is probably hybrid vigor, so your next generation may not be so large. However if you keep them to breed you could still end up with nicely large birds that are adapted to your local conditions (forage, weather, etc) and your personal method of raising them after a number of years. And if you are raising them all up you'll definitely be able to tell the males from females by the time they reach weight to harvest, so you don't need to worry about barring for determining that.

You can always try it out and see if you like your second generation. Maybe do a side by side compare with a reorder of Pioneers or another breed to see what you like better. With the re-order you could more easily see if your second generation is just too small in size to be worth your time.

 

[chicknboots]

This pic doesn't look like it loaded. Here's the 1 day old pic

 

[chicknboots]

And here's a pic of the chicken house I am brooding them in. Its 8x8 and they seem very interested in exploring the whole thing. I'm pretty confused about what to feed them. Some people say too much protein is bad. Some say too little is bad. I bought a 25 lb bag of medicated chick starter (16 percent) and was going to get a 20 percent meat maker when that runs out which will be soon as they seem to be going through it quickly.

 

[mollys mom]

Following your thread. I just ordered some Pioneers and also some Red Rangers from McMurray because I wasn't sure which would be better. My ultimate goal is to be able to hatch out my own chicks from my layers and raise them for meat, but I'm not sure what breed of rooster to use.

 

[lazy gardener]

I can tell you that I ordered 10 Pioneers last spring. Lost one chick early on. The rest did great, and mingled with my layer chicks/hens well. They were all sent to freezer camp except for one Pioneer gal who won a hard earned space in my layer flock. She's a well behaved gal, was the first one to start laying, and has been my most dependable layer from last spring's chicks. IMO, it would be very easy to hold over a breeding trio of Pioneers for continued meat production. But, beware, those roos get to be quite massive. i don't think I'd want a Pioneer roo breeding my layer flock because of the size disparity.

 

[chicknboots]

I was concerned about mixing layer chicks and these guys so I decided to go with all pioneer and hope they lay decently. I'm hoping ultimately to have a flock that produces meat, eggs, and broods their own chicks. That's great to hear about your hen laying well! I was thinking about keeping the fastest growing boy and the girls that start laying first.

7 day (random pick) weight: 118 grams. (4.2 oz). 1 day weight was 37 grams (1.3 oz). I've decided to put them on a 20 percent broiler feed and will start mixing it in tommorow.

 

[lazy gardener]

Are you giving them fermented feed? That will cut way down on your feed bill and make their poo much easier on the nose, and easier to clean up also.