Dixie Rainbows/Pilgrim chickens - first meaties

[rudy6482]

I can chime in on this one as I still have two roos and three hens that are pioneers in my flock. I got them from Mcmurray last spring, butchered some and kept a few in hopes of breeding them, then I learned they are hybrids and aren't supposed to breed true. I'm still new to breeding birds. Pioneers are very friendly, but the roosters can be a bit hard on the ladies. My pioneer hens lay very large brown eggs as about as often as any brown egg layer that I've had so far. As far as breeding them as a meat bird, I'm just going to have to experiment with that because I haven't found where many people have tried.

 

[lazy gardener]

I agree that the roos can be a bit aggressive with the ladies (and with each other) I ate all my boys. They were tasty, but those long legs won't fit in my small crock pot! I have to use the 5 qt model! Love my Pioneer pullet. She's a very nice layer with a good personality. But, I notice that her feather quality is not as good as the DP birds. She's showing rooster wear, while the DP birds are not.

 

[rudy6482]

A lot of ours are showing rooster wear. I had to put two hens in a tractor with younger birds to let them heal. I'm hoping to end up with some of the faster growing traits in some duel purpose birds. Most people have told me it isn't worth the effort. If they get too mean I'll decide its not worth it and we will have several nice meals! I'm sure that took some effort fitting one into a crock pot.

 

[chicknboots]

So what I remember about the F2 generation is that that is where all your recessive genes pop up, so the chickens could truly be a hodgepodge. However since I'm going to be raising them for meat anyway and thus culling heavily it seems like it might be a fun project.

The fermented feed sounds interesting. I will check it out. I was planning on doing a bresse type finish on them for the last two weeks. I was going to separate the meaties out of the free range house at that point into our other coop and give them corn and dairy to add a fat layer.

 

[WIchickens]

what is a bresse type of finish?

Sorry, I am new to meat birds and gathering as much info as I can before I start!!

 

[rudy6482]

I just did some googling and it seems like not only a particular breed but how its raised, free range. Very similar to something the French have with the freedom ranger. "French Label Rouge Free Range program" I've never raised cornish x, but I can say my pioneers were very tasty. Easter egger roosters are the only better tasting chicken in my opinion, but they took almost twice as long to grow to butcher size as the pioneers. Another great quality of the pioneers was the carcass definition, large breasts and everything else.

 

[chicknboots]

Bresse is a breed I'm interested in but I think the way they (people in France raising this breed) finish their chickens with corn and dairy probably adds to their flavor. I figured it couldn't hurt.

The chicks look very tall to me today and are starting to lose the chick look. I gave them a 5 gallon waterer (as we were constantly refilling their chick waterers) and a adult sized feeder with the 20 percent feed mixed with the chick starter.

 

[chicknboots]

Pictures at 12 days old. Looks like several different variations of chicks. There's all buff, buff with black or brown feathers on wings, the chipmunk look in shades ranging from grey to red, and a darker chick with a speckled face. I started feeding them the fermented food yesterday and they seem to like it. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[chicknboots]

All buff

 

[chicknboots]