Dixie Rainbows Thread

[paintedpixie]

This is pickles. He is going on 2 months old. He is huge and has some leg and foot issues, I think because of his size. But he is my sweety and still loves to be held and lived on. I just can't resist his lil rooster face.

 

[Notchman]

I have 4 Dixies and really like them. I only want 1 rooster in my flock so Im worried three chickens have orange coats with lots of black feather tips. They also have combs and wattles, but only one has a dark red comb the others have light pink combs. The dark combed guy is the dominant rooster for sure.The chickens are about 14 weeks, is the comb color a dominance thing or a gender thing? My definite hen is all orange with no comb or wattle. I will include pics later.

 

[FishteriaFarm]

My 8 YO daughter, Callie & I got 10 Dixie "Chix" Rainbows on Valentines day last year. We got our first egg in 20 weeks on the 4th of July, In the beginning we would get maybe a half dozen double yolk eggs a week. Two hens died before fall, and the double yolk eggs pretty much ceased. Since we were going to try and incubate our own Rainbows, we ordered 15 cockrels last year from Mt Healthy to raise for meat. Callie picked one to to stay with the "Chix", she has named him Lightning. His brothers were butchered on their 12th "week" birthday and cleaned up at around 7 pounds. In the meantime, Lightning has grown into quite a handsome (and quite aggressive) bird. On average I am getting 6 very large eggs a day from the eight hens, last year egg production slowed down around November 1, and pretty much stopped from January to mid February, slowly picking back up to their current average of 6.

Last week we butchered the first ten 12 week old Dixie Rainbows and two 12 week old Rhode Island Reds - again about 7 pounds each, the Reds were about 2 pounds lighter, and moved 15 more from our brooding pen to the meat pen. My wife went to the Post Office this morning and picked up the last 16 Dixie cockrels of the year (We'd only ordered 15, Mt Healthy often will include a bonus chick or two!)

None of the eggs we incubated hatched this spring, gonna give it another shot in a couple weeks to see if Lightning is all crow or does he have any bolt!

 

[Sadh]

I have two Dixie rainbows... here they are at 8 weeks on the far side. My 'whities' are a mystery breed. Of course when I got them I knew what they were.. but I cant remember. lol a newbie mistake for sure. The Dixie chicks... Eva and Nikita are huge and Nikita is my friendliest chicken. She loves to be stroked and held. The only picture I have of them as newborn chicks is below.. you can see nikita in the background when the whities and her were about the same size. That didn't last more than a week.

 

[Jack Speese]

I too am intrigued by these. I first heard of them this year in the Murray McMurray newsletter. They call them Pioneers but say that they are the same as Dixie Rainbows. It's been my experience in the past that there was no such thing as an ideal chicken. You can't keep typical broilers, not even less "engineered" ones like Kosher Kings or Rangers, for eggs because they succumb to health problems as they get older because of their rapid growth rate, plus they are hybrids and won't breed true assuming they can mate anyway, which I understand some of them can't. I've found that even large breeds like Orpingtons, Brahmas, Rhode Island Reds, etc. are simply "chicken chested" and not worth butchering for fryers, as there's no breast meat compared to a broiler. I don't know what fried chicken was like in the olden days before the modern broiler industry, but you sure don't get any breasts worth frying from anything but a broiler, at least not in my opinion. Even older birds of these large breeds still have a very prominent keel bone and very little breast meat compared to broilers. The flavor is good when you use them for roasting or stewing birds but you can't use them for fryers, Someone gave me a few commercial broiler chicks once and they were the closest thing to a plant that an animal could be. They got up to eat and drink but other than that hardly moved around at all. I've also raised the less "engineered" broiler crosses before and like them better. But I think a breed that has good meat characteristics and can still be used as a laying breed would be great for a small flock. I am sure Dixie Rainbows don't lay like a red star or a black star or some of the other egg laying breeds, but I imagine they would produce fine for a backyard flock. I'm curious to read what those of you who have them say.

 

[johnnyj216]

Hello all....here are some pics of what I was first told were buff orpingtons when I first got them. Quickly realizing that they weren't. Now at 13 weeks old I was told that one might be a Dixie Rainbow. I've never heard of this type. So I don't know anything about them. As far a egg laying or even meat. So what can someone tell me. I even had a farmer that raises chickens tell me he wasn't sure.

Center chick 2 weeks old

chick on the right end

13 weeks old

13 weeks old

 

[Sadh]

I'm a newbie so don't have much input of my own to give you. But I did read this entire thread (its only 8 pages) and there was some good info here. So would suggest you start there in regard to breed info. I've also read that they are called pioneers some times.. so you might be able to find more if you search using that name.

I would post the pictures in the "what breed am I" forum too so that you get a wider audience to weigh in on the possible breed.

 

[johnnyj216]

Does anyone have a clue whether this is hen/roo?
14 weeks old

 

[StephWind]

UPDATE: At this point my Dixies are a little over a year old and going through their first real molt. They have been extremely consistent layers, with LARGE brown eggs, often double yolkers! I lost a few - one to *unknown* (went out and found her dead) and 2 to my stupid puppy, but the rest are doing terrific. I now have 2 roosters of a different breed and hope to raise some chicks from them and the Dixies (they are Bielfelders). Most of them are fairly friendly, and they are the BEST foragers of all my chickens! I'll try to get a few new pics in the next week or two.

 

[LindaB220]

UPDATE: At this point my Dixies are a little over a year old and going through their first real molt. They have been extremely consistent layers, with LARGE brown eggs, often double yolkers! I lost a few - one to *unknown* (went out and found her dead) and 2 to my stupid puppy, but the rest are doing terrific. I now have 2 roosters of a different breed and hope to raise some chicks from them and the Dixies (they are Bielfelders). Most of them are fairly friendly, and they are the BEST foragers of all my chickens! I'll try to get a few new pics in the next week or two.

Glad to see the new pics. This is a very interesting breed.