- Sep 15, 2013
- 291
- 25
- 91
So this is pretty hypothetical right now because I live in the city, so not only can I not have roosters, is is illegal to butcher any chickens, but has anyone ever tried to breed Rainbow Dixies that are autosexing? I have an interest in one day having my own chickens to eat, even though as of now I have never killed a chicken. (I can't have an ulimited number in the city I only keep favorites and they are just pets and for eggs.) But I have read some good things about Rainbow Dixies both for meat and for eggs. Now I realize nothing beats CornishXs for pure economy and size, but you can't breed those, you have to order them. And I have alo read that almost all "hertiage" dual purpose chickesn really aren't good at producing meat. They might be big enough to be worth buthchering when they are older, but you have to keep them forever before they reach that point. And I can confirm of all the dual purpose breeds I have kept none really looked like that had the meat to be worth eating before they wer 6months+ old. So it seems to me that the Rainbow Dixies actually have much better dual purpose characteristics right off the bat than most (all??) heritage breeds, unless of course you can find someone who has been working with a specific breed for quite awhile to get to the point of actually being trully dual purpose, not just an egg layer that is also big enough to butcher.
So might it be worth starting off with Dixies and then breeding toward your meat and egg goals? I know theyaren't a traditional breed and don't have SOP but from what I understand they do breed true. I am especially interested in this becaue the roosters already often seem to carry either a single or double factor of the barring gene, which means you could get autosexing Rainbow Dixies in a just a few generations. This would be very useful because then if you bred them from day one you'd know the sexes and you could sell (or keep) the males for meat and the females for eggs.
Thoughts?
So might it be worth starting off with Dixies and then breeding toward your meat and egg goals? I know theyaren't a traditional breed and don't have SOP but from what I understand they do breed true. I am especially interested in this becaue the roosters already often seem to carry either a single or double factor of the barring gene, which means you could get autosexing Rainbow Dixies in a just a few generations. This would be very useful because then if you bred them from day one you'd know the sexes and you could sell (or keep) the males for meat and the females for eggs.
Thoughts?
Last edited:
