"Rainbow egg layer" (Dixie or Freedom Ranger)?? Does anyone know about these breeds?

[Lovefarmanimals]

I bought some chicks (straight run for $1.99) at Tractor Supply.. and the label read "Rainbow egg layers". I thought to myself these chickens must lay colorful eggs (hence the sign). I asked the lady there at TSC if they laid colorful eggs and she assumed they did, so i went on and got them either way. Next thing you know i googled rainbow egg layers and got nothing but a combination of colorful eggs from different breeds (not a specific breed). I kept digging doing more research and i bumped into "Dixie Rainbow egg layers" & "Freedom rangers" so now i have these little chicks thinking they were a mixture of Easter Eggers or Ameraucanas , Araucanas, Faverolles, Olive eggers etc. I have never heard of this breed specifically (I'm new to raising chickens) . I don't mind this breed but i wanted to add some egg color to my flock since i already have brown egg layers . Does anybody here own or have heard or know about these breeds?
and can anyone tell me if this is what i have ?
Do you have any pictures of what they look like as adults??
I know is kind of early to tell (1 week old) but most of you here know way more about chickens than i do. Thank you !

 

[sourland]

Do an on site search on 'Dixie Rainbow Thread'. I believe these birds are more of a meat bird than egg layers. If the folks at your TSC are like the folks at mine, they just don't know, and frequently their chicks are mislabeled.

 

[Little Chicken Girl]

Here is another thread on the growth progress/maturation of Rainbows. It also tells a little bit about them. If you go to page 21 on the thread, it shows photos of adults. Page 1 talks a little about the breed. Hope this helps!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/dixie-rainbows-thread.636488/page-21

 

[TeeMom]

My first chickens were from a "Rainbow Layer" bin at a local feed store and I ended up with barred rocks, red sex links and a buff orpington...all brown layers. I love them to bits and they've been excellent, very reliable layers, but not so rainbowish. I actually think the rainbow layers refers to assorted layer breeds...the chickens themselves are the rainbow. With a little deception.

 

[Lovefarmanimals]

Thank you all for your time and help. they are cute babies, but next time i will make sure they are easter eggers or a colorful egg layer. Im a little sad about it but oh well, i guess until next time. They all kinda look like they are the same breed im not sure

 

[Duluth Chickens]

Since the thread is almost a year old, I assume you know by now that they can grow to be fairly heavy birds! For our first flock, when we didn't know what the heck we were doing, we wanted an easter egger and were shown to what the sales girl said were the easter eggers. What we actually ended up with was a dixie rainbow (which we didn't figure out until much later). Since the breed is a dual purpose breed, she grew MUCH faster than the australorps we also purchased and has remained larger by far ever since. She weighs almost twice as much as the other hens (at least 10lbs) and is now almost 2 1/2 years old. We had some issues with her feet when she was around 9 months old, but the issues sorted themselves out and she gets around just fine, although slower because of her size, and can free range with the best of them. We live in town and are prohibited from butchering for meat so we decided to keep her as a layer before we really knew that she was more of a meat bird. She was the first of our chickens to lay (at about 16 weeks) and has laid consistently for over 2 years now. She's docile and never causes problems with the other girls. Couldn't be happier with her!

 

[Duluth Chickens]

Oh, and she's a very cold hardy bird. We live in Northern Minnesota near the Lake Superior shore and we don't heat or light our coop. We've never lost a bird and still have our first flock intact (Our other birds are australorps, also great cold hardy birds). They've all done just fine throughout our ridiculously cold winters and strong winds off of Lake Superior. Our Dixie Rainbow, Blanche, struts out of the coop every morning and goes about her business even when the air temperature gets well below zero.