Awesome Genetic info on Buttons and Coturnix Quail!

One negative though... button quail genetics and size are NOT going to be good for meat production. It would take generations of selection to make an even moderately useful bird with the new color genetics would be my guess. Personally, I would rather focus on making better meat birds out of the coturnix and better pet birds out of the buttons.

UtahWelshie said:

I personally love the idea of a hybrid, if the chromosomal matching really does work out. More colors would be awesome. As for all the naysayers on this thread... Both species we are discussing are entirely domesticated and have been for so long that neither would survive in the wild. It would follow that the same would be true of their offspring. The concerns they have are baseless. I'm sure there is more to correct matching than chromosome number, but it sure would be fun to try. But you would have to be ready for all the mad scientist comments. And you would have to work on your "Muuuu Ha Ha!" (evil laugh)

Click to expand...

Utah, I've been monitoring this thread since it was revived, and I still find it humorous that several members vowed back in 2008 to create a hybrid, yet not one picture has surfaced to support their efforts. So, nobody was successful after 5 years? I find that hard to believe.

The University of Nebraska - Lincoln did an Experimental Hybridization of the New World Quail in 1971. I posted this reply to a thread pertaining to a breeding program (I tried to line the columns up as best as I could). As you can see, if the University of Nebraska could take 337 eggs from hybrid pairings and only hatch 30 hybrid chicks, what would be the purpose of continuing such an effort? During my copy and paste, I boo-booed and failed to put up the F1 hybrid pairings, which resulted in 82% of the eggs being infertile, and the remaining eggs resulted in early or late embryonic death, with zero hatches. When I realized my error months later, I found that I can no longer edit my reply. So, creating a hybrid can be done, but with very poor results.

I haven't found any scientific data pertaining to hybridizing buttons and coturnix yet, but I'm sure if I have enough free time, I'll eventually find something. In the meanwhile, I'll remain a self proclaimed "Naysayer".
James
edited to correct the year the study was completed.