16-19 oz jumbo coturnix quail?

Hello everyone, i am currently working with the JMF meat maker line of birds from Robbie but I have been searching for other sellers that have larger birds. Today, I came upon this company that claims to have 16-19oz birds. They have a facility in SoCal and another location in Mississippi with approx 140 acres of land.

Here is the link http://www.jumboquails.org/#!about/c10fk

I was wondering if anybody has purchased any birds from them?

Also can anyone recommend a breeder or seller that has very large birds? I'm looking to purchase more eggs from a good stable line of birds that can average approximately 14 oz by 12 weeks on 28% protein food. Thanks in advance for any leads or information about this company that claims to have 16-19 oz birds.

This company does have pictures of a large bird and also sells processed jumbo quail that look like Giants but I figure I should check with the community here before I purchase eggs from them. Thanks again

Simon

I dont believe they have 19 ounce birds and i think they take thier max weights from breeding stock. If you dont show a video of a bird on the scale or even a photo i have a very hard time believing it especially as long as these folks have been around. If they had them theyd be proud to show them instead of that same picture they use thats been on ebay for 3-4 years.

Something else to keep in mind is that most majore sellers in the US started with jmf birds. Strombergs, vails, etc all began with jmf stock and id be surprised if this guy is any different.

Another factor is bumblefoot and leg problems. If a notmal keeper cant keep 16-17 ounce breeders from getting bumble or having bad legs how is this guy keeping healthy 18-19 ounce birds going?

Robbys birds should be bigger than yours turned out. Before i start selecting for size my jmf stock runs around 13-14 ounces by butcher @ 10-12 weeks and my breeding hens usually make 15-17 ounces so im inclined to think you did something that kept them smaller. Also dont take weights off of roosters. No one does, theyll always be noticeably smaller.

Thanks dc3085! I definitely made several major mistakes on my first attempt and now I have that knowledge. One of my major mistakes is the timing of when I decided to start my hatch, my birds noticeably ate less when temps went above 100 degrees.

Another mistake I made was to keep my artificial lights on for 16-18 hours to stimulate egg laying, I believe this caused my birds to reach sexual maturity earlier and when they started laying eggs, the females stopped putting on weight.

I also housed the males and females together so the males were fighting and caused a royal rumble until I culled the males.

I've gone through what seem like hundreds of pages of quail threads and I'm trying to keep a mental note of all the subtle tips that the hard core large bird breeder hint to and I truely value and appreciate all the great information you and others have provided.

Oh yeah, i also dropped my bird feed protein from 30 to 28 % because the 28% protein food is about half the price of the Purina food.

I did notice that the seller did not post any pictures or video of the birds on a scale and he has yet to return my email. I will update this thread if he ever gets back to me. Thanks again for all the great information!

Simon

After consulting with Robbie, I believe I know what I did wrong. It is very likely the heat that inhibited my birds from achieving their genetic potential. After lots of google searches and searching the various threads on this forum, I have come to the conclusion that James Marie Farm is the source for the best Jumbo Coturnix eggs and probably for all Coturnix quail in general.

Robby even went out of his way to help me figure out what went wrong with my first attempt of raising a true Jumbo bird. I have a new line of eggs coming from James Marie Farm and I'm sure I'll get even better results with my next hatch.

Simon

SimonGrow said:

After consulting with Robbie, I believe I know what I did wrong. It is very likely the heat that inhibited my birds from achieving their genetic potential. After lots of google searches and searching the various threads on this forum, I have come to the conclusion that James Marie Farm is the source for the best Jumbo Coturnix eggs and probably for all Coturnix quail in general.

Robby even went out of his way to help me figure out what went wrong with my first attempt of raising a true Jumbo bird. I have a new line of eggs coming from James Marie Farm and I'm sure I'll get even better results with my next hatch.

Simon

Click to expand...

That's very interesting, i actually thought it was the opposite.

Let me share my experience.

I hatched some jumbo quail eggs (that were advertised as growing to 350grams) and they were doing great, i was weighing the largest chicks daily and they were putting on excellent weight up to 3-4 weeks, they were getting too messy and smelly so i took them outside daily (outside temps were approx 5C) and bringing them back in at night.

After the few days of taking them outside i was disappointed to find out they hadn't put on any weight at all so hoping for larger birds (these will be used to breeding) i thought I'd put up with the smell for a bit longer and sure enough they started putting on weight again but suddenly stopped after a few days or so and that's about the time the males started crowing (4-5 weeks).

The temp indoors was about 20-23C but it was definitely hotter than that in their cardboard box as it was covered with a fine mesh, they were eating approximately 500grams a day between 14 birds.

The hens are still growing (at least some of them) but the biggest male is approximately 250grams and i don't think they will grow any bigger.

Shamo123, I believe there is an optimum temperature for our birds during the critical window period of accelerated growth. If it is too cold, the birds will use the energy from food to produce heat.

If it is too hot, the birds don't eat much. I'm still new to quail so I hope someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

I believe that it is generally recommended for newly hatched chicks to brood at 95-100F for the first week and you can drop the temp by 5F every week until you hit the outside ambient temperature.

Chicks that are not fully feathered should be kept brooding at the above recommended temps until they are fully feathered or the brood temp gets close to ambient temps.
Simon

That does sound right but in my own personal experience they grew best when they were in hot temperatures, even after they were fully feathered.

I was weighing the largest Quail (which was a male) and he was gaining 10-20grams a day so i was thinking he would be a beast but then he just suddenly stopped growing.

They were eating a lot in the higher temperature and i made sure water was always available. One thing that did surprise me was they carried on eating during the dark, i thought like chickens they only eat when there is some light.

Shamo123, I re read your post and 23C is only 73.4F which is still in their optimal temp range. Even if the temp in your covered or screened box is 10F higher, that's still only 83.4F.

When I experienced the slowdown in the rate of growth of my birds, we had 100F+ temps for about two weeks although the 100F temps were not consecutive days of heat. The highest temperature was 103-106F depending on which thermometer I was looking at. It is the extrem heat around 100F that seems to cause the lower weights. 100F is about 37.8C.

Simon

That is pretty hot, i could understand why they would eat less at those temps.

I'm going to try again soon but with more eggs, i just wish i could somehow delay sexual maturity as i believe that would help with growth. On one hand it's great to have a fully grown bird in 4-5 weeks but not if it results in a smaller bird.

The JMF quail sound great but I'm in the UK so i don't think that's an option.

I'm not sure if it will actually work or not but decreasing the number of hours of light your birds receive may slightly delay the onset of maturity but this is just guessing. It is known that if you give birds a certain amount of light that it can stimulate it to lay eggs, even in winter. Based on this, I'm guessing that decreasing the amount of light your birds receive to less than the amount required to stimulate egg production may delay egg laying by several days. Assuming the average egg is about 12 grams, several days of delayed egg laying could theoretically add an ounce to a bird.

Simon