Tatanka Breeders Club: Meat Quail project with history, discussion, pictures and videos

Wanting to start a thread where breeders and owners of the little brown Quail we like to call "Tatanka" can post pics and videos of their birds and projects.

Comments are welcome however "bashing" will not be tolerated.

I will document my project crossing white coturnix with brown coturnix. These birds are the F2 crosses.

The P1 birds were brown and white.

The F1 birds were brown

The F2 birds are white and brown.

The F2 white and brown coturnix have the same genetics (parents), will be weighing and taking pics of them here as they grow to see if feather coloring really makes a difference, between the white and the brown japanese meat quail.

Along the way, I will document breeding, incubating, hatching, brooding, feeding and the processing of Japanese Quail for meat.

stating the goal.

"Tatanka" raising the Standard...Jumbo Coturnix (Japanese Quail)

BEAK:  slightly curved not flat.
EYES:  expressive, green.
HEAD:  large, wide. square when viewed from top.
NECK: thick, slight arch.
WINGS:  fairly small
BREAST:  prominent, full, well defined.
BODY: similar to other poultry meat birds, "like a brick" a fuller and longer fowl to increase egg-laying capacity and to produce a frame with more meat for commercial purposes.
BACK: breadth across the back is a desirable trait.
LEGS: well muscled thigh. strong to support weight.
FEET AND TOES: (4) evenly spaced, long toes
FEATHERING: rough feathering is common in larger specimens.

EGGS: greater than > 14 grams.

WEIGHTS: All birds male and female must weigh 280 grams by 42 days.

looks like these are the numbers we are shooting for:

Daddy, Digger & Moby Standards of Quailism

14 days ~80g
21 days ~130g
28 days ~200g
42 days = 280g+


Fat Daddy Clause
56 days ~350+

current colors:
Brown (Wild Type)

color projects:
Splits (brown with recessive white)
White Wings
Whites

will continue to edit this as general guidelines.

here are the participants in the study. these are two broods of chicks from same exact parents, several days apart.

the roo and hen that produced these are brown splits, both birds were over 300 grams at 42 days old.

I have another batch of 6 chicks- 3 white and 3 brown a few days behind these, with another 2 settings of eggs in the bator.

and just moved 13 eggs over to the hatcher this afternoon.

eta- I weighed the hen from this brood, she was over 370g today, she was hatched end of October 2011

and selective breedings and weight minimums got us to this point.

how did we get to this point

we crossed our biggest brown hens with our biggest white roo

we crossed our biggest white hens with our biggest brown roo

we set two settings of 30 eggs each, we hatched 40 chicks, 1 week apart.

We grew up the 40 chicks and selected the largest Roo and Hen, weighing them every week and keeping records.

from these 40 birds we selected the largest roo and the largest hen. we have incubated over 20 of their eggs so far.

the chicks that hatch are brown (wild type) and white. according to genetics calc. a % of offspring from brown split birds will be white.

its these white birds we are interested in.

that's a quick start and of course, no pandering of Quail Oil, no lobbyists permitted in the Lab.

this is a no solicitation zone.

proper authorization and licensing is required.

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 5

Stage 6

Final Stage