16-19 oz jumbo coturnix quail?

[Shamo123]

They were getting approximately 14 hours of light a day which i think is enough for egg production but i only got my 1st egg today (lights on 24/7 now), weighed 15.5 grams and not sure which hen it came from.

They are currently under a heat lamp and at around 22C but i think even the hens have stopped growing now, so frustrating. I can change the bulb to a ceramic one that emits no light but they would only get 9 hours of dim natural light a day.

Maybe i should advertise them as super fast growing quail? Lol. From what I've read on here coturnix shouldn't be done growing until 12 weeks.

 

[SimonGrow]

Here is a great article that someone else from this forum posted in another thread. http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/Avian/Coturnix.pdf

I perhaps you can start your own line of delayed maturity birds?

Simon

 

[Shamo123]

Interesting read, too much info to read all at once so i just skipped to the maturity part and, if I've understood it correctly, 12 hours of light is best (if you want delayed maturity). Mine were given about 14 hours or so a day, sometimes a little more.

I'm going to try again in the summer but the days will be longer so I'll have to find a way of blocking the light while allowing ventilation. I'm going to use my current birds as breeding parents in the hope that the chicks will be bigger, I'll also try and source some more with better genetics.

 

[SimonGrow]

Yup, pretty close. The more light hours they get, the sooner they lay eggs. There are many factors to consider however and the less light you give them, the less food they will be able to consume because I don't think they eat much when it's too dark. I've read people use a specific color of light so that the chicks can still eat when the natural color light is turned off.

It may also be possible to set a timer and turn on whatever light you have for 15-30 minutes throughout the day and night so that your birds can wake up to eat and then go back to sleep.

I currently have my chics on a timer that is on for 11 hours then dark for 4 hours then on for thirty minutes and off for three hours and then on for thirty minutes before dark again. I'm just wondering if this light schedule may disrupt hormones or developement of my birds. This hatch is all going to freezer camp so I'm experimenting with this batch before I get my new lines in. I'll report back on my Shinto Dragon Jumbo Coturnix project thread.

Simon

 

[Shamo123]

Mine seemed to eat perfectly well in the dark, every night i would fill their trough with food to a certain point then when I'd wake up and check on them the food would be finished most of the time, I'd even hear them from a small distance pecking away at their food. The room was blacked out too.

Now they are outside with the light on 24/7 they are eating no more or no less than they were before. I have however just switched the heat lamp off as they aren't growing now anyway so worth a try to see if anything changes despite the coolee temps (12-13C).

It would be interesting to hear of your results, since they will be culled anyway now does seem like a good time to experiment. I'm going to keep 6 hens and 2 roos for now but will probably order some eggs from ebay soon, I've seen this on eBay and the eggs look huge http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/24-JUMBO-...855298?hash=item41a407e602:g:A8YAAOSwX~dWk7L0 although they may be the biggest eggs the breeder has ever gotten (and possibly double yolkers). My 15.5gram egg looks tiny in comparison.

 

[alaskawild1958]

SimonGrow...

I was just wondering if you ever heard back form this gentleman? http://www.jumboquails.org/#!about/c10fk
I was also curious.

Thanks!

 

[SC cityquail]

Hello
We are new to the quail business, just hatched out our first batch.
A little history! We were visiting my daughter and she mentioned her neighbor had some quail in his basement, we went over to investigate and sure enough he had a small room in the corner of his basement 10x12 all enclosed with a small exhaust fan in the window.
We have been researching for the last few months so this was like a real shock when I seen his set up.
On to the quail, they were huge and the eggs were 18 to 23 grams, he had 3 hens and one roo in the first cage and they; were 20.6, 20.4, and a even 20 ounces. The other 5 cages the hens were in the 18 to 20 ounce range.
After a half a bottle of Jim Beam the old guy started talking and he has been line breeding for 15 plus years, as a hobby, and he loves quail meat. He just feeds the eggs to his dogs.
Tell me if I was a little drunk also cause I gave him $50 for 28 eggs, got 21 to hatch.
To make a long story short, I weighed the biggest hen today she is 13 days old and tipped the scales at 112 grams, 4 ounces even.
Tomorrow is day 14 I will make a vidio and post it when I weigh the birds.

Are these weights above average? From what I have read these weights should be at the 3 week age not 2 weeks.

Thank you all for your time, like I said this is the first ever with quail and just want some input.

Thanks
Scott and Carol

 

[geniash]

I would love to get my hands on these huge jumbos!

 

[SC cityquail]

Here is the youtube link for their 14 day weigh in.

These weights are way above some of the standards I have seen on the internet.

Thanks
Scott and Carol

 

[SC cityquail]

We tried to upload the 14 day weigh in and I could not get it off my phone onto here.
We posted it to youtube and tried to add the link on here and it came back I did not have permission to post other links.
You can view it at sc cityquail on you tube.

The largest one was like 124 grams, the average of the 21 birds was 103.71 grams at 14 days old.

Like mentioned in our posts this is our very first adventure, and will like any input to the size of these chicks, normal, above normal?

Thank you for your time
Scott and Carol