Comparing quail sizes

[Reedgirl20]

Today I was proved right with the CL being faster maturing so far. They are six weeks and one day old and today I got two eggs in one cage and another egg in a second cage. They are starting laying at least two weeks earlier then any of the JMF birds did. I am also excited to see what their eight week weigh ins will be. I'm watching closely for any signs of leg or feet problems and so far they are good.

As for rotating out my breeders I've only had quail for about a year and a half. I kept my old breeders for about a year before deciding to upgrade to to jumbos. I have kept 15 breeders in the past but am now expanding for at least a little while to about 30 breeders until I decide which ones to keep out of these two lines.

I have now switched the JMF birds to purina Gamebird layena. The CL will stay on the startena probably for another week or two and will then switch them over as well.

Here is the week six weights of the standards. This may be their last weigh in because I plan to go ahead and process them with the CL culls next week.

JMF 6 wk hen range (190-255) average: 218.6 gram
JMF 6 wk roo range (197-246) average: 220.2 gram

CL 6 week hen range (216-296) average: 256.3 gram
CL 6 week roo range (213-292) average: 245.6 gram

SB 6 week hen range (224-245) average: 234.5 gram
SB 6 week roo range (183-251) average: 209.4 gram

I only have two hens in this group left and I suspect that they may be the late hatched CL chicks that I had thrown in with them. They look and feel significantly different then the roos of the same age and the weights line up with what was seen CL chicks. Or the weight difference between the hen and roos could just be coincidence due to a small sample size compared to the numbers of the other two lines.

 

[Momhunter]

Looking at your weights I'm wishing I had waited to order my eggs. It looks like I would prefer the CL birds over the JMF. Even if we have to rotate breeders every 4-5 months looks like we would have larger birds for the table. I don't know about y'all but I don't have very many people buy eggs for eating, and I've only sold 300-400 for hatching over the last 5 months, so the size of table bird is my biggest concern. I sell quite a few chicks, and would probably sell more with having the true jumbos. I'll raise my JMF this winter and continue to follow this thread. Maybe get some of the CL eggs next spring. I would really like to see the 14-16 oz quail, but how long are we going to have to let them grow to get to that size and what is our feed conversion to get that big?

 

[Reedgirl20]

I agree with you Momhunter, the size of the bird for the early butcher is most important for me. I also don't sell many eggs but have better luck selling chicks. I raise mainly for my own use for the table and sell chicks enough to pay the feed bill. So far I'm very impressed with the CL birds and really hope they don't have any leg issues. I'm not sure how often everyone else rotates breeders but I plan on yearly rotations, shorter only if I see a drop in fertility or egg laying.

Although I have yet to ever see a 14-16 oz bird, I doubt it would be worth the feed to wait that long on a regular basis to butcher. In my experience the meat gets so much tougher eight weeks and up. I usually aim for about a seven week old butcher date, sometimes even six weeks if I need room in the grow out pen.

 

[Momhunter]

It sounds like we have the same goals and schedules reedgirl20. I'm just happy to sell enough extra chicks to pay for the feed so the birds in my freezer are "free" except for my labor. I sell enough of my chickens eggs and some chicks in the spring that they pay for themselves. The only truly profitable poultry I have are the peafowl, at $50-60 a chick you can make some nice money on them. The Peachicks paid for the sportsman incubator and supplies for the brooders and pens I've built. I also agree with the change in the meat as adults vs 7-8 weeks old. When I raise 100 chicks at a time I usually process 1/2 of the males at 7 weeks, cuts down on the fighting, then finish the rest at 8 weeks.

 

[Reedgirl20]

I have done the last weigh in of all the CL birds and then processed the smallest 27 birds. As I was a little afraid would be the case, the males in the grow out pen did not hardly gain anything this week, averaging only a 3 gram weight gain. I had noticed a fair amount of crowing and flying around and was worried they were running off all their calories and I was right, some birds even lost weight this week. I probably should have processed them last week but couldn't due to my schedule. As it was I did put 8 1/2 lbs of meat into the freezer from the 27 birds and had about three or more pounds of offal to feed the dogs. Not too bad for 7 week growth, but I could have saved an entire week of feed and had the same results.

The birds in the breeder pens are still growing well and I have switched everyone over to purina layena. All of the JMF birds are laying and at least 2/3rds of the CL birds are. Yesterday I put about 55 eggs, some from each line into the incubator so will soon see if anyone is fertile yet.

 

[marksouth]

Are more JMF birds laying because you have more of them or are they better layers bird for bird than the cl's?

 

[VickieB57]

I went to pick up some Startena for my 4 week old quail Thursday (4 wks old on Sunday) and they were out. They said it would be in on Wednesday. I knew I didn't have enough food to last until then, so I bought a bag of Layena. I'll be going back on Wednesday to get the Startena. I had to start giving them the Layena today since I was completely out of the Startena. Is this going to hurt their growth?

 

[Reedgirl20]

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Are more JMF birds laying because you have more of them or are they better layers bird for bird than the cl's?

More of the JMF birds are laying because they are three weeks older then the CL birds are. The JMF birds only had one or two birds laying at this age the CL are currently. I would have to say the CL birds are faster maturing but the JMF birds are currently laying a slightly larger egg. I currently have culled down to the largest 15 hens of each line and the six largest roos with two more roos held as back ups.

 

[Reedgirl20]

I went to pick up some Startena for my 4 week old quail Thursday (4 wks old on Sunday) and they were out. They said it would be in on Wednesday. I knew I didn't have enough food to last until then, so I bought a bag of Layena. I'll be going back on Wednesday to get the Startena. I had to start giving them the Layena today since I was completely out of the Startena. Is this going to hurt their growth?

I don't think that a few days of the lower protein feed will slow them down significantly.

 

[Momhunter]

It sounds like we all agree about culling the extra boys early. It doesn't pay off to feed them longer when they start fighting.
I assume both the JMF and CL people are talking about at least 12 week old birds when they compare weights, not the same numbers we will be getting when we process at 6-8 weeks of age for the best meat.