Comparing quail sizes

[Reedgirl20]

I was planning on doing weigh-ins today but got so busy doing other things I forgot, lol. My goal is to get them done in the next few days. On the other hand I finally got my plethora of excess quail eggs used up. I am getting between 25-30 eggs a day on top of my 3-4 chicken eggs and since I am the only one in my household the eggs add up quickly. I decided to cook up a batch of dog food with them. I used over 200 eggs combined with some various grains I had been given and some leftover veggies from the garden and some canned turkey I had done last summer as an experiment but haven't liked all that much because it dried out too much. The final product ended up with quail eggs, rice, wheat berries, oats, carrots, zucchini, and turkey and came out to 40 pounds of dog food costing next to nothing to make. The dogs are loving it, may try this more often if my time allows it.

 

[Momhunter]

Due to the number of quail chicks I have and limited time, I am thinking of weighing groups of chicks and just averaging. I am growing out 120 from the JMF eggs and I have 18 chicks from my last incubation from my old breeders, they are exactly 1 week younger than the JMF chicks. Thinking of randomly catching around 1/3 of to a half of the JMF chicks weighing them together and just averaging. There is just no way I will catch all of them and weigh individually. The only difference will be the size of grow out pens. The JMF chicks will go from my large brooder to being devided into two large grow out cages that are 3.5 ft W x 12.5 ft L x 2 feet tall, covered with 2 feet of both ends enclosed. The standard (supposedly mainly jumbo browns) will go from brooder to 4ft sq covered cages. Both using the same low pressure watering trigger cups and quail feeders with free choice purina game bird startena. I will have light bulbs for extra light and some heat at night on all cages.

 

[Tammy N]

As momhunter said I got the CL birds from eBay, guy from West Covine I believe. I'm from the west coast so these eggs had a much easier trip and got much better hatch rate but I do agree Robbie from JMF is very knowledgeable. I have not yet seen the leg problem in the CL but will be watching closely as they age.

I am also from Oregon and am Wanting quail for food not just for me but also for my cats and dog i worry so much about the GMOS now food wise is there something speacial you need to feed these Quail ?

here in florence we have turkey phesant and thats about it so any suggestions Thanks Tammy

 

[IcyOldHen]

I weighed my week old JMF quail today.

XL Meat Phaorah ~ Average 40.9 grams (largest were 45, 45 & 48 grams).
XL Meat A&Ms ~ Average 39.6 grams (largest were 42, 42, 47 & 48 grams).
Golden Manchurians ~ Average 36.9 grams (largest were 41 & 44 grams).

Looking forward to the 2 week weigh in!

PS I weighed them about 12 hours late, so they're about 7-1/2 days old.

 

[sydney quailman]

hi reedgirl20

just a question have you wieghed the eggs before incubation?

as a bigger egg should equal a bigger quail,

i incubate 13plus gram eggs (13-14 gram eggs, sometimes i get 15 grams)

the 10-12 grams used for eating.

as im from australia , its hard finding good meat quail bloodline,

i would like to get eggs from jmf but im way too far ,

great work on the progress.

cheers

sam sydney quail man

 

[Reedgirl20]

Due to the number of quail chicks I have and limited time, I am thinking of weighing groups of chicks and just averaging. I am growing out 120 from the JMF eggs and I have 18 chicks from my last incubation from my old breeders, they are exactly 1 week younger than the JMF chicks. Thinking of randomly catching around 1/3 of to a half of the JMF chicks weighing them together and just averaging. There is just no way I will catch all of them and weigh individually. The only difference will be the size of grow out pens. The JMF chicks will go from my large brooder to being devided into two large grow out cages that are 3.5 ft W x 12.5 ft L x 2 feet tall, covered with 2 feet of both ends enclosed. The standard (supposedly mainly jumbo browns) will go from brooder to 4ft sq covered cages. Both using the same low pressure watering trigger cups and quail feeders with free choice purina game bird startena. I will have light bulbs for extra light and some heat at night on all cages.

Sounds like a good plan, it would definately be tough to do over 100 birds every week. Doing a couple batches shou give you a good average. Will be very nice to see how all these guys compare.

 

[Reedgirl20]

I am also from Oregon and am Wanting quail for food not just for me but also for my cats and dog i worry so much about the GMOS now food wise is there something speacial you need to feed these Quail ? 

here in florence we have turkey phesant and thats about it so any suggestions Thanks Tammy 

I am sure the pheasant turkey food will work but make sure to check if medicated, a lot of turkey starter has amprolium or some other coccidiostat added. I feed purina startena (30%) to the chicks and meat birds and purina Gamebird layena to my breeders. I know here in the rogue valley there is some Rogue feed made locally that is GMO free but I'm not sure if their Gamebird feed is certified or not.

I also use the quail for both myself and the dogs. When I butcher I cut out the backbone and strip out all the guts in one piece and all that gets fed to the dogs and the rest of the bird for me. The dogs are doing great also on the quail egg dog food, I've picked up some rolled oats to try making oatmeal/eggs/veggies for the next batch.

 

[Reedgirl20]

I weighed my week old JMF quail today.

XL Meat Phaorah ~ Average 40.9 grams (largest were 45, 45 & 48 grams).
XL Meat A&Ms ~ Average 39.6 grams (largest were 42, 42, 47 & 48 grams).
Golden Manchurians ~ Average 36.9 grams (largest were 41 & 44 grams).

Looking forward to the 2 week weigh in!

PS I weighed them about 12 hours late, so they're about 7-1/2 days old.

Yay! Glad to see some more comparisons. Looks to me your guys are right on track. I'm looking forward to seeing their two week weights as well.

 

[Reedgirl20]

hi reedgirl20

just a question have you wieghed the eggs before incubation?

as a bigger egg should equal  a bigger quail,

i incubate 13plus gram eggs (13-14 gram eggs, sometimes i get 15 grams)

the 10-12 grams used for eating.

as im from australia , its hard finding good meat quail bloodline,

i would like to get eggs from jmf but im way too far ,

great work on the progress.

cheers

sam sydney quail man

I have weighed all my eggs before incubating. My old standards eggs were 9-11grams on average. The JMF eggs were 12-16grams with very few of them in the 12g size and a lot in the 14g size. The CL eggs were very similar size to the JMF eggs, perhaps a few more in the 12g size.

The birds from these eggs are now laying consistently and I am doing 'egg tryouts'. I am separating one quail at a time out of the breeder pens to weed out the hens laying eggs with poor shell quality or smaller size. The JMF birds are laying larger eggs on average. With today's eggs the smallest of the JMF was 13.79 grams and the majority of the eggs over 14g. The CL smallest egg was 11.9g and average 13-14g.

 

[Reedgirl20]

So I have the nine week weights done on the CL. I suspect their weights are a little low because after I weighed I realized the nipple water system had been knocked apart my a stray cat during the afternoon and they had been without water for up to five hours. I don't have a nine week weight on the JMF birds so am comparing to their eight week weights.

JMF 8 wk hen range (259-305) average: 279.3 gram
JMF 8 wk roo range (285-303) average: 292 gram

CL 9 wk hen range (267-303) average: 280gram
CL 9 wk roo range (280-297) average: 291gram