Little eggs Jumbo birds?

[bigjohn]

I set 45 eggs today from some supposedly HUGE white coturnix quail. The eggs were no larger than my current stock's eggs. I ordered them online from a well advertised website promising large birds.

My question is: Is it possible that huge birds can be hatched from normal or small eggs? Does anyone have a jumbo bird that came from a standard egg size? I do have large birds and small birds from normal eggs, but never checked to see which bird came from which size egg.

I was not happy to receive such small eggs when jumbo eggs are normally much larger. But if someone can give me some hope that maybe there will be some jumbo size birds out of these, I will be happy.

These eggs were set in my new Brinsea ECO. After loading these eggs in the rails, there is plenty of room for many more. Temp is 99.5 and humidity about 40%.

 

[monarc23]

Oh that makes me so mad for you bud!!!

I take it these eggs are from that site you showed me that I said for their prices they better truely have the real deal?


Well lets just hope they are slow growers.... however in my experience large quails lay large eggs (even in most cases tehir first pullet egg is huge). I'm gonna still hold out hope for you though

 

[bigjohn]

Yes, this is the same site that said HUGE, 16 to 18 oz birds!

That is why am upset. Of course, I did not contact this site directly. I called a number from a local market bulletin that said they were located in my state and I 'thought' I was calling an individual located near me to inquire about their birds. Basically, the company places local adds, but routes their phone calls to their company in another part of the country.

We will see how these turn out.

But, maybe I am wrong in thinking I cannot get big birds from smaller eggs. My 10oz birds laid eggs today that were as big or bigger than the ones I received. Of course, I have birds that I hatched last year that came from a mixture of small and large eggs and I have a mix of 6 oz birds to 10oz birds from those eggs.

Hopefully, I will see a few 'monsters' from this hatch and will have something to work with ........

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
I HOPE SO and if you do, im on your list for bigguns kay!??!!

keep us updated! We all need a monster source for quail. Id' rather buy from another BYCer than a co.

 

[linebacker]

Have you hatched any of your own eggs? One of the things I choose as hatching eggs is a size uniformity. As a matter of fact, my next breeder cull will include that trait. I was fortunate to start with pretty good breeding stock, rather than from eggs.

This is from my own results and personal preferences. (I am NOT a geneticist and don't play one on BYC) YMMV

When I first started hatching of course I thought bigger had to be better, but found out that is not always true. I would say my average egg is large, but I don't set or sell the largest. An extremely large chick has never produced an outstanding bird for me.

I breed meat birds and of course I want a large, consistent bird as my intended result. If you look at livestock such as cattle, sheep, goats, etc. you will find breeders want a easy to deliver birth weight baby that is in turn a fast weight gainer.
Having all the chicks hatch at the same size helps me start with a uniformed baseline to chose breeders by comparing apples to apples. All chicks start the same size, have the same access to high quality feed and clean water. The ones that excel are the birds I want as breeders as well as meat birds, and the ones that didn't became culls not meat birds that I sell but culls for our consumption. Within two generations (not long with coturnix) I made a noticeable improvement.

All of the above is JMO,
Brad

 

[bigjohn]

Thanks so much for your information. Very helpful. I guess I was looking for or expecting something that does not exist??? That certainly answers my question as to whether large or 'better' birds can come from the same size eggs as birds that are not so good.

I guess I was looking for jumbo eggs as part of the bird being a 'huge' bird, where as that appears not to be the thing to look for in quality birds.

Apparently, you would need to breed just for large eggs and not necessarily for meat to have jumbo sized eggs. I would love both, but definitely I am more interested in the quality and size of the meat bird, not just the eggs. Hope I am understanding correctly from what you wrote.

Thanks so much for your input. This will help me in the future.

 

[ridgrats]

Hey BigJohn -

Where in GA?

Rodney