Name that Coturnix!! Help me identify, please :)

[SilkieRose]

Hi guys! This is my first hatch & I'm not sure if some are Italian or Golden, English White or Texas A&M... Help, please
Please click the link- it's just my Facebook page. Thanks!!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.562485987141949.1073741836.549996011724280&type=1

 

[buttonquailtx]

The light birds are Golden, the dark ones with white breast are tuxedo, the whites can be either English White or A&M (the only way to tell is by adult weight, A&M's will be much heavier). It is a very good flock of mixed birds. Very nice to look at. Congrats.

 

[SilkieRose]

Thank you!!! The light ones have been said to be Golden & Italian. The plumage definitely seems to have the V-pattern that I've seen in Italians, but how do you create an Italian?? Breeding what to what? I'm confused Not sure which. I have the tuxedos down!! SO STINKIN' CUTE!!! omg!!! I only have 2 that look to be Tibetan or Rosetta... which, do you know?
The whites all have spots on them so I don't know if that takes them out of the EW group & puts them straight into the A&M category.
Thanks so much for the help. This is my first hatch.

Check out my page at facebook.com/freedomfarmsquail
Thanks, Shelly

 

[buttonquailtx]

Goldens and Italian are actually the same gene. It is super easy to produce Goldens. If you breed a Golden to any other color, you will get 50% Golden and 50% of another color. If you breed Golden to Golden, you will get 50% Golden 25% other colors, and 25% dead eggs. A double dose of the Golden gene is fatal to the developing embryo. I have mostly Goldens with a few browns mixed in. I find that they lay so much that I can just set 25% more eggs than I actually want to hatch.

 

[freeflyin]

So are you saying that if you breed an Italian to a brown will you get 50% Italian and 50% brown?

 

[buttonquailtx]

Exactly. The Golden gene is a dominant gene.

 

[veggiecanner]

The golden gene is giving me som trouble. The chicks I have hatch that show the golden gene are being born with deormaties. I culled 2 today.

 

[buttonquailtx]

Your brood stock might be too closely related. You might want to separate all the female goldens into one cage and the males in another. Try adding browns from a different source/breeder to each cage, keeping your male to female ratio at 1:3.

 

[veggiecanner]

The person I got them from said they were half brothers and sisters. That I could breed them.
I am working on introducing new brown stock, But I am removing all the golden stock, They just seem to frail.
If I want golden I'll get some hardiier stock later.