What Sex Are My Chuckar?

[LavLady]

I have about 15 of these demon spawn (aka Chuckar Partridge) and I would like to know how to sex them so I can plan a dinner in their honor. These little imps have been terrorizing me for 6 months now and I am pretty sure they are plotting my untimely demise, and I think I heard them trying to recruit the pigeons to their cause. I have come to realize it is them or me. I am just stupid enough to want to keep more of these violent little hellions for breeding purposes, so I only want to butcher most of the males, even though I suspect that the females are just as wicked as the males.

I read somewhere (maybe here, I don't know) that the males are "blockier" than the females. None of these birds resembles the building blocks my toddler so enjoys. I have also noticed that an injured or excessively picked on bird hunches more and takes on a blockier look. They are wicked murdering canibals and I have had several that needed medical care and to spend a few days by themselves to recover from their injuries. So looking for a blockier build is of little help. I also read that the males have spurs, and then I read that females can have spurs too. (Surely you see the deviousness of these creatures by now!) I thought I would observe them and perhaps be able to note some behavior that differentiated some as one sex or the other, but any time I come near their pen they go inside their pallets to conspire against me. I even took to watching them from the house through a window, but I think the pigeons told them I was watching because I saw nothing different in their behavior then either. Honestly the only indication that maybe some are female is naked backs, but based on the 5 canabialized carcasses I have had to dispose of over the past several months, it could just be they don't like that guy. Never the less, I don't like having birds getting picked on, no matter their murderous past.

I have decided that if I can't determine sex soon, that I will just butcher them all. On a related note, does anyone have a recipe for roast chuckar?

 

[Tony K T]

The male chukar will have a bigger spur and their head is a little more squarer(blockier).
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[deserthotwings]

What size pen do you have your Chukars in ? Sounds like they may be in too small a pen for that many birds. I have 18 Chukars in a pen that is 32' by 20' with 8 Eastern Wild Turkeys and they all get along fine despite the size diference. They have been together for over a year now with no problems at all as long as you keep them busy. I keep a full bale of Bermuda hay and a quail block in their pen to keep them occupied. Their fun birds to raise and I hope you can find a solution before you find a recipe.

 

[Bob White quail]

they are monogamous which means they pair up one to one so if you butcher most of the male and keep one and all the females there will only be one hen that will lay but on that note I might be interested in a pair of chukars for my aviary I have 14 bobwhite quail,1 rooster silver ring neck pheasant,3 ringneck hen pheasants and some pigeons and doves we could also make a trade maybe pheasants chicks/quail chicks for chukar pair.