➡ Quail Hatch Along🥚

[muddy75]

I called Myshire and talked with Zack. He told me Tibetans don’t breed true so I’m going to get a variety of chicks. On one hand that’s pretty cool because I will get to have a lot of pretty looking quail. But on the other hand pretty isn’t always the colors that blend in with nature. And that’s ultimately why I bought them, to camouflage in with grass for dog training. But now I know! So that’s good at least. I’m learning! And they really do seem less fragile than Bobwhites.

grow out the oddballs and make them dinner!!

 

[CoturnixComplex]

The only things that "can't breed true" are lethal dominants (of which, admittedly, there are more than a few). You can get homozygous of dominant, incomplete dominant, and recessive within a few generations of work.

I would (and am) crossing to mostly pure pharoah lines before releasing colors as "set" in order to clean them out. Everyone else I know would do the same.

If they're knowingly selling extremely diluted mixed genes as "that color!"...well...not how I would run my business but to each their own. That's why mine are all currently only mixed or pick-your-parents.

 

[CoturnixComplex]

They have quail waterers at Runnings... don’t know about TSC. Look on Amazon. I’ll bet you can get them there. They’re like the mason jar chick waterers, but with a much narrower trough.

Regarding why the colors don’t breed true and why they don’t just tell you which two birds to cross to get the colors you want...

I don’t know, but I suspect the sellers have done a lot of experimenting to figure out how to produce this or that color in a chick. They may, like the Cornish Cross chickens, be the offspring of hybrid parents. If this is the case, they’ll be complicated and time-consuming to breed and also the result of a lot of exacting research which the researchers probably don’t want to give away gratis to the world at large. They may license their methods to producers for a price, but would understandably be hesitant to toss out their ability to profit from their hard work by sharing all they’ve worked for, for nothing.

I’m just guessing—positing a possible answer to the question. I’m probably way off, but I’m betting it’s at least something to do with protection of intellectual property rights.

I'd be with you....if this weren't all public domain information in the form of published papers and info from breeders who *actually* developed the colors Myshire sells like JMF. Good dimension to consider, though.

 

[CoturnixComplex]

To be honest and say the parentage is slightly mixed is one thing...to say they "can't breed true"....is not.

 

[Kiki]

What do you guys use as a waterer? Will a regular chick waterer work? With marbles maybe?

ETA- for baby quail chicks

Yes but you can't go crazy with the marbles. There needs to be room for a little water too.

 

[Kiki]

breeding for color = designer quail.....as low as 60% true hatch rate (in the collections like ssc and pastel) because of different color gene combinations. and dominant vs recessive colors and lethal gene combinations etc
breeding for weight in “wild type” otoh is 99+% true hatch

Then they should just all be called mixed breeds.

 

[Kiki]

If I order 50 Pearl eggs I am going to expect about 40 yellows.
If I may only get 15... I would be mad that it wasn't made clear that I may only get 15.


Am I making sense? I don't think I'm saying this right.


Is this kinda like false advertisement for people who are dumb like me and don't understand genetics yet?

 

[CoturnixComplex]

If I order 50 Pearl eggs I am going to expect about 40 yellows.
If I may only get 15... I would be mad that it wasn't made clear that I may only get 15.


Am I making sense? I don't think I'm saying this right.


Is this kinda like false advertisement for people who are dumb like me and don't understand genetics yet?

If I ordered pearls-only I would expect to get pearls, falb fees since I knew they went into the creation, maybe some italian types since we think they might be related too, maybe some plain silvers if snowies were also a possibility, and a few pharoahs. More than 5-10% deviation from this would make me raise an eyebrow.

For tibetans anything major other than tuxedo types, English whites (tuxedo x tuxedo can always produce these), or (few if any) pharoah would surprise me.

When I ordered pearls and lavenders (not from Myshire), I got everything I talked about, and an unexpected recessive (albino). Not roux dilutes like the last time I ordered from that guy - cuz he did not collect from roux dilutes this batch on request!

EDIT: I guess for tibetans all the other "red" colors (red range, scarlett, german red pastel, etc) would not surprise me, either. A large percentage of golden-types, grey-types, fee-types, roux, or anything of those nature would.

 

[dpenning]

I I ordered pearls and have a bunch of different color chicks. I just figure their adult plumage would have the pearl pattern regardless of color. I guess I over simplified it?

 

[Kiki]

I I ordered pearls and have a bunch of different color chicks. I just figure their adult plumage would have the pearl pattern regardless of color. I guess I over simplified it?

I don't think you will end up with a lot of pearls but I'm not so sure of what I am saying.