2 weeks old - gender feathering begining to show! -many pictures

[zaylinda]

My quails are still growing up a storm. I moved them to a larger, mesh-covered bin in the garage because they had begun to fly out of their brooder in the office.

Here is a size comparison of them, two days old vs two weeks old
Two days old (cue the 'aww' soundtrack):

Look at them all hiding in the TP tube.

And now, today, against an identical TP tube:

These quail are (comparatively) huge.

Ok, as advertised in the title, I think I am beginning to see gender feathering on their chests (I

browns) So far it looks like a 50/50 split, which is awesome. I hope my two pale chested quails don't start growing in red

Here are some pics, first, the boys
0 and 3 (you can tell because of the number of fingers I have up - so I can tell the pictures of different quails apart

)

And the (hopefully) girls
1 and 2

As you can see, 1 has decided to play dead, probably because I was planning on pinioning them today. She was the first I picked up, I held her securely, I had my sharp kitchen shears nearby, the brooder was freshly cleaned; I held out her wing, pointing out the exact spot to cut to the scruffy fiance, he reached for the shears...
Then I flinched, motioned him to stop, took a picture, and popped her back into the freshly cleaned brooder.
I'm not a squeamish girl. Killing and butchering animals = not a problem.
But pinioning... a bit too much for me. Since there is no :embarrased of my wussiness: smilie, I'll go with

 

[25bengood2me]

May I ask; WHAT DO YOU DO WITH QUAILS? They can't be for egg collecting, chickens are bigger for eating.........???????????

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Quote:
Many folks raise them for pets, eating the birds, eating the eggs(considered delicacy), and many uses. I have just started raising some for my pastors little girl who is allergic to chicken eggs so we are trying her on quail eggs. They all have their purpose

OP, cute birds. I couldn't pinion either

 

[JJMR794]

CHICKEN!
COMON' ITS JUST A QUICK SNIP!

lol---- ok i got my ribbin in now onward

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If the colors dont not change with maturity your absolutely correct on gender assessment.

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
check out the facts in the top sticky post here, they'll help shed some light on coturnix quail for ya! Yeah ok, eating them is like eating blue crabs, but they are quite tasty

and pound for pound you will have way more eggs and less cost with coturnix than you will with chickens of any breed and about 20% of the time too (they're quick lil buggers-- in everything!)

 

[Wifezilla]

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH QUAILS?

You adore them for their fantastic egg laying abilities, beautiful singing, and tastiness when roasted

 

[SamG347]

I would still say IMO that it is a little bit early yet. I like to wait for them to completely fill in with breast feathers at least 50% before saying with 100% certainty hen/roo. But I would say you got it pretty well. "0" might be a hen. I have had a lot of Jumbo brown coturnix hens who show a little more coloration in the breast feather that I said were male turn out to be opposite.
Good looking group you got there though!

 

[zaylinda]

I have the quail for all the reasons mentioned, mostly for the eggs but I'm afraid my two boys are going to visit the oven in a little over a month... I can't wait! Sure, they're small, but the flavor is great and I find one per person is enough for the meat dish of a meal.

And thanks Sam, I'll keep an eye on the quail to see if their apparent gender changes.