6 or 8 week quail culling

[cmobley]

I have 132 coturnix quail i usually have about 8 or 10 had the idea hatch a bunch do a freezer filling. Anyway i usually do the culling at 8 weeks but with this many birds im honsetly just over it. The question is there any significant meat gain in 6 week to 8 week old birds ive read where people cull at 6 weeks but i want the best bang for the buck thanks for your help.

 

[Invision]

My experience they just get a little more fat on them, depends on if they are jumbos or normal's. think jumbos take a little longer to gain some weight.

 

[cmobley]

Yeah they're jumbos i usually do the deed at 8 weeks didnt know if there was that much difference in weight gain. I personally cant tell a 6 week old bird from 8 week in the cage guess I'll let em go full term just tired of dealing with them.

 

[Del1977]

Just out of interest, how do you cull them? We've had to cull a few deformed ones when we found the hard way you can't interbreed, but I made husband do it as I couldn't.

 

[Invision]

I just use kitchen shears, keep in mind that cots are different as far as inbreeding. What I mean is if there is ever a real deformity they never make it past the hatch. If you want a good lesson on breeding talk to Robbie at JMF . He's got it down and he can answer a lot of question and give you a better idea on how to increase your flocks sizes. Inbreeding isn't really an issue in the bird world because the weakest never make it out of the egg.

 

[Del1977]

So are you saying that interbreeding with cots isn't usually a problem? We had come nasty skull deformities with missing eye one side and super large eye the other side and severe cross beak. My daughter hand fed the first one for a few days and then got her father to euthanize it and the other her grandfather euthanized straight from the incubator. Also had a few with splayed legs and curled toes which we fixed and one with what we think was a slipped Achilles tendon that was attacked by some chickens that hatched at the same time and died. The ones with skull deformities hatched themselves and seems healthy enough by I don't think they could see or eat properly. This batch was plagued with problems and it was the first time they had interbreed. Didn't plan it that way but only had 'father' and 'mother' and their two daughters so thought we would try and boost numbers by hatching their eggs. Bad idea! Have since bought fertile eggs and hatched two batches so far with the third lot going in the bator yesterday so will now have enough to successfully breed without running the risk of interbreeding, although we have put some of our own eggs in with this lot to see how we go. Put just one of our eggs in with the last lot and it hatched without any obvious problems so given we had space again thought we would try some. Have ordered leg bands so we can accurately identify who is who to avoid interbreeding in the future.

 

[Chris102]

Coturnix are an odd species in that they do NOT handle inbreeding well (generally speaking). I've read multiple university and other scientific papers that show serious issues in just three generations of inbreeding! Most species can handle nearly 10 times the amount of inbreeding before any serious issues such as deformities or physical abnormalities is begin to show. I'll have to find the reference links for those studies... as I'm sure opinions will vary..although it's hard to argue with multiple legitimate studies, all of which come to the same conclusion...

 

[Del1977]

Certainly seems to be the case with us! 'Father' breed with his two daughters causing the above mention deformities, and it was the first time we tried using such eggs. Have 18 of their eggs in the bator with the others that we bought, all clearly marked, so will be an interesting experiment to see the outcome. Found out today that his 'wife' probably isn't laying which is no surprise as we have only being getting two eggs a day since they starting laying again at the end of winter. Which means the one that we hatch that is perfect was from one of his daughters. (She had to be removed from the pen after a new male wounded her wing). Kind of creepy, and will be the last time we hatch such eggs as we will be able to start mixing the bloodlines properly from now one. First hatch for the season is due to start laying any day now. They are 7 weeks old tomorrow. 'Father' is no longer with his daughters but has some new ladies that he isn't related too.

We did read that you can inbreed several times before any problems occur which is why we tried it in the first place. What a shock we got when these monsters hatched!!!

 

[cmobley]

Kitchen shears behind the head snip its over toss on ground they spurt.

 

[dc3085]

Coturnix are an odd species in that they do NOT handle inbreeding well (generally speaking). I've read multiple university and other scientific papers that show serious issues in just three generations of inbreeding! Most species can handle nearly 10 times the amount of inbreeding before any serious issues such as deformities or physical abnormalities is begin to show. I'll have to find the reference links for those studies... as I'm sure opinions will vary..although it's hard to argue with multiple legitimate studies, all of which come to the same conclusion...

Sorry to call you out but i want to see this supposed information. Coturnix handle inbreeding as well or better than any poultry so im curious to see this scientific info. Typically it takes 17 or more generations of inbreeding coturnix before negative traits will begin to show themselves. myself and many breeders i know intentionally line breed coturnix constantly and we never see any physical defects and often, even after multiple generations dont even notice a marked decline in fertility or hatchability.