Any weird quail breeding projects?

[scyllarus]

I know quail have crazy amounts of color combinations and I've seen papers about curly feathers and so on in quail, but I definitely don't see the same sort of variation as we have in chickens. I got it into my head after seeing bearded/muffed chickens to see if we could breed for fluffier cheeks in quail - though after doing a little research I'm not so sure it's possible - and I wanted to see if anyone has/is working on any unusual projects!

I know quail are wilder and thus most of the focus has been on meat, eggs, and color, but hope springs eternal that one day I can have a silkie-like quail...

 

[Nabiki]

Quail have a pretty short lifespan, so if you're really interested in it, you can probably see results if you work on it.

 

[scyllarus]

Quail have a pretty short lifespan, so if you're really interested in it, you can probably see results if you work on it.

Oh, absolutely. I'm always blown away at how quickly their generations go - I remember seeing that Thieving Otter Farms bred black quail in two years, which is crazy to me! I know a lot of our quail keepers here work on calm and docile temperaments, and I definitely have considered hatching only eggs from my favorite (read: friendliest) hens, so hopefully we'll be able to pull off something, haha.

 

[Feathers1984]

Any updates on this project?

 

[scyllarus]

Any updates on this project?

The first hatch of chicks are adults now! The project is kind of on the back burner since I've been dealing with holidays/being ill, but there's definitely a few hens in there that I'll be holding back.