As promised A&M meat VS Pharaoh Meat

[AHappychick]

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[ice329]

Just to add my 2 cents... I wanted to try TA&M quails so I ordered some from someone differnt on ebay I will not name him but its a type of (car). I orderd TA@M and what I got was mostly all Jumbo Browns.. now to be fair this is not at all what I wanted and was ticked when they hatched. I did get 6 TA&M in the bunch.. now the Jumbo Browns are definatly bigger then the TA&M and a lot calmer.. so in the end I am not sure if he has a good strain of TA&M or not since I have not culled any yet. But they look ok I am sure there not gonna be true TA&M considering the mix of eggs I did not want.

THEN I still wanted the TA&M so back to ebay.... The ebayer that was talked about earlyer in this thread.. Birds of a feather or something ike that... the add read best strains and I asked Why? and didnt mind paying a little more IF I got TA&M quail. Honestly the person packed them well but still a lot were cracked, then the first candling I had to remove about half then the second candling about half more... so I am not sure of the exact numbers but out of 60 or so I think 14 hatched and one died..BUT they do look like much nicer birds then the other 6 I have from the other ebayer. There are no crooked feet, they have very little spots on there head and some dont have any at all. And they just look prettier I guess is the only word I can use.

 

[cpartist]

Very interesting discussion here. I found this article published by the professor at A & M, who developed the birds. He says the live weight of these birds is 10-13 oz, which is not the 1 lb that I've heard speak about. Neither does he specifically say "white meat", but "white flesh" and it may be that he is talking about the cleaner look of a white bird that is plucked vs a dark feathered bird. This article is dated 1998, so 13 oz was probably a big difference over the common pharaoh quail size at that time. It's too bad that they didn't keep working on this project. The quail we have now (both brown and white) seem so much larger than the quail we raised in the '80's. We are just getting back into them now, and started with nice sized eggs from a good breeder. We are on our third generation and the eggs and birds are getting bigger and healthier through selective breeding. Everything is so accelerated with Coturnix vs. other poultry (hatch days, laying age) that is seems possible to achieve stock that consistently produce 1 lb offspring in just a year or two with good breeder selection. All this aside...HappyChicks A & M's do look to have a lighter meat and I hope to see other feedback from anyone else who is raising this line.

Here is the link: http://university.uog.edu/cals/people/PUBS/Quail/L-5215.pdf

 

[ice329]

I am new to raising birds so I will ask this here.. I think its the right place. I have the 6 TA&M quail that are 7 weeks old and 12 or 13 that are 4 weeks old. The first 6 from one person and the 13 from someone differnt. Now should I select which ones I like from each and mix them? or should I keep the two batches seperate? I worry maybe it would be breeding them to close if I breed each batch seperatly..kinda like brother to sisters? I dont think the first 6 are as good quality as the 13. ??

 

[ice329]

If the 13 birds I got from the person birds of a feather were better managed to keep up the TA&M lines I think I should prob keep those seperate.. if breeding to close is not a big deal. And just leave the other 6 white ones with the Jumbo Browns or cull one to see what the meat looks like on the inside. I will work on the 13 nicer ones to improve the line.

 

[JJMR794]

Your Flock, Do As You Like.... But It Sounds Like A Good Idea To Me.

Selective Breeding Can Be Alot Of ThinGs Depending On Your Goals And The Speces Your Working With--- Enlightening, Fun, Interesting, Fulfilling..... And If Your Working Towards Killer Sized Bobs It Can Be A Pain In The Butt, Time Consuming, Frustrating, And Basically Drive One To Drink......lol

The Most Important Thing Is Do What Makes You Happy With Your Stock, Enjoy Them And Try To Remain Ethical. Have Fun And Enjoy Them!

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Since in turkeys you can have both all white breasted and all dark meat breeds I see no reason to doubt the same can not be true of quail. No amount of cooking will whiten up a BBB turkey's breasts and the juices run the colour of the meat even when overcooked. In Europe the all dark meat breeds are more common, it's only in North America the white breasted breeds are common.

Last warning for this thread, no further negative posting.

 

[AHappychick]

Ok well I have a A&M roo (that just got itself on the cull list by being nasty) and a pharaoh that are going to get sent to freezer camp tomorrow. My friend will video the whole thing from beginning to end so that it can all be seen and so that my honesty can not come into question. Hopefully it will be posted by tomorrow evening.

for those wanting eggs (I will hopefully get to offer them sometime in the spring. I only have 3 females A&Ms laying and are setting all eggs myself at the moment trying to build numbers if these next few hatches go well (they are proving very hard to hatch these days) I will feel comfortable enough to ship them to others.

I do hope this thread is not locked or deleted as I think there is good info and conversation on it. if it is I will post a link to the videos on my sig line once done tomorrow.

 

[Byrdj]

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I'm looking forward to seeing the video. Should be interesting. I hope this thread doesn't get closed either. This is a good subject pertinent to raising and eating quail. If people would keep an open mind about it (since a white fleshed quail was created and documented by Dr. Fred Thornberry of Texas A & M) a lot of valuable information can be aquired and used in our own breeding programs.

 

[ugly ducky]

I also hope this doesn't get closed. It has been very informative, as I just purchased some TX A&M's that are huge, and am just beginning to incubate some eggs from them. I don't have any to cull yet, so haven't seen their meat, but am hoping they'll be white. I've got to get them on the scale soon, but just haven't had the time. The man I got them from keeps them in a dark barn over the winter, (feeding only 16% feed)and when I first got them, I couldn't even vent sex them, but after a couple weeks of being under lights, and 28% protein feed, now I can. Amazing what light can do! Looking forward to those pics!