Breeding Program

[WaterfowlWierdo]

I have 7 bobwhite(2 roos and 5 hens) and 14 coturnix of various colors, and 2 scaled quail pairs.
I am keeping logs and records of who I breed to who and what the result is (fertility, any defects etc) and I was wondering if anyone has done this before, like made anything interesting such as a cross breed of smaller/larger bird?

Can I cross a scaled quail with a bobwhite?

 

[James the Bald]

This question has been asked in the past. Here is a link that best answers it. The question was asked once again recently, and another member answered it this way. If you really do decide to go through with this, post your results here.
James

 

[WaterfowlWierdo]

I am not interested in crossing bobs with coturnix but bobs with scaled

 

[James the Bald]

Well, I'm not going to try to talk you out of whatever you plan on doing, but just showing you some scientific data conducted by the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in 1971. This is just the data. Here is the cliffnotes version of what I read:

• The California and Mountain quail hybrid has been reported to have occured in nature, as they live in close proximity of each other
• Serious injury or death of a newly introduced female was noted.
• Of the successful hatching Bobwhite x Scaled, a large number of eggs (196) resulted in only 12 hybrid chicks being hatched.
• the report noted that none of the hybrid offspring had any offspring of their own. For the BS hybrid, 228 eggs were incubated, with zero hatches. Even the California and Mountain quail hybrid resulted in zero hatches.

Initially, I was going to sit back and let you move forward with you project and wait for your results, but after I had looked up this report, I started to think about the safety of your quail.
James

RESULTS OF INCUBATION OF HYBRID QUAIL EGGS AS COMPARED WITH PARENTAL SPECIES
Total Early Late
eggs embryonic embryonic
inc'd infertile death death hatched reared

Parental Species
Bobwhite (B) 28 14 3 0 11 7
Gambel's (G) 62 4 10 20 28 6
California (C) 76 35 39 2 0 0
Douglas (D) 35 1 2 28 4 0
Scaled (S) 83 16 16 26 1 6
Total Parentals 290 70(24.1%) 70(24.1%) 76(26.2%) 74(25.5%) 19

Hybrid Pairings (male x female)
BXS 110 43 16 11 40 12
SXB 86 52 34 0 0 0
CXS 47 21 4 3 19 14
BXG 17 0 0 4 13 2
SXG 16 5 0 4 7 1
GXC 13 11 2 0 0 0
GXS 9 6 2 0 1 0
SXD 5 3 0 1 1 0
Mountain X C 34 27 0 4 3 1
Total F1 Hybrids 337 168(49.8%) 58(17.2%) 27(8.0%) 84(24.9%) 30

edited to try to line those columns up

 

[TwoCrows]

I am no expert in this area, however from all my experiences with keeping two types of adult quail together, I have never had it happen and general, I don't believe they will cross breed. It is not natural for them to do so and chances are slim that the male would continuously mate with a hen of a different breed long enough to fertilize her eggs. You would have to artificially inseminate the hen most likely. Just my humble experience and opinion.

 

[WaterfowlWierdo]

James, Thankyou, that was very helpful! I have no desire to try and hatch in small batches with such a low fertility rate, I will just stick to pure breeds! And TwoCrows, Its always nice to hear your imput aswell! I enjoy your teachings I guess you could say

 

[ylly]

Would a better project not be improve each specie ? Not a big fan of cross breeds at all!

 

[James the Bald]

Would a better project not be improve each specie ? Not a big fan of cross breeds at all!

I agree 100%. Every once in a while, somebody asks what they would get if they crossed a Tuxedo with a Manchurian? My guess is a quail of various colors as the first generation would not breed true. Dr. Cartwright didn't just cross 2 quail to get the Texas A&M. Using selective breeding, he crossed the large jumbo quail that Dr Thornberry produced with the English White to get the Texas A&M that we know today. And Dr. Thornberry didn't get there over night; 6 generations of selective breeding to get the Jumbo.
I just hope that this put an end to the "can I cross this species with that species" question. Ahhhh, who am I trying to kid!
James

 

[Ntsees]

If you are familiar with both bobwhites and scaled quail, what do you think of the pics in the following link?

http://www.texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4126944/1

 

[WaterfowlWierdo]

If you are familiar with both bobwhites and scaled quail, what do you think of the pics in the following link?

http://www.texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4126944/1

I agree with the comment, blue bob cross