Button Quail Color Genetic Question

[k0r1nag]

So, I have two pair of quail who may or may not be related (the person I got them from was not sure as she had purchased a large quantity of hatching eggs). One pair has a normal wild colored male and a silver pearl hen. The other has a white male and a cinnamon hen. Each pair hatched 6 chicks who made it to adulthood. All have been red breasted and half have been black headed. What does this mean from a color gene standpoint. If I move the males around (white & silver pearl together and cinnamon & wild male together). Will I end up with the same colors? Mostly red-breasted? If I let them hatch out more eggs in the current configuration can I hope to get any other colors than red-breasted?

Thanks so much for all the expertise here on BYC. I look forward to your help.

Korina

 

[FeatheredObsessions]

Chinese Blue Breasted quail have not been bred well for color. There are very , very few breeders who breed specifically for color. The vast majority of quail have such a genetic jumble of colors it would take much breeding, time, and determination to breed for color specifically. Golden Pearl does seem to be very dominant over other colors but with just about any of the quail out there you can get many different color surprises in ever hatch.

 

[k0r1nag]

Quote:
Thanks! Just to clarify, if I let my current pairs continue to hatch eggs, there is a possibility I might end up with other colors, right? Might be worth letting them hatch one more batch, each as I have read that it is important to let them sit and rest a few times a year. I was just going to keep the girls separate from the boys for awhile and build up a clutch of infertile eggs to sit on.

Any suggestions for breeders who do breed for color and sell hatching eggs?

Korina

 

[Chinchilla2]

Korina,

I would trade out the males and see what happens. When it comes to this breed of quail, the genetic material that produces the different colors are found in just about every one of them. Knowing exactly what color you will get from any given combination is almost impossible. If you are looking for a particular color or pattern, your best bet would be to find a pair or three that started off the desired color and never switch out the combination. Every chick may not look like the parents but that color pattern will be the dominate in the mix.

Of course that is one of the things I liked best about the little buttons, ya never knew what you were going to get.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Thanks! Just to clarify, if I let my current pairs continue to hatch eggs, there is a possibility I might end up with other colors, right? Might be worth letting them hatch one more batch, each as I have read that it is important to let them sit and rest a few times a year. I was just going to keep the girls separate from the boys for awhile and build up a clutch of infertile eggs to sit on.

Any suggestions for breeders who do breed for color and sell hatching eggs?

Korina

Actually, there are several breeders who do have buttons breed true. quailladyoffortmyers has several (50+) pairs that breed true.

 

[FeatheredObsessions]

Quote:
Thanks! Just to clarify, if I let my current pairs continue to hatch eggs, there is a possibility I might end up with other colors, right? Might be worth letting them hatch one more batch, each as I have read that it is important to let them sit and rest a few times a year. I was just going to keep the girls separate from the boys for awhile and build up a clutch of infertile eggs to sit on.

Any suggestions for breeders who do breed for color and sell hatching eggs?

Korina

Actually, there are several breeders who do have buttons breed true. quailladyoffortmyers has several (50+) pairs that breed true.

I'm not saying it can't be done and isn't happening out there. Just that where ever she got the quail from probably wont be as strictly bred. I have bred them and had them breed true after much documented breeding too. The number of breeders out there who do that however is so few it is very hard to get outside stock aside from your own documented birds that would breed true is all I mean. If someone has quail from quailladyoffortmyers and only used her eggs or breeders who do have said pairs. The problem is that is sooooo very few people who have a strictly disiplined line.

 

[FeatheredObsessions]

Quote:
Thanks! Just to clarify, if I let my current pairs continue to hatch eggs, there is a possibility I might end up with other colors, right? Might be worth letting them hatch one more batch, each as I have read that it is important to let them sit and rest a few times a year. I was just going to keep the girls separate from the boys for awhile and build up a clutch of infertile eggs to sit on.

Any suggestions for breeders who do breed for color and sell hatching eggs?

Korina

Yea, I would bet you will get other colors. I am assuming you have not gotten these from some who bred for color generation after generation so their colored genetic past will bleed through. If you would like specific colors. Document pairs and only cage the male and female of same colors.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Actually, there are several breeders who do have buttons breed true. quailladyoffortmyers has several (50+) pairs that breed true.

I'm not saying it can't be done and isn't happening out there. Just that where ever she got the quail from probably wont be as strictly bred. I have bred them and had them breed true after much documented breeding too. The number of breeders out there who do that however is so few it is very hard to get outside stock aside from your own documented birds that would breed true is all I mean. If someone has quail from quailladyoffortmyers and only used her eggs or breeders who do have said pairs. The problem is that is sooooo very few people who have a strictly disiplined line.

It also depends on what colors you are breeding. Some of the colors are very dominant. For example, if you had a pair of golden pearls together, chances are you'd hatch most, if not all, golden pearl chicks. But I agree that there are few breeders who do pair them by color, I know I sure don't. Some of mine are paired with like or similar colors, but the rest are paired with birds they didn't try to kill

 

[k0r1nag]

Quote:
I agree that it is lots of fun to see what colors I get, I'm just surprised that my first two hatches were almost identical - and all were red breasted - even though they came from two completely differently colored pairs.

I appreciate the info that golden pearl is dominant. I wonder if the red breasted is as well. And what about the blue breasted (wild color) males? That seems like a pretty dominant trait as well.

shelleyd2008 - thanks for the referral to quaillady. I will definitely contact her if I decided to try to breed quail. She has been very helpful in identifying the colors of my chicks and I have found her threads to be very informative. Originally I got two hens and a male, but the cinnamon bird hated both the male and the other female and was plucking them bald, so I separated them and got another male which she seems to find acceptable as she hasn't pulled out all of his feathers

FeatheredObsessions - to my knowledge the hatching eggs my quail are from were not meant to breed true. Of the 50 or so quail hatched, she had an amazing array of colors to choose from. I picked the cinnamon and silver pearl as they were my favorite hen colors.

Thanks to you all for the helpful info and suggestions. I guess if I really want to understand the genetic material I have at hand, I have to raise lots of babies and keep track of the colors to see what the statistics are for the pairs I have and then possible for the line breeding of the babies back to the adults. If I thought I had a good market for finding the babies homes I would really consider it as I very much enjoy the quail, but I just don't have the room to house the number I currently have.

Korina