Button quail sexing, all males have rusty vents?

[Bettacreek]

Is it really true that ALL male button quail varieties have either pink or rusty vents if they're not white/pied/splash? I really need to thin my flock out, but I'm only sure of the genders on about half of them. If I can figure out genders, I can figure out for sure who is staying and who is going and reduce my feed bill.

I have one that I think is a grey form blueface or something, plus several grey/slates/smokeys/whatevers.

 

[Friend2Fowl]

I've heard that some silvers don't have them, but other than white (and a few oddball silvers) they all should have them.

 

[Plain_View_Farm]

Whites do not. My Silver Males do. I'm not positive that all Silvers do though...
Whites are tough to sex. I have 9 and I only know that 1 is definitely a Male.
~whisper He's been the one on top~

David

 

[quailbrain]

Unless they have a white vent they should be able to be sexed with the red vent feather method. I do have a silver lacking the pink vent but he does have a pronounced white bib and I think with 99.9% of silvers you will find the males have a beautiful white bib to help ID them. The bluefaced , slate, etc all should have red vents in the males.

 

[Friend2Fowl]

Quote:
Bibs are not indicative of sex. I had a female silver last year that had a very nice bib.

 

[Bettacreek]

Quote:
Bibs are not indicative of sex. I had a female silver last year that had a very nice bib.

I think the females' bibs are supposed to be creamy instead of white. My ivory had a creamy bib to her.

 

[quailbrain]

Females have a diffrent style of bib. Red breasted hens have a light colored throat as well. It is not the same as a well defined white line of a male bib though. Blue faced hens can have white markings that are more like blotches than defined bibs. A males bib is defined and very easily determined like a beard. There are two styles of bibs. On with a thin line across the top a dark color inbetween and a thick white line accross the bottom as well as red breasted bibs which is a fine white pencil line down low on the throat.

Although from the side this silver has the full bib

This male has the thin line

this female has a light colored throat but is not defined