Can you breed SSC Coturnix quail to other SSCs?

[mintandmyrtlefarms]

Hi there! We just hatched out some beautiful SSC quail babies and in a few weeks, it will be time to vent sex and think about breeding groups. My question is, can I breed SSC males to females if im just hatching and raising my own chicks for our family through the year, or should I make a point to only breed SSC females with GM or Wild males for example, for the purpose of having a broader gene pool?

I would love to keep our SSCs as true as they are currently (about 60% hatch true
), and would love to keep Silver males, but I don’t want to cause any issues with the chicks genetically, since the SSCs come with a more narrow gene pool...

If you have any tips or experience with this, I would be grateful for your take on it!

Many thanks!

~Aly

 

[muddy75]

Coturnix Corner just completed a q&a with perry schofield on wednesday and myshire just released a video yesterday all about ssc! I would recommend watching both of those first and then determine if there’s still unanswered questions!

 

[Fenrisulfr]

I am not 100% sure, but I think Silver has a lethal factor, making homozygotious Silver weak and some will not thrive (before hatch and while growing).

The lethal factors (in mutations like Gold/Fawn, Yellow, Albinism and as I think Silver) have been reduced while breeding over the last decades, but they are still occuring.

But again, I am not 100% sure, especially as the SSC are a special breeding line of Silvers by Schofield. The Q&A is probably a good advice.

 

[mintandmyrtlefarms]

Coturnix Corner just completed a q&a with perry schofield on wednesday and myshire just released a video yesterday all about ssc! I would recommend watching both of those first and then determine if there’s still unanswered questions!

Oh wonderful! Running to check those out!

 

[mintandmyrtlefarms]

I am not 100% sure, but I think Silver has a lethal factor, making homozygotious Silver weak and some will not thrive (before hatch and while growing).

The lethal factors (in mutations like Gold/Fawn, Yellow, Albinism and as I think Silver) have been reduced while breeding over the last decades, but they are still occuring.

But again, I am not 100% sure, especially as the SSC are a special breeding line of Silvers by Schofield. The Q&A is probably a good advice.

SO interesting, and that’s exactly what I want to avoid. I’m going to dive into that Q&A stat!

 

[mintandmyrtlefarms]

The Q+A with Perry Schofield DID answer this question! What a great interview! Basically, and from my understanding, you CAN breed the lethal gene back into the hatches by breeding the Silvers to Silvers for too many consecutive generations. He suggests breeding silvers to a Pharoah or a color like the Tibetan over couple or few generations to introduce new blood and to keep the silver variations going. Then, you can select out the silvers and breed those together from what hatched out for another couple or few generations, before alternating with an outside color again. If you don’t have other colors in your flock to breed with the silvers when you need to introduce more genetic diversity, you can buy new Silver hatching eggs from someone who has been diversifying their silver flock through their larger breeding program (like Myshire Farm does so beautifully)! Since I will have a smaller flock, that sounds like the best plan for us. All of this is SO fascinating! The responsibility that people take on in order to keep these birds so healthy and beautiful is truly inspiring! It’s so great of them to share their knowledge so freely as they do, so small hobby homesteads like mine can do what we can to best preserve the hard work and years of research that has gone into these lines. They are truly a gift! Thanks for your thoughts and for pointing me to the above resources, Everyone! Great info!

 

[Fenrisulfr]

Yes, as I said, the lethal factor is reduced over generation and even when it was more effecting, when these mutations were found, some survivors occured. These were used to reduce the factor.

As far as I read, Yellow still has the most effecting lethal factor.
A pitty, very beautiful birds: