Chicken/quail hybrid???

[Angela66]

How long have the roosters been gone?

The roosters left 91 days ago, chicks hatch around 20-21.

 

[le_bwah]

My hen just showed up with a chick 14 weeks after our roosters were gone. Our options of father are turkey tom, quail cock, or a pheasant rooster... by the looks of the chick this far (and the fact that the tom is entirely unlikely) i'm thinking quail? It would be a wild quail or pheasant, either way, and entirely not on purpose. Sometimes nature does what it wants.

Nature doesn't just "do what it wants." Hybrids exist, but the animals have to be sufficiently related. Do you have picture of the young bird?

 

[Angela66]

How long have the roosters been gone?

Also, her proportions just seem a bit off to me. Like her body is a bit too small, head too big, and chest shape... just different. She seems perfectly healthy, just different from what our chicks usually look. It's subtle, but even before I decided it couldn't possibly be from a rooster, I thought something looked a little off. 100% adorable, but something feels different.

 

[Angela66]

Nature doesn't just "do what it wants." Hybrids exist, but the animals have to be sufficiently related. Do you have picture of the young bird?

I was just being pithy with that particular comment. The reality is, it's a mystery until it's older to show more traits, but it's pretty much positive that it couldn't be a rooster.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

The roosters left 91 days ago, chicks hatch around 20-21.

Oops, didn’t realize you already said it in the first post. Hens can retain sperm for a very long period of time, so the chick is probably a full chicken.

Also, her proportions just seem a bit off to me. Like her body is a bit too small, head too big, and chest shape... just different. She seems perfectly healthy, just different from what our chicks usually look. It's subtle, but even before I decided it couldn't possibly be from a rooster, I thought something looked a little off. 100% adorable, but something feels different.

She looks like a normal chicken chick to me

 

[le_bwah]

I was just being pithy with that particular comment. The reality is, it's a mystery until it's older to show more traits, but it's pretty much positive that it couldn't be a rooster.

What I'm saying is it had to be a rooster. Maybe it's not even from this hen's egg, if you're sure she couldn't have encountered someone else's male. But it's certainly a chicken chick.

 

[Angela66]

Oops, didn’t realize you already said it in the first post. Hens can retain sperm for a very long period of time, so the chick is probably a full chicken.

She looks like a normal chicken chick to me

I'd prefer her to be just a chicken.

 

[Angela66]

What I'm saying is it had to be a rooster. Maybe it's not even from this hen's egg, if you're sure she couldn't have encountered someone else's male. But it's certainly a chicken chick.

I believe quail and pheasants can both mix with chickens. There are several fowl that can physically and successfully cross.

Phasianidae, a bird family (order Galliformes), includes among its members the jungle fowl (from which the domestic chicken is descended), partridge, peacock, pheasant, and quail.

 

[nuthatched]

Quail and pheasants can both mix with chickens. There are several fowl that can physically and successfully cross. Just saying.

Successful meaning that the embryos die before hatch or have a mess of health issues if they make it?
Sources?

 

[Angela66]

Successful meaning that the embryos die before hatch or have a mess of health issues if they make it?
Sources?

Here is a source:

https://www.audubon.org/news/the-am...f pheasants have,the same family, Phasianidae).