Comparing quail sizes

[Reedgirl20]

I've decided to keep a bit of a log of my quail sizes to not only help choose my breeding stock but to also possibly help other decide where to purchase their next stock from. I originally got my first brown coturnix quail from a random person on eBay advertising jumbo quail. I have had this stock for over a year now but have become frustrated that even with choosing the biggest eggs and feeding Gamebird feed with 30% protein my birds are only 6.5- 7ounces at six to seven weeks old.

I now have hatched 40 chicks from JamesMarie farm, 45 chicks from another source in California claiming to have jumbos, and a dozen chicks from my own stock for direct comparison under the same conditions. I hope to make weekly weigh ins on the chicks and choose the best for my new breeders. The JMF chicks are now three weeks old and have had the first two weigh ins and the other two sets have just been born the last two days.

I was happy with the first results:

JMF 2wk hens range (69-110 grams) average: 84.55gram
JMF 2 wk Roos range (69-91 grams average: 83.11gram

JMF 3 wk hens range (116-172) average: 138.71gram
JMF 3 wk roo range (117-148) average: 137.82

This makes them on average close to 5 ounces at three weeks. Hopefully this comparison once complete will help me make some good choices in my breeders and maybe help some others out there too.

 

[chrishw]

Subscribed. Which JMF birds do you have? I'm guessing its one of their 3 XL meat lines. Oh, just a side note, I was talking to Robbie from JMF the other day and he mentioned getting bigger birds isn't a problem, its just that anything bigger than his current lines have too many legs/feet issues. I guess its time to start measuring leg size in our culling activity if we want anything bigger (while still staying healthy). Those guys at flock university forum (and they post here too) have done quite a bit of research and their forum is a great store of data for us big bird lovers!

 

[Momhunter]

Subscribing to this thread to follow along. You are doing exactly what I was thinking of doing. I willbe very interested in your results. I'm trying to decide for sure when to make the switch to the XL jumbos and how many birds I want to mess with over the winter. Or I might wait until next spring.

 

[Reedgirl20]

Yes, I have talked to Robbie a few times and he set me up with the James Marie jumbo brown 'C' line. I try to do the JMF weigh ins on Monday nights and will be doing the other jumbos on Sundays due to the day of the week they were born.

I'm afraid my weight gains may not be as good this week because some varmint came last night and terrorized them all and managed to get one of my last two old hens. None of the jumbos got eaten because they are in double layer wire cage (two layer of wire on the bottom) but the poor things were exhausted and out of water this a.m., They jumped around so much they spilt 2 1/2 gallons of water in one night. I spent all afternoon beefing up security under my cages and have five live traps set around the property tonight. Have new automatic nipple waterers set up in one set of breeder cages and will be working on the grow out cage tomorrow so they won't ever be able to spill all the water again.

 

[Momhunter]

Sorry about your predator problem. I used the low pressure watering cups and have had good luck with them. The only cages I have to hand fill water right now is my big 4x6 brooder. I'm going to use the nipples in there but just haven't gotten around to installing them yet.

 

[Reedgirl20]

So I've done the weekly weigh in this week and as I suspected their weight gains aren't what I had hoped for. They had the stress of moving from indoor brooder to outdoor grow out cage and the varmit attack. I have everyone split out into breeder groups now based on the most recent weights with now six sqaure foot floor space cage for every five birds and all the extra smaller males in the grow out cage. This should hopefully decrease stress and competion for space and hope for better results next week.


JMF 2wk hens range (69-110 grams) average: 84.55gram
JMF 2 wk Roos range (69-91 grams average: 83.11gram

JMF 3 wk hens range (116-172) average: 138.71gram
JMF 3 wk roo range (117-148) average: 137.82

JMF 4 wk hens range (155-216) average: 179 gram
JMF 4 wk roo range (157-190) average: 177.3 gram

This makes their current weight average at one month old 6.25 ounces.

I have culled a couple obviously poorer weight gainers and am currently tracking 21 hens and 16 roosters who are now split into 5 breeder cages and one grow out pen. This Sunday I will be banding and do the first weight check of the California bred cots and start making the first of my comparisons.

 

[Momhunter]

Sounds good, please keep up the good work. I've sent an email to JMF about getting eggs shipped last week in sept.

 

[Reedgirl20]

Sounds good, please keep up the good work. I've sent an email to JMF about getting eggs shipped last week in sept.

Thank you. Hope all goes well with your order. Robbie was ill when I was trying to get mine, took little over a month to get, two weeks later then was quoted. Then the post office was super rough on them and smashed my boxes along with a shipment of someone's live crickets. My boxes arrived smashed, wrapped up in plastic bags, covered in dead and live crickets and a I'm sorry note from the post office. It's a miracle I got a 40% hatch rate.

 

[chrishw]

Robbie is still ill so don't worry if it takes a bit for him to reply.

 

[Momhunter]

Thank you. Hope all goes well with your order. Robbie was ill when I was trying to get mine, took little over a month to get, two weeks later then was quoted. Then the post office was super rough on them and smashed my boxes along with a shipment of someone's live crickets. My boxes arrived smashed, wrapped up in plastic bags, covered in dead and live crickets and a I'm sorry note from the post office. It's a miracle I got a 40% hatch rate.

Wow! That's a great hatch rate for the situation. I'm glad I went ahead and started communication this early.
I am thinking of starting with the JMF eggs, breeding them for a year then adding in some from the guy in california to get genetic diversity and prevent to much line breeding. I would be the only one in my area with true jumbos so I think I could sell them well. And of course enjoy larger birds for the table.