Coturnix Quail Colors -- Quail discussion thread

[orloffer]

Yes. They will probably start as messy tuxes, with smaller pied areas, and if you continue crossing the tux hens to the tuxiest Fees, you will get more and more tuxy chicks.

Awesome! At what point would inbreeding become a potential problem?

 

[MadamContrary]

My male quail has been overbreeding his 3 hens. Funny thing is, one of them seems to be trying to get back at him by chasing him around and around, and trying to grab his neck feathers. Has anyone else seen this behavior?

I have a pair of 2 year old golden Italians and the female is definitely the boss! She will chase him around and peck at the back of his head if she doesn't want to be mated, and she always eats first. She even scalped him when I set up a pen with new birds coming into maturity next door to them. I don't know of I set off her territorial issues or if she just wanted a new, younger mate

I think quail just need a lot more time to get used to people, the older they are, the more of a relationship I've been able to build. When I bring this pair some greens they make cute little chittering noises and the female shakes her tail feathers while she eats, it's freaking adorable. Neither mind being held or petted, I managed to hatch out two chicks from them in this past couple months, fertility has declined rapidly, and I never thought I'd be retiring any quail to pet status, but I think we will. We started out mainly for meat and eggs, but I have focused on breeding for temperament for the past few years, mostly focusing on calm, quiet birds (all my boys have very quiet calls now). Just getting into colors and understanding genetics now too.

 

[orloffer]

I have a pair of 2 year old golden Italians and the female is definitely the boss! She will chase him around and peck at the back of his head if she doesn't want to be mated, and she always eats first. She even scalped him when I set up a pen with new birds coming into maturity next door to them. I don't know of I set off her territorial issues or if she just wanted a new, younger mate

Wow, that's interesting. I had separated my male from the rest of the flock a while back, and just reintroduced him today, as I just updated their living situation and finally have the correct male to female ratio (1:5). As soon as I put him in with the females he started mating with all of them, but after everyone had calmed down a bit the same female from before did chase him around a bit and peck at his head. Now they all seem to be getting along fairly well.

I think quail just need a lot more time to get used to people, the older they are, the more of a relationship I've been able to build. When I bring this pair some greens they make cute little chittering noises and the female shakes her tail feathers while she eats, it's freaking adorable. Neither mind being held or petted, I managed to hatch out two chicks from them in this past couple months, fertility has declined rapidly, and I never thought I'd be retiring any quail to pet status, but I think we will. We started out mainly for meat and eggs, but I have focused on breeding for temperament for the past few years, mostly focusing on calm, quiet birds (all my boys have very quiet calls now). Just getting into colors and understanding genetics now too.

That sounds so cute! Most of my birds are on the older side now, and I have noticed that they will eat treats and food out of my hand, something they did not used to do. They are definitely not good okay with petting or handling though. But overall, it seems that quail are easiest to tame as young chicks and/or older adults.

At what age does fertility typically decline to a noticeable degree? My male is 3 years old, and if I succeed in hatching out some hens in the nearer future, I hope to breed him with them.

That's so wonderful that your males have quiet calls! We recently rehomed one of our two males, but before that they would have loud "crowing battles" in the early hours of the morning, which was not at all pleasant to hear. I will be sure to take temperament into account when I start breeding quail.

 

[MadamContrary]

Wow, that's interesting. I had separated my male from the rest of the flock a while back, and just reintroduced him today, as I just updated their living situation and finally have the correct male to female ratio (1:5). As soon as I put him in with the females he started mating with all of them, but after everyone had calmed down a bit the same female from before did chase him around a bit and peck at his head. Now they all seem to be getting along fairly well.

That sounds so cute! Most of my birds are on the older side now, and I have noticed that they will eat treats and food out of my hand, something they did not used to do. They are definitely not good okay with petting or handling though. But overall, it seems that quail are easiest to tame as young chicks and/or older adults.

At what age does fertility typically decline to a noticeable degree? My male is 3 years old, and if I succeed in hatching out some hens in the nearer future, I hope to breed him with them.

That's so wonderful that your males have quiet calls! We recently rehomed one of our two males, but before that they would have loud "crowing battles" in the early hours of the morning, which was not at all pleasant to hear. I will be sure to take temperament into account when I start breeding quail.

The battle of the crowing was exactly why I selected calm, quiet birds! My first bachelor pen was absolutely obnoxious! I also noticed the louder males tended to be more aggressive, or at least postured the most (growling and jumping at me when I'd do anything around them but not attacking each other), they never had a chance to mate so I don't know if they'd have over-mated the hens. My pair have been happily housed in a separate on ground rabbit hutch since shortly coming into maturity.
Quail fertility is highest for females for the first 6-18 months males decline much faster, in large operations they bring in new males every 6-12 months. We know they have different standards for production though. Out of six eggs only two were fertile at 2 years, not a big study size lol All the early spring eggs did not develop at all either. I honestly don't know if the double fawn fatality thing is at play at all though, I have read conflicting information on breeding Italians and Manchurian having a 25% fatality rate in developing eggs.

 

[FloorCandy]

The battle of the crowing was exactly why I selected calm, quiet birds! My first bachelor pen was absolutely obnoxious! I also noticed the louder males tended to be more aggressive, or at least postured the most (growling and jumping at me when I'd do anything around them but not attacking each other), they never had a chance to mate so I don't know if they'd have over-mated the hens. My pair have been happily housed in a separate on ground rabbit hutch since shortly coming into maturity.
Quail fertility is highest for females for the first 6-18 months males decline much faster, in large operations they bring in new males every 6-12 months. We know they have different standards for production though. Out of six eggs only two were fertile at 2 years, not a big study size lol All the early spring eggs did not develop at all either. I honestly don't know if the double fawn fatality thing is at play at all though, I have read conflicting information on breeding Italians and Manchurian having a 25% fatality rate in developing eggs.

If your birds are 3 years old, I don’t know what the status of the golden lethal issue was back then, so even though it seems to have been sorted out by now, maybe back then it wasn’t. It could still be causing you issues.

I recently lost one of my 2 oldest males, he was just over a year old, and had 97-100% fertility with 8 hens of his own, so at a year he was going strong. My broody was with him and his brother, and she hatched one that looks just like him. I’m hoping it’s a male to take up his fathers mantle. I hatched about 50 of his eggs in the incubator, and I got lots of tuxes, lots of pharaohs, but no clean pharaoh tuxes like the dad, so that broody raised one is the only hope to continue his legacy. I only had 3 full celadon Roos and I lost 2 in one night. I have a new one from the grow out, so it’s less stressful, but I almost brought the last one inside to keep him safe. Ridiculous I’m worrying over males haha, normally it’s the opposite problem, what do I do with them?

 

[MadamContrary]

If your birds are 3 years old, I don’t know what the status of the golden lethal issue was back then, so even though it seems to have been sorted out by now, maybe back then it wasn’t. It could still be causing you issues.

I recently lost one of my 2 oldest males, he was just over a year old, and had 97-100% fertility with 8 hens of his own, so at a year he was going strong. My broody was with him and his brother, and she hatched one that looks just like him. I’m hoping it’s a male to take up his fathers mantle. I hatched about 50 of his eggs in the incubator, and I got lots of tuxes, lots of pharaohs, but no clean pharaoh tuxes like the dad, so that broody raised one is the only hope to continue his legacy. I only had 3 full celadon Roos and I lost 2 in one night. I have a new one from the grow out, so it’s less stressful, but I almost brought the last one inside to keep him safe. Ridiculous I’m worrying over males haha, normally it’s the opposite problem, what do I do with them?

It always seems anything you want to keep safe gets targeted by predators!

 

[kurby22]

I have a pair of 2 year old golden Italians and the female is definitely the boss! She will chase him around and peck at the back of his head if she doesn't want to be mated, and she always eats first. She even scalped him when I set up a pen with new birds coming into maturity next door to them. I don't know of I set off her territorial issues or if she just wanted a new, younger mate

I think quail just need a lot more time to get used to people, the older they are, the more of a relationship I've been able to build. When I bring this pair some greens they make cute little chittering noises and the female shakes her tail feathers while she eats, it's freaking adorable. Neither mind being held or petted, I managed to hatch out two chicks from them in this past couple months, fertility has declined rapidly, and I never thought I'd be retiring any quail to pet status, but I think we will. We started out mainly for meat and eggs, but I have focused on breeding for temperament for the past few years, mostly focusing on calm, quiet birds (all my boys have very quiet calls now). Just getting into colors and understanding genetics now too.

I also have a seriously bossy hen! My first eggs I hatched ended up being 7 males and 2 hens. One Falb Fee and one Grau Fee…they lay giant eggs. The Grau Fee got put in the male jail due to her acting so much like a male and picking on other hens…until the day I found an egg in the male jail. I tried putting her back in the hen den, but she just didn’t want to be nice and I didn’t have anywhere else to put her—so back in male jail she went! I have checked on her multiple times a day for 2 weeks now, and she has zero feathers missing and seems totally happy in her little pen with 3 male hatch mates as lays her egg every day. I think they’re a bit afraid of her haha…at the first signs she’s being over used I will consider moving her out again, but she seems quite content with her men! It’s been interesting to see their quail dynamics! One-eyed Willie (falb fee roo that got beat up by my bully Celadon who was culled, and had a swollen eye for a couple weeks) is really docile and gives her a lot of space. She’s always with her Grau fee boyfriend. I am sure she will get fertile eggs but I probably won’t be hatching any of hers…she’s a bit scary haha.