Dandichook
Songster
I decided to start this thread since it's of interest to me and I thought my obsessive data-tracking might be useful to someone else in the future. This is mostly a sort of diary recording chick growth rates and dress out data.
Background first, then data in post 2:
We got our first batch of Coturnix Quail eggs ever from Godfather Farm in early April this year. We bought 50 Jumbo Wilds and 24 Celadon eggs. Egg weights ranged between 9g-18g (neither the smallest nor largest hatched) with an average of around 13g. They hatched on Easter week, and we call April 15 their official hatch date for simplicity. Total hatch was 48, 5 of which were assisted. 4 of the assists died within the first 72 hours or so. We have had no mortalities other than culls since then.
Initially we marked all Celadon babies with intent of keeping them visually separated from the Wilds, but that failed really fast. A dab of nontoxic paint on the head worked for a while, but we didn't reapply often enough and lost track of several of them within the first week. Oops. It's a learning process!
At about 3 weeks we began attempting to band chicks for identification, with mixed success. By about week 5 we had it more or less functional. I have weight data beginning at age 3 weeks (weighing happens on the first day of the new week--day 7, 14, 21...) which is mostly accurate. A few chicks dropped bands and we had to extrapolate and reassign legbands, so at the individual bird level it isn't perfect, but at a broad level the data is useful.
Regarding colors: We were expecting the Celadon batch to be a mix of colors and were fine with that, but around a third of all our birds (Jumbo Wilds included) hatched out red or red tux, and two white. We initially liked that, but after realizing how bad we are at vent sexing, we've decided it's feather-sexable or bust for us. This unfortunately narrowed our pool for potential keepers (our hopes was to narrow down to the best 2 males and 6-10 females). That may flex over the next 3 weeks, though.
Our intention has always been to keep quail for meat and eggs. We have culled several birds already--one much earlier than we hoped, because he was violently attacking other birds and bloodying them. We then separated our males when they began crowing, and had to harvest a lot of them at only 6 weeks due to fighting and crowing--we are in a tight suburban lot and can't risk the neighbors getting upset.This was absolutely necessary, as one morning my SO counted over 40 crows between 4am and 5am, well before sunrise. Yikes!
This left us with 6 males in the running for potential breeder, and is apparently also when the testosterone kicked in, because despite the fact that only 6 males were kept in 12 square feet with a bucket for a hiding spot/visual barrier without any girls in sight, it turned into Quail Fight Club. We also discovered that our hen grow-out cage contained two sneaky red males. So after some evaluations this weekend at 7 weeks we culled the most aggressive 3 males, the two red males, and two female reds for a variety of reasons.
For the record, all our culls are being used for meat. Turns out we like quail meat a lot! We will also include dress out weights as well.
This leaves us with around 16 hens and 3 males. We will continue evaluating our males for breeders and spend the next 3 weeks evaluating hens until a final harvest at 10 weeks old.
Data to follow in my next post showing weights from 3 weeks to 7 weeks.
Background first, then data in post 2:
We got our first batch of Coturnix Quail eggs ever from Godfather Farm in early April this year. We bought 50 Jumbo Wilds and 24 Celadon eggs. Egg weights ranged between 9g-18g (neither the smallest nor largest hatched) with an average of around 13g. They hatched on Easter week, and we call April 15 their official hatch date for simplicity. Total hatch was 48, 5 of which were assisted. 4 of the assists died within the first 72 hours or so. We have had no mortalities other than culls since then.
Initially we marked all Celadon babies with intent of keeping them visually separated from the Wilds, but that failed really fast. A dab of nontoxic paint on the head worked for a while, but we didn't reapply often enough and lost track of several of them within the first week. Oops. It's a learning process!
At about 3 weeks we began attempting to band chicks for identification, with mixed success. By about week 5 we had it more or less functional. I have weight data beginning at age 3 weeks (weighing happens on the first day of the new week--day 7, 14, 21...) which is mostly accurate. A few chicks dropped bands and we had to extrapolate and reassign legbands, so at the individual bird level it isn't perfect, but at a broad level the data is useful.
Regarding colors: We were expecting the Celadon batch to be a mix of colors and were fine with that, but around a third of all our birds (Jumbo Wilds included) hatched out red or red tux, and two white. We initially liked that, but after realizing how bad we are at vent sexing, we've decided it's feather-sexable or bust for us. This unfortunately narrowed our pool for potential keepers (our hopes was to narrow down to the best 2 males and 6-10 females). That may flex over the next 3 weeks, though.
Our intention has always been to keep quail for meat and eggs. We have culled several birds already--one much earlier than we hoped, because he was violently attacking other birds and bloodying them. We then separated our males when they began crowing, and had to harvest a lot of them at only 6 weeks due to fighting and crowing--we are in a tight suburban lot and can't risk the neighbors getting upset.This was absolutely necessary, as one morning my SO counted over 40 crows between 4am and 5am, well before sunrise. Yikes!
This left us with 6 males in the running for potential breeder, and is apparently also when the testosterone kicked in, because despite the fact that only 6 males were kept in 12 square feet with a bucket for a hiding spot/visual barrier without any girls in sight, it turned into Quail Fight Club. We also discovered that our hen grow-out cage contained two sneaky red males. So after some evaluations this weekend at 7 weeks we culled the most aggressive 3 males, the two red males, and two female reds for a variety of reasons.
For the record, all our culls are being used for meat. Turns out we like quail meat a lot! We will also include dress out weights as well.
This leaves us with around 16 hens and 3 males. We will continue evaluating our males for breeders and spend the next 3 weeks evaluating hens until a final harvest at 10 weeks old.
Data to follow in my next post showing weights from 3 weeks to 7 weeks.
