Easter Egger Sexing "tips and tricks" *Pictures Included*

[JesNflock]

I know what you mean by the impatient bit. I am adding some James Marie quail in the spring because they start laying eggs at 8 weeks! The males are at butcher weight of near a pound at the same time.

Quail...are they much different to raise than chickens? Do they have tiny eggs?

 

[Penny Hen]

Only at night? dang if I could only be so lucky! lol I guess my rooster is a loud mouth! He crows ALL the time...He thinks he hot stuff or something.
Hahaha (I thought of this when you said he was crowing at the wall

)

Well that isn't the only time they crow just the scheduled performance. Read a couple of weeks ago a post in the Articles section of how this lady got into chickens. It is a funny article. I believe it is titled "Honey the chickens are turning blue!" She describes her rooster as strutting around crowing...."This IS my YARD!"

 

[JesNflock]

Well that isn't the only time they crow just the scheduled performance. Read a couple of weeks ago a post in the Articles section of how this lady got into chickens. It is a funny article. I believe it is titled "Honey the chickens are turning blue!" She describes her rooster as strutting around crowing...."This IS my YARD!"

Hahaha I'll have to check out the article. I never meant to have a rooster but it was given to me when I got my BSL and he has since grown on us, not to mention I like the idea of him as protector to the rest of my growing flock

 

[Penny Hen]

Quail...are they much different to raise than chickens? Do they have tiny eggs?

Most have tiny eggs. The James Marie quail lay eggs at bantam chicken size and I'm not talking about the tiny Seramas. Most people who I have been taking to who raise them say they shoot to get their average egg weights to go over 14 oz per dozen. The James Marie is the biggest commercial Cortunix quail (Japanese quail). Quail don't perch like chickens and they startle easily. You have to use low ceilings with them because otherwise they can gain enough momentum to break their own necks. A lot of people convert old sturdy bookshelves to hold their quail. They are practically hatched flying. Open an incubator to get them out and they will be popping like popcorn. In the wild they only live an average of 14 months before something eats them. They don't do courtship rites they just quietly get down to business so they can propagate before before they are eaten. Now the females can be fiercely competitive with other females. You can run them in bevies of about 4 girls to one male. But the girls need to be mature. If you mix a younger female who isn't grown up yet in with the others they will kill her. Sometimes the girls take a dislike to a particular male and beat the snot out of him too.

They usually don't incubate their own eggs unless you make a decent effort to naturalize their habitat. Plastic vines that they can hide behind make them feel safer and they will relax enough to sit on the nest of straw. Most people just hatch them in an incubator or under a bantam hen.

Their are also the Bobwhite quail who are larger but most of types are even more flighty than the Cortunix. The exception is Snowflake Bobs. They are very calm and are gorgeous too. There is a seller on Ebay currently if you would like to see what they look like. I am also thinking of getting some of them. I think I remember that it takes them just slightly longer (like a couple of weeks) to hit maturity. There are some really informed people on the Quail threads. That is the source of most of what I know about them so far.

 

[JesNflock]

Most have tiny eggs. The James Marie quail lay eggs at bantam chicken size and I'm not talking about the tiny Seramas. Most people who I have been taking to who raise them say they shoot to get their average egg weights to go over 14 oz per dozen. The James Marie is the biggest commercial Cortunix quail (Japanese quail). Quail don't perch like chickens and they startle easily. You have to use low ceilings with them because otherwise they can gain enough momentum to break their own necks. A lot of people convert old sturdy bookshelves to hold their quail. They are practically hatched flying. Open an incubator to get them out and they will be popping like popcorn. In the wild they only live an average of 14 months before something eats them. They don't do courtship rites they just quietly get down to business so they can propagate before before they are eaten. Now the females can be fiercely competitive with other females. You can run them in bevies of about 4 girls to one male. But the girls need to be mature. If you mix a younger female who isn't grown up yet in with the others they will kill her. Sometimes the girls take a dislike to a particular male and beat the snot out of him too.

Their are also the Bobwhite quail who are larger but most of types are even more flighty than the Cortunix. The exception is Snowflake Bobs. They are very calm and are gorgeous too. There is a seller on Ebay currently if you would like to see what they look like. I am also thinking of getting some of them. I think I remember that it takes them just slightly longer (like a couple of weeks) to hit maturity. There are some really informed people on the Quail threads. That is the source of most of what I know about them so far.

WoW sounds like you know a lot about them, and there seems to quite a few different types. Before I started having my own chickens, I never realized how many different breeds of chickens there were! (Now I'm starting to be able to recognize quite a few) Quail sounds like a whole different ballgame...I think for the moment I will stick with chickens, but leave the quail option open lol

 

[GrafixMuse]

Hi All! I was hoping to get some opinions on my light colored Easter Egger pictured here at 10 weeks. I have read through almost this entire thread hoping to be able to tell if this Easter Egger is a pullet or roo. I am still not sure. I would love to know what you think. It is the light colored one in the photos below:












Thanks!

Update: Here we are at week 26 and the lovely light colored EE, now named Pinot (short for Pinot Grigio), has laid her first egg. It is a beautiful cream egg. Thanks to this thread, I knew a single combed EE would probably lay a pink or cream colored egg.


Sitting in the nest box.


Perfect cream egg in DH's hand


I want to extend a HUGE Thank You to the folks on this thread. I have read the whole thread through in the last several months and have learned so much. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience.

 

[JesNflock]

Update: Here we are at week 26 and the lovely light colored EE, now named Pinot (short for Pinot Grigio), has laid her first egg. It is a beautiful cream egg. Thanks to this thread, I knew a single combed EE would probably lay a pink or cream colored egg.


Sitting in the nest box.


Perfect cream egg in DH's hand


I want to extend a HUGE Thank You to the folks on this thread. I have read the whole thread through in the last several months and have learned so much. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience.

YaY! Congrats!

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Update: Here we are at week 26 and the lovely light colored EE, now named Pinot (short for Pinot Grigio), has laid her first egg. It is a beautiful cream egg. Thanks to this thread, I knew a single combed EE would probably lay a pink or cream colored egg.


Sitting in the nest box.

I want to extend a HUGE Thank You to the folks on this thread. I have read the whole thread through in the last several months and have learned so much. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience.

Such a gorgeous girl!

 

[SunnysideupstateNY]

Update: Here we are at week 26 and the lovely light colored EE, now named Pinot (short for Pinot Grigio), has laid her first egg. It is a beautiful cream egg. Thanks to this thread, I knew a single combed EE would probably lay a pink or cream colored egg.


Sitting in the nest box.


Perfect cream egg in DH's hand


I want to extend a HUGE Thank You to the folks on this thread. I have read the whole thread through in the last several months and have learned so much. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience.

Congrats on the egg!
She is beautiful and she looks like one I had last year who also had a single comb but did give me a blue egg (of course a fox had to get her).

 

[RoostersCrow HensDeliver!]

What a very pretty girl.