Hatching celadon and jumbo Cortunix

[HeritageFan]

I am hatching a mixed batch of eggs for a friend-
Celadon and jumbo Cortunix.

I’m not new to incubation, and am fairly new to Cortunix. My last few batches of Cortunix have been “standard”.

I will likely be raising the babies until they are ready to be out of the brooder, and will be holding a few back in exchange for the effort to hatch and raise them.

I’m really only interested in the jumbo, as we raise the quail for meat, eggs, and training our baby bird dog. My friend is more interested in the celadon, as she primarily sells eggs... although she is also interested in the jumbo for the larger eggs.

My question is-
Given the fact that they are all Cortunix, how difficult will it be to tell them apart?

Should I be banding the babies as they hatch, or will the size difference be apparent at 3-5 weeks ish?

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

I am hatching a mixed batch of eggs for a friend-
Celadon and jumbo Cortunix.

I’m not new to incubation, and am fairly new to Cortunix. My last few batches of Cortunix have been “standard”.

I will likely be raising the babies until they are ready to be out of the brooder, and will be holding a few back in exchange for the effort to hatch and raise them.

I’m really only interested in the jumbo, as we raise the quail for meat, eggs, and training our baby bird dog. My friend is more interested in the celadon, as she primarily sells eggs... although she is also interested in the jumbo for the larger eggs.

My question is-
Given the fact that they are all Cortunix, how difficult will it be to tell them apart?

Should I be banding the babies as they hatch, or will the size difference be apparent at 3-5 weeks ish?

it should be obvious

 

[Nabiki]

They are all coturnix (not cortunix). Since jumbo is a size standard, you should be able to tell the ones that qualify as jumbos by their size by 4-6 weeks. To be considered jumbo, they need to be at least 10 oz and 10 weeks, and usually end up closer to the 14-16 oz range.

Unfortunately, just because they come from jumbo stock, that does not automatically mean that they will be jumbos. How big they get is partially genetics, partially environment, and partially nutrition.

Celadons can come in any colour or size, so you will probably want to mark them in some way.

 

[Susan Skylark]

No way to tell celadons from other birds until they lay eggs or breed offspring that then lay eggs. If you can keep track of them as they hatch (who is out of what egg) great, but it can be difficult as they can all hatch at once or overnight. My celadon eggs are smaller than my regular eggs but I don’t notice a size difference in the chicks. Is there a color difference in the source flock? If all the jumbos a pharoah or wild type and all the celadon are from Rosetta tuxedo birds, the colors of your chicks will correlate with the source flock but if you don’t know or have mixed color flock of origin it won’t work. I’ve got a male that throws celadon but I only know that because he has a daughter that lays blue eggs, all my birds came from normal eggs and a mixed flock but they do carry celadon. Also remember that celadon is recessive, the male birds need to carry it if the resulting chicks are going to be blue layers. Jumbo is easy, just big birds!

 

[HeritageFan]

They are all coturnix (not cortunix). Since jumbo is a size standard, you should be able to tell the ones that qualify as jumbos by their size by 4-6 weeks. To be considered jumbo, they need to be at least 10 oz and 10 weeks, and usually end up closer to the 14-16 oz range.

Unfortunately, just because they come from jumbo stock, that does not automatically mean that they will be jumbos. How big they get is partially genetics, partially environment, and partially nutrition.

Celadons can come in any colour or size, so you will probably want to mark them in some way.

Thank you, and please forgive me for missing that my auto correct ....”fixed” the spelling

 

[HeritageFan]

No way to tell celadons from other birds until they lay eggs or breed offspring that then lay eggs. If you can keep track of them as they hatch (who is out of what egg) great, but it can be difficult as they can all hatch at once or overnight. My celadon eggs are smaller than my regular eggs but I don’t notice a size difference in the chicks. Is there a color difference in the source flock? If all the jumbos a pharoah or wild type and all the celadon are from Rosetta tuxedo birds, the colors of your chicks will correlate with the source flock but if you don’t know or have mixed color flock of origin it won’t work. I’ve got a male that throws celadon but I only know that because he has a daughter that lays blue eggs, all my birds came from normal eggs and a mixed flock but they do carry celadon. Also remember that celadon is recessive, the male birds need to carry it if the resulting chicks are going to be blue layers. Jumbo is easy, just big birds!

There are only celadon and jumbo eggs in this batch.... so the idea of marking the babies early, and weighing around 6 weeks makes sense to me.

I don’t have bands, but I marked the right foot of the jumbo chicks w blue food color for now.

Do you think that bands (what size?) or small zip ties is better?

They are so small, and I know how quickly they will grow, and also know that their legs stay pretty small (speaking from the perspective of someone who typically hatches ducklings and turkeys)