How old are my quail?

[Jedwards]

Hi all, I got 16 quail about a week ago and I've only ever had a few white ones before but they were hatched with pharaoh colored ones so I could easily tell how old they were (plus I also hatched them so I knew how old they were anyway haha). But I'm unsure of the age of these guys since I just got them and they're all white ones. I haven't gotten any eggs yet or heard any crowing. Also I cannot seem to vent sex them.

About half have a bit of yellow chick feathering left on their head but the other half don't and they seem to be a tad bigger, a good size for grown quail. Unless maybe they're big A&Ms? I'm not really sure the difference between A&Ms and regular English whites other than the A&M size anyway. If anyone could help out I'd appreciate it! Thanks y'all!

 

[eHuman]

I'd put them at or under 4-5 weeks.I want to say my a&m were full white by 5 weeks if i remember correctly.

 

[Jedwards]

What age were you able to sex them at?

 

[Jedwards]

I'd put them at or under 4-5 weeks.I want to say my a&m were full white by 5 weeks if i remember correctly.

What age were you able to sex them at?

 

[eHuman]

I had all of my males identified by 5 weeks but i used the "watch them crow" method. I had mixed results vent sexing them that young.

 

[Jedwards]

That's a tell tale sign I've been watching for too but I haven't even heard any of them make a noise yet. My old flock of pharaohs and Italians were so much more vocal, even at a young age.

 

[dc3085]

Different colors of coturnix don't act differently. Your previous birds were more vocal because something was bothering them or they wanted something. It's the only thing coturnix make noise for.

Any bird with yellow feathering is going be in the neighborhood of 4-5 weeks but after those yellow feathers are gone there is no way to tell.

A&Ms are just jumbo white coturnix. The original A&M line doesn't exist anymore no matter what people will tell you, and english whites are rare as hens teeth these days (They are a weak line of genetics to begin with). Robby at JMF recreated the line people now know as A&M by selecting for large bodied jumbos with the recessive white gene. They're exactly the same as pharaohs and are capable of the same range of sizes and since most people don't cull for any specific characteristic (or at all) unless you get them from a reliable source don't assume they're going to be jumbos until they prove it to you. Most of the white birds I see for sale locally at any given time are junk because of the flock management they get.

 

[eHuman]

What are good flock management techniques?

 

[dc3085]

What are good flock management techniques?

Proper feeding, and husbandry as well as genetic selection for the specific traits that make a domestically created bird what it was intended to be in the beginning or what you want to become for a specific project. In this case (A&Ms) a healthy, large bird that will achieve its maximum size in as little time as possible, while being easily identifiable as a market bird. Don't just hatch a group of birds and put them all in pens and raise them. Select only the very best. Then select the best of their offspring and continue doing so until you consistently produce the birds you set out to. Frequently people who are selling birds on CL or at farmers markets sell every available living bird except of course their selected holdbacks. This leads to a genetic decline because now someone will take those birds many of which should have been culls and breed them, further polluting the genetics of the line and so on.