How to choose which males to keep for breeding

[CrazyQuailLady]

My quails are now 5 weeks 5 days old and I'm trying to decide which ones to breed and which to eventually process. I have 8 males to choose from and I want to keep 3, but I don't know how to choose. I have decided on 2 simply based on them being the only silver and golden males that I have, so I just need 1 more. All the rest are brown.

The silver male loves dust bathing and it crows occasionally but I've never seen it chase the females around. It seems pretty laid back and is really calm when I hold him. Eats from my hand.

The golden is quite persistent and has already started mounting. It was too persistent for the first lot of females I had him in with, chasing them around and pulling their feathers, but I thought maybe this was just because the females just weren't ready yet? It gets along fine in his new house with a different female (a pecker that I probably shouldn't breed and removed from her first cage too but strangely gets along with my golden male). The golden has a pretty crow and has stopped crowing as often as he used to.

I have a brown quail that is slightly bigger than the rest and I put it in with some females but I've never heard it crow and never seen it show any interest in the females. Is it just not mature yet? Should I replace it with a male that seems more interested?

The rest of the males I've separated because they've begun fighting each other. One male was even mounting the other males. Some were super aggressive and others were just terrified. Some crow more than others. I don't know how to choose from amongst them, which I'll do if I need to replace the biggest brown one (the one that hasn't ever crowed or shown interest in the girls).

I give them at least 14 hours of light a day. The females haven't started laying yet.

Any advice?

 

[Sill]

You never stated what your goals for breeding your quail are. That will determine which males to use. You might want to wait a few more weeks for them to mature, some are late bloomers, before you make a final decision. Do you want pretty colors? Big meat birds? Lots of eggs? Big eggs?

I breed jumbos so I go for size, then temperament. For me color is irrelevant. For hatching eggs to make the next generation of jumbos I take my biggest males by weight, put them with my biggest females and observe, maybe for a short while maybe for a few days. Males that bully, roll or bloody the hens are out, I replace them with an equally large male if I have one or a less large male but he must be nicer to the girls. I recently had to replace a male that terrorized his hens so much they were in constant hiding. His replacement was calling and feeding the girls and they were out and happy being quail instead of hiding by the end of the day. Its been a couple of weeks and they are still getting along. The bully male is in my freezer and his replacement gets the girls. I'm pleased with the males I have now, no one is bullied or bloody.

 

[CrazyQuailLady]

Good point. What am I breeding them for? I don't know.

I suppose I'd better figure that one out.

These quails were an experiment just to see what it's like keeping quails. Primarily I want their eggs, the bigger the better. I want the extra males for meat also, so bigger the better. But I also found the silver one so very pretty so I want colours. I sound like a nub.

Fairly soon I'm getting some white, colossal sized adult quail so those will be my primary meat and egg birds I guess.

So... Does that mean I just answered my own question? Yes, for these birds I would like to focus on 1) colour and 2) temperament so they can live peacefully.

So, I guess I need a male that is not overly aggressive but will also do its job and make some fertile eggs.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

I think ya did answer your own question i am hatchin out my first bunch and wondering what i will get and if i get hens if i want to breed back to their dad.
I am along with you i like the colors. Wish i could find a nice big silver or italian. They are pretty.
Good luck

 

[dc3085]

I think ya did answer your own question i am hatchin out my first bunch and wondering what i will get and if i get hens if i want to breed back to their dad.
I am along with you i like the colors. Wish i could find a nice big silver or italian. They are pretty.
Good luck

Silvers can be had...But we'll have to smuggle them out of Canada...A few have made it across the border into Michigan but the people who have them aren't selling. They actually don't even seem to realize what they have.

Interesting trivia, from what I've read, all the silver coturnix originated from one mutated bird in Belgium in the 1970s.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Ya th sucks /: i was wondering if there was a way to do AI with them.. like with other livestock you cant/wont be able to get stock from people or other countries but you can buy semen straws for such a price and do AI.
I know they do AI in large scale turkeys mostly and lots of chicken people seem to like it for getting high quaility genetics from show chickens etc while keeping both for sure in show quaility etc. No chance of fighting etc.

But i dont know if bird could be able to do the semen straw type deal....

 

[dc3085]

The biggest problem is getting any genetic material through customs legally. Which is why one of these days I'll be taking a Canadian fishing trip so that I can go a smugglin why I'm there.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Huh.. i thought it was the live animal thing is why they wont allow birds or hatching eggs?

 

[Sill]

Silvers can be had...But we'll have to smuggle them out of Canada...A few have made it across the border into Michigan but the people who have them aren't selling. They actually don't even seem to realize what they have.

Interesting trivia, from what I've read, all the silver coturnix originated from one mutated bird in Belgium in the 1970s.

Not familiar with silvers, new mutation? Or a jumbo "pretty color" bird?

 

[dc3085]

Nope not new. They've had them across the pond for about 40 years. There are several very spectacular colors available in the UK that aren't available here. If you check out google images you'll find some but the UK quail forums will show you even more. I don't have any specific links but you can google, silver, platinum, and cinnamon to see some colors that we'll likely never get.

ETA: the Aussies have some interesting color mutations down there too, I'll have to compile some links to some of the prettier ones.