Inbreeding Questions?

[4sillychickens]

I'm very new to Quail...
Two weeks ago I hatched my first group of Coturnix Quail in my homemade incubator! Very fun and exciting!
I bought 40 eggs from an ebay seller. He sent me 4 different color variations claiming they were all breed in seperate cages. I was probably nieve(SP?) but I thought "great! I'll be able to breed the different colors together to increase my flock" .
So 25 of the eggs hatched, I cracked open the rest after 21 days in the incubator, and some were not fertile the rest had quit really early on.
Two of the 25 were "elephant chicks" I put them out of their misery.
Two more died yesterday, at 2 weeks old. The crazy thing was that they looked like they were 2 days old. They had no adult feathers at all and were tiny compaired to they rest of the chicks. I watched them eat and drink so I know they were getting nourishment, but it doesn't seem like they were absorbing that nourishment. That's just my guess. They weren't picked on at all by the other chicks.
So I'm just wondering if this could all be caused by inbreeding? Or am I just over thinking it because stuff like this just happens sometimes?
Thanks for any insight any of you wonderful Quail folk have!

 

[snyd08]

it's from the hatch more than likely. temps or hum. were off. or a power outtage, heavy temp fluctuations. when i have things similar happen i usually know what happend. and it was not from inbreeding. yes im sure with everything else inbreeding can be an issue. dont breed brother and sister too far down the line... switch things up. get an outside sources birds to have unrelated pairs... IMHO i think it wAS because of the incubation process that they were deformed or didnt live long.. just my opinion...

 

[Frankallen]

All of modern Day Thoroughbred Horses, started with only 3 Stallions!! So inbreeding sometimes, is not Bad!!


Frank

 

[Fat Daddy]

Quote:
I would agree. I mean add blood after several generations but "line breeding" happens a lot!

I feel it could have been anything from nutrition of the parents to shipping issues or incubation. the small ones is "failure to thrive" and very common. not clear on "elephant chicks" but factor out those 4 and your still over 50% on shipped eggs, not bad % at all.... Bill

 

[4sillychickens]

Your right 50% is good for shipped eggs

The 'elephant chicks' were very deformed (only one eye and it was huge, crossed beak, twisted neck).
My incubator was really steady except for one day in the beginning it got up to 102 for about 1/2 an hour before I quickly adjusted it. I didn't think that would matter too much, but maybe it did

 

[Stellar]

Sometimes things happen during incubation, there could have been a bacteria causing the eye issues. Others can be causes of poor line breeding. But you never know until you breed the healthy chicks and see what they produce.

 

[JJMR794]

Runts Readily Occur In Coturnix Quail. There's A Few Strings About This Around Here... Do A Byc Search For Runting/ Stunting

 

[4sillychickens]

Thanks for all the replies! I did a search and found some useful info. It helps when you know what to search for

 

[shelleyd2008]

I've never hatched any runts but a friend had one lone coturnix hatch a few months ago and brought it to me. It was a week old and barely bigger than the day-olds (probably 10-12 hour olds) I had when she brought it. About the only difference was the presence of some feather quills, otherwise you couldn't tell it apart.

In this pic, the runt is the one on the left, a full week older than the others. It eventually grew at the same rate as the others in the photo.