Is this a male?

[jetto]

Thank you Thank you Thank you for all the pictures! I've been going cross-eyed staring at the coturnix pen trying to figure out boys from girls. The pictures will help immensely! Four weeks old and no one has crowed yet that I've heard. I mentioned vent sexing to my husband and he looked at me like i'd lost my little mind....so if I have to do that- guess I'm on my own! Kristi

 

[ksukristin]

This thread is so helpful I cant wait to see which of my babies are guys and which are gals. Thanks everyone for posting pics and I hope you have some luck with the sexing, CountryBound! Keep us posted!

 

[monarc23]

Yep, if it's crowing it's a boy hens don't crow at all, THOUGH theres always exceptions to that rule

But that exception is RARE

Ironsun, I think it does have to do with selective breeding why some hens look entirely roo in the chest. Like I had told you before many over here in teh US that have hundreds of birds don't selectively breed it's a shame but some dont breed for the same reasons we do (genetics)

I had many monster girls that looked like roos and many that may ahve been culled early on by me when i was newly learning that could have been hens. I have the room to wait so i wait and many that were questionable turned out to be hens.

Also to the one who asked if dots on a rust chest mean hen...in my experience it does, however the original posters bird does look like a roo to me with the blush on the throat off the chest alone though those have been hens in my experience (not a believe all for everyone though). Hens chests should be CLEAR of rust....say our birds had a standard i'd deffiantly request that no hens have rust on the chest lol!

 

[Goldlaced_Girl]

Spots make it a hen? sorry I'm confuzzled...

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
Spots is a hen characteristic (of brown, cinnnamon and golden ) coturnix. Other colors don't have chest spots (not all colors can be sexed by their chest feathers). However, the bird in question i am positive is a roo because of the blush under the throat. Rust is a roo characteristic...however I've had many hens with roo feathers on their chest it just happens from time to time that you will get a questionable. In my experience every rusty chested bird with spots has been a hen but that's only in MY birds, again, this bird in question of the OPS is more than likely a roo because of the throat blush coming in, he'll more than likely moult out the black spots if he is indeed a roo.

All browns, cinnamons and goldens are dotted chested once they start feathering, the middle of the chest once those feathers come in you will have a good idea if it's roo or hen (unless you have a questionable one like this roo or my birds) as the roo will start getting rust feathers in the middle and the hens will keep their spots.

 

[becky3086]

I'm pretty sure this is the reason I don't sex my birds, unless I see one crow. I have gone back to the pictures and back to the posts and back again. I have no idea what you are talking about, lol.
They all look rust colored to me!

So hens should have spots and roos shouldn't but should have the blush on the face? And you can't tell this until after they are adults? Am I getting it, even a little bit? lol

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
HAHA....huh?

Okay wait so you're saying you can't tell the difference between this hen:

and this hen:

?

the last hen above has no rust on the chest just cream and black spots that's how a hen *should* look....however the first hen above has the male rusting in the feathers with or without spots but it's a hen.

A young roo as long as he's under 14 hours of light from the time of hatching until he feathers out will start getting blush under his throat it's almost a maroon color, as he matures (takes about 6-8 weeks) as long as he's still under 14 hours of light a day the blush increases. If he's not under 14 hours of light a day he will get a bib like this instead of blushing it's his non-breeding colors

Nonbreeding troat roo brown also goes for goldens and cinnamons):

breeding throat roo brown (also goes for goldens and cinnamons):

I've NEVER seen a hen with "throat blush" first time for everything though...lol


As for cant tell until they are adults....sure if you arent sure wait until they crow

Heres an example of a deffinate very young roo:

before the middle chest feathers come in all chicks have outter checkered like spottings and if they are a roo the rust starts filling in

heres a very young pair hen on left:

 

[ksukristin]

the information about them feathering in on the sides first and that they all have spots on their chests at first is VERY helpful, monarc- THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

here is a pic of my 2 week old golden who is clearly spotted on the sides but the middle feathers haven't started coming in yet: I got mistakenly excited last night noticing the spots and thinking I could tell early if this was a hen/roo but your post has informed me that I have to wait longer!!!

this waiting stuff is HARD!

but I love watching them grow!

 

[becky3086]

Ok, I do actually get it, lol. I have never actually sexed my quail except for watching a new golden to see if I had a male to go with the hen(she laid eggs, so I knew she was a hen). I don' t worry to much about hen to male ratio because after the first roughness with the hens they all seem to calm down and no one gets hurt again. Anyway, this will be interesting and I am going to go out and see what I actually have(sort of, obviously it is not an exact science, lol).

 

[Munchies]

Hey, this looks like one of our girls. She looks sweet.