Italian quail? Who has them and how do they compare?

[Buttercup Chillin]

Then there is mine. Italiam to me is speckled all over - with no bars. Bars and upside down v's - Egypian Golds.
There isn't a white or yellow feather anywhere to be see. Fawn covers Yellow.

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

Now I don't have a science degree. But I can tell a RIR from a NHR and even a Buckeye all varieties of the RIR, each distinctly different and each separately named variations from breeding.

I hope I don't need a science degree to tell the different between a Manchurian Gold an Italian Gold or another. Now I know the Italian Specled Gold has been called that for over 50 years. Now it has Bars?

My flock is dieing to know what they are. I hope they don't die of embarassment when they find out. Could happen.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
They have brown 'V' markings on their backs while the manchurians have very little or no markings.

Most of the gold birds in this pic are Italians except for the one hen in the back (left) between the cinnamon and the white.

ETA: You can see her better in this pic

And for all I know this is the same bird, but the one on the front left (second from left if you count the male) is a manchurian from what I understand.

 

[shelleyd2008]

I wonder if there is anyway to tell them from their chick down? I've had some goldens that had very dark stripes as chicks and others that looked almost white with very faint or broken stripes on their backs. I would assume that the ones with the dark stripes are the Italians.

 

[mhwc56]

so all my manchurian golds are all actually ITALIAN golds then.
all my chicks had real definite and dark striping ...

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

Well I know my Birds are not manchurians. I have fought that all along.

But Italians? Since when?
I don't care what some Dr somewhere called them. I want to know what the public called them.
Because there were very few pictures of them 8 months ago anywhere on the web and I looked hard and long when those first birds hatched from Jumbo Brown eggs.
The few that I saw then were here in the USA. Only later and that is lately, did I see one picture of a bird similar to mine.

I saw plenty of Italian Speckled with the gold and speckles all over them and not just on their breast. I saw pictures of the lighter ones which everyone called Manchurian Golds, that is fine.
But now I am supposed to call my Egypian marked birds Italian Golds.

Not going to happen around here.

You can have Barred Rock, Holland and others similarly marked and with their own names and standards. There needs to be a way to have more names for birds of similar colors that breeders breed here in AMERICA. Or are the preferred named varieties only of other national preference. In that case we might as well cull our flocks and close the door on this venue, cause it looks like Americans will have no say in anything when it comes to colors of the Coturnix that are breed here in America.


I am just waiting to see if I am culling my flock or not.

 

[mhwc56]

Why call them Manchurian Gold or Italian Gold or Egyptian Gold (or whatever else comes down the pike next ) at all ? ... why not just call them GOLDS or GOLDENS? then to that ADD "speckled" or "solid" or "barred "or pink polka dotted , etc. to describe them further ? It would surely be less ridiculously confusing ...just saying .

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
is the lethal gene affecting only 25% of the birds I remember that number for some reason??

 

[Stellar]

Quote:
is the lethal gene affecting only 25% of the birds I remember that number for some reason??

Yes

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

There are several lethal genes.

The Gold lethal: When you breed gold to gold 50% lethal. When you breed to another color that is not carrying gold then it should go down to 25%. Next generation should be 12.5%. That is why they say you can breed out gold. My second generation is out there with 6 Golds in the group of 34, nothing has even begun to breed out of them. But then I am not using other stock to breed the gold out with.

I have not found this to be the case in my birds however. Because they carry alot of gold and perhaps other lethals their rate of lethality has not changed, yet. I don't know about the Manchurian Golds as adults or chicks because all of my Egypian golds have the dark defined Egypian type markings. Even as chicks the dark lines down the back either straight or broken, they can be lighter or darker. As they mature they have the dark markings like the others.

The markings change as they age. Sometimes, looking like upside down V's separating along the sides of the feathers. Some bar markings have tails like a flag or just look like bars depending on how they hold themselves. Their coloring as I described months ago starts light gold and proceeds into different shades of gold and rust and varies into the dark chocolate almost black markings. The only dots are on the female breasts. They look nothing like an Italian Gold or Italian Speckled Coturnix. And its pretty fresh in my mind as I have them hatching tonight along with my whites.