Larger quail eggs, should I incubate them?

[JJMR794]

Quote:
Exactly.

 

[Surehatch]

Older hens lay larger eggs - if there is consistency you might be on to having a larger breed of bird. Larger eggs normally have double yokes and struggle to hatch. Try it out if you have some spare incubation space

 

[lauramacf]

Thanks guys! Makes complete sense!
Another question: Now that I'm thinking about this, I'm realizing that the rooster she is mating with is smaller than the other rooster (and is also a golden bird, rather than a brown), so would it work out that her larger eggs might end up with average size chicks because of the rooster's size?

I suppose I'm going to get a genetics 101 lesson when I finally do incubate! I should eventually mate her with my Jumbo male--they ended up in opposite cages, because he was so hard on her (perhaps now I understand why he favored her!)

 

[NikkiNik]

Interesting post/string, found this as I was searching if a Quail egg increases in size as she ages or if the egg size just fluctuates randomly... not sure I have a clear answer on that part yet...

Another related question along these lines: if the eggs do get gradually bigger but both small and large eggs from the same bird get incubated and hatched, is the offspring going be the same size as adults or will the egg size determine the bird size? You’d think that various eggs sizes from the same bird would still produce the same DNA outcomes and therefore same size adult birds, right? Or does environment and epigenetics play a role here?

 

[Jedstar]

Well what I've found out over the last year or 2. Is that if your wanting to breed a larger Quail. Then the larger the egg the bigger the Quail. But not always. But most of the time. When it comes to selective breeding. So that's have all different families of Quail in different cages. You then pick out a big larger male to go with 3 to 4 larger females. You can even use kitchen scales to find the heaviest quails.but yeah then you go from there. Which I'm just kind of in the middle of doing ATM.

 

[Jedstar]

But yeah it's worth taking the risk and putting all the larger eggs in the incubator with all the normal large eggs. Because if they do hatch.then you'll end up with some larger bigger Quail

 

[Jedstar]

If she's a massive hen then any large eggs just give them a go in the incubator. That's what I'm doing. I've just put all massive hen quails in selective breeding cage's with my biggest weighing male quails. My males their weight starts from 290 to 300grams and up. But most I put in were above 300 grams. And my hens were all above 350 grams. Some at the 400 mark and higher. So I got one male to 4 hens per breeding cage. So the hens I start at 350 and up.