Quail breed identification and temperament differences

[Boxtor]

Hello,

I am new to quail farming and forum posting altogether, so please bear with me if I’ve missed something.

I am hoping to gain some insight on the types of quail I’m raising and if it’s the reason for their differences in temperament.

Right now I have one male and three females in a 2ftx3ft cage indoors. I am planning to move them into a large aviary outside once the weather warms consistently, as they are still very young. All of the eggs I’ve received were labeled as Coturnix.

My first hatch was from a batch of ten eggs I got from Amazon, I only managed to hatch a single egg, which I chalk up to my ignorance. This quail is by far my favorite of the flock and she is currently around 5 months old. She has the lighter color and smaller build and her temperament is very noticeably more relaxed than the others. The male even seems totally disinterested in mounting her and the females rarely interact with her at all. She stays on the opposite side of the cage.

The other two females and the male I hatched from a second batch of ten eggs I got from a local farm. Both of these batches were labeled as Coturnix quail, but these quail seem larger, much darker in color, and are absolutely bonkers in comparison. They are currently 2-3 months old. The male is always mounting one of the two females, which I expected, but they jump and run around the cage almost stomping on the older quail. The two females even seem to chase and peck at each other often, but never the older quail.

So from here, I have several questions.
1) Did I end up with completely different breeds of quail?
2) Will this affect any offspring they have, their colors and temperaments, etc? Can they be bred together?
3) Is their difference in temperament due to breed or simply differences in personality?
4) Is the size of their current enclosure the cause of their behavior and should I hasten their transition to the outdoor enclosure?
5) Should I separate the more relaxed quail from the others?
6) Is there any other advice you can offer me?

Thank you for reading, answering any questions, and understanding my ignorance. Their ruffled appearance I believe is due to them molting.

 

[Rock17]

They all look like cortinx to me but I do not keep quail. Welcome to the flock

 

[Rock17]

 

[Rock17]

Maybe jumbo cortinix?

 

[Nabiki]

They are all coturnix, just different colours. You can breed them together, but be aware that disposition is a combination of environment and breeding. As you breed them, you may want to start keeping track of temperament and only breed the calmer ones.

You might end up with birds like this:

 

[007Sean]

Adding to what @Nabiki , said above....they are not breeds of quail, only species, the species is Coturnix and there are hundreds of color variants.

 

[A_dele]

they

Hello,

I am new to quail farming and forum posting altogether, so please bear with me if I’ve missed something.

I am hoping to gain some insight on the types of quail I’m raising and if it’s the reason for their differences in temperament.

Right now I have one male and three females in a 2ftx3ft cage indoors. I am planning to move them into a large aviary outside once the weather warms consistently, as they are still very young. All of the eggs I’ve received were labeled as Coturnix.

My first hatch was from a batch of ten eggs I got from Amazon, I only managed to hatch a single egg, which I chalk up to my ignorance. This quail is by far my favorite of the flock and she is currently around 5 months old. She has the lighter color and smaller build and her temperament is very noticeably more relaxed than the others. The male even seems totally disinterested in mounting her and the females rarely interact with her at all. She stays on the opposite side of the cage.

The other two females and the male I hatched from a second batch of ten eggs I got from a local farm. Both of these batches were labeled as Coturnix quail, but these quail seem larger, much darker in color, and are absolutely bonkers in comparison. They are currently 2-3 months old. The male is always mounting one of the two females, which I expected, but they jump and run around the cage almost stomping on the older quail. The two females even seem to chase and peck at each other often, but never the older quail.

So from here, I have several questions.
1) Did I end up with completely different breeds of quail?
2) Will this affect any offspring they have, their colors and temperaments, etc? Can they be bred together?
3) Is their difference in temperament due to breed or simply differences in personality?
4) Is the size of their current enclosure the cause of their behavior and should I hasten their transition to the outdoor enclosure?
5) Should I separate the more relaxed quail from the others?
6) Is there any other advice you can offer me?

Thank you for reading, answering any questions, and understanding my ignorance. Their ruffled appearance I believe is due to them molting.

they look like cortinux

 

[MegTheHenEggQueen]

They all look like cortinx to me but I do not keep quail. Welcome to the flock

All coturnix but different types.

 

[PartiPoodles]

All in your pics are Cortunix, no question. The behavior you’re describing seems totally normal. They don’t seem to mind at all climbing over each other when they think they need to. Temperament is a roll of the DNA dice. Best thing you can do is cull the undesirable traits you don’t want copies of in future generations. You will still be rolling the DNA dice, but it just puts the odds more in your favor by culling what you don’t want. Outside where more sunlight is should help your egg production. Eggs from Amazon is always a risk. Way too much fraud and fakes on Amazon with almost any product sold, unless a seller is a known reputable seller with its own proven quality controls. Get your eggs from a reputable hatchery and you likely wont regret it. MyShire Farm is a great hatchery and also outstanding resources for quail education. Suggest getting your quail you use for breeding from 2 or more hatcheries within the first 9-10 generations to help keep the gene pool healthy. This is assuming you’re rotating your breeding stock for hatching purposes. Lesson I’ve learned: cheap incubators will cost more in hatch rates and aggravation. Getting a Borotto incubator and throwing the Manna Pro 360 in the trash was one of the best decisions I’ve made. Italian engineering is highly under appreciated.

 

[calicocows]

popping in here to say that you may want more females to prevent overbreeding of the two favorite hens, a 4:1 f:m ratio is commonly used. quail roos can be quite the aggressive breeders!