Quail Chick Colours

[Nighthawk78]

Currently raising a batch of 18 Jap babies with some fun colours popping out, so wanted to upload some pictures for people's thoughts/guesses on their genes! I'm still learning about genes myself (holy heck there's a lock of them!) so will include my guesses, would love to know everyone else's though.

1: From my flock, I'm pretty sure the roo is a homozygous-sparkly fawn, unsure who the hen is. When it hatched, I thought Pharaoh, but none of the other Pharaohs in the brooder have that black eyeliner, nor can any Pharaoh chick images I can find online. The closest match I've been able to find is a homozygous-sparkly fawn. I do have a heterozygous-sparkly Pharaoh hen, who is the roo's favourite.

2: There are two that look like this, both from my flock so heterozygous-sparkly at the least. They hatched looking classically Italian, although ever-so-slightly lighter back stripes than the other Italians in the brooders, so thought maybe Pearl or Manchurian, but I'm kinda lost on this. Fairly certain I have blau in my flock though, so I'm thinking het-sparkly blau fawn?

3: From a different breeder. Tibetan pied? I know there are several pied genes, although I'm unsure how exactly to differentiate them.

4 & 5: From a different breeder. Left I think is a classic Pharaoh, and right I thought was a Pharaoh pied as a chick, but the feathers growing in don't have the right pattern, so perhaps a sparkly Pharaoh Pied? There's three total growing in like this one.

6: From a different breeder. Italian English White? There's six EW's in the brooder with varying degrees of white, although this is the one with the most colour.

7: From a different breeder. I thiiiink this one is also an Italian EW, although it seems more red than the other EW's from the same hatch, so possibly it's something else or with other dilutes?

I've frequented so many pages on Coturnix colour genes these last few months and I'm ever so slowly learning some of them, but there's many I have yet to figure out . Let me know your thoughts!

 

[Susan Skylark]

First get your base patterns down: pharoah, Italian, Rosetta, every bird is one of the three, all other genes modify color not pattern.

White can be multiple genes but adds white over base pattern and modifier genes. English or dotted white is an almost all white bird in homozygous and tuxedo in heterozygous. White wing pied is tuxedo in homozygous and random spotting in heterozygous. Yours almost look like splash.

Gray birds can be silver, Andalusian, or Blau. White wing feathers can be seen in silver and Andalusian, you can also see some color bleed in Andalusian. Homozygous birds can be white or cream.

Pansy, sparkly, calico, and myrle modify black barring, white spotting, etc and can be hard to tell, especially in heterozygous or over Rosetta.

Red birds are roux, a sex linked recessive, Sandy birds could be ginger, which is also sex linked recessive.

1. Looks Rosetta/EB maybe something else like pansy or other modifier in there.
2.Italian with roux fee, ginger, Blau or something making it look a little Sandy/gray, will be interesting to see how it matures.
3. Rosetta (heterozygous eb, Tibetan is homozygous chicks usually black with all black legs) pied, I’d lean towards heterozygous pied wing white.
4. Pharoah, 5. Rosetta pied, like 3
6 and 7, Italian splash would be my guess.

Check out pipsnchicks for some great quail color genetic stuff. Thieving otter also has some good pics (check their splash line).

 

[akroberts1085]

Currently raising a batch of 18 Jap babies with some fun colours popping out, so wanted to upload some pictures for people's thoughts/guesses on their genes! I'm still learning about genes myself (holy heck there's a lock of them!) so will include my guesses, would love to know everyone else's though.
View attachment 42992671: From my flock, I'm pretty sure the roo is a homozygous-sparkly fawn, unsure who the hen is. When it hatched, I thought Pharaoh, but none of the other Pharaohs in the brooder have that black eyeliner, nor can any Pharaoh chick images I can find online. The closest match I've been able to find is a homozygous-sparkly fawn. I do have a heterozygous-sparkly Pharaoh hen, who is the roo's favourite.

View attachment 42992682: There are two that look like this, both from my flock so heterozygous-sparkly at the least. They hatched looking classically Italian, although ever-so-slightly lighter back stripes than the other Italians in the brooders, so thought maybe Pearl or Manchurian, but I'm kinda lost on this. Fairly certain I have blau in my flock though, so I'm thinking het-sparkly blau fawn?
View attachment 42992693: From a different breeder. Tibetan pied? I know there are several pied genes, although I'm unsure how exactly to differentiate them.
View attachment 42992704 & 5: From a different breeder. Left I think is a classic Pharaoh, and right I thought was a Pharaoh pied as a chick, but the feathers growing in don't have the right pattern, so perhaps a sparkly Pharaoh Pied? There's three total growing in like this one.
View attachment 42992716: From a different breeder. Italian English White? There's six EW's in the brooder with varying degrees of white, although this is the one with the most colour.
View attachment 42992727: From a different breeder. I thiiiink this one is also an Italian EW, although it seems more red than the other EW's from the same hatch, so possibly it's something else or with other dilutes?

I've frequented so many pages on Coturnix colour genes these last few months and I'm ever so slowly learning some of them, but there's many I have yet to figure out . Let me know your thoughts!

Your flock is so beautiful. I'm thinking about trying to convince my husband to get some quail but I just don't really know if I will be able to because I already have a flock of 11 chickens and a flock of 3 ducks. I also have a dog and a rabbit.

 

[Nighthawk78]

First get your base patterns down: pharoah, Italian, Rosetta, every bird is one of the three, all other genes modify color not pattern.

White can be multiple genes but adds white over base pattern and modifier genes. English or dotted white is an almost all white bird in homozygous and tuxedo in heterozygous. White wing pied is tuxedo in homozygous and random spotting in heterozygous. Yours almost look like splash.

Gray birds can be silver, Andalusian, or Blau. White wing feathers can be seen in silver and Andalusian, you can also see some color bleed in Andalusian. Homozygous birds can be white or cream.

Pansy, sparkly, calico, and myrle modify black barring, white spotting, etc and can be hard to tell, especially in heterozygous or over Rosetta.

Red birds are roux, a sex linked recessive, Sandy birds could be ginger, which is also sex linked recessive.

1. Looks Rosetta/EB maybe something else like pansy or other modifier in there.
2.Italian with roux fee, ginger, Blau or something making it look a little Sandy/gray, will be interesting to see how it matures.
3. Rosetta (heterozygous eb, Tibetan is homozygous chicks usually black with all black legs) pied, I’d lean towards heterozygous pied wing white.
4. Pharoah, 5. Rosetta pied, like 3
6 and 7, Italian splash would be my guess.

Check out pipsnchicks for some great quail color genetic stuff. Thieving otter also has some good pics (check their splash line).

Thanks for your thoughts! Pipsnchicks and Thieving Otter are two of the pages I have been studying on quail genetics. I don't believe 3 and 5 are the same colour however. I have Rosetta birds currently and have had a Tibetan roo previously, and 3 looks almost identical to how the Tibetan grew out. 5 also has far more patterning than 3--I could see a rosetta pied with some other pattern gene going on perhaps.
Splash gene would make sense for the pieds, given that none of them have the classic dot on their head that EW seems to come with! Will have to update this thread when they finish growing in their feathers for comparisons.

(Pic: Babies 3 and 5 side by side for comparison)

 

[Nighthawk78]

Your flock is so beautiful. I'm thinking about trying to convince my husband to get some quail but I just don't really know if I will be able to because I already have a flock of 11 chickens and a flock of 3 ducks. I also have a dog and a rabbit.

Thank you!! If you want to be overwhelmed by eggs, go ahead I have a whole shelf in my fridge dedicated to storing their eggs because they're laying faster than I can use them haha. They are gorgeous little birds though, so much personality in them.