Quail colour breeding

[Malhide]

Hi just new to this forum
I am looking some info on colour breeding in coturnix quails
At the moment I've some in
pharaoh wild type male and females
Silver male
English white female
Tibetan
One other lighter colour not sure on it I currently like in the UK northern Ireland and just get back into quails I've also hatched out Chinese painted quail and currently more eggs of another coturnix quails plus my own harlequin quails bloodline
Any info on this would be greatly appreciated thanks for reading

 

[muddy75]

You can breed any to pharoah or white to diversify your colors

 

[scyllarus]

I'm seeing a silver tuxedo, English white over a dilute color, browns/pharaohs, and Italian/Manchurians. There might be some fees in there as well, but I'm not sure due to lighting and the quail not cooperating for pictures.

My understanding of quail genetics is rather limited, but I'll write up what I know. I'm also going to assume you have some basic genetics knowledge, but please let me know if you don't! I'm happy to explain or provide resources, I'm just trying to keep things to the point.

English white and Tuxedo are the same gene and are what makes the bird's belly/body white. Tuxedo is one copy of this gene, English white is two copies. Thus, if you breed your English white hen to any male, you should get tuxedo and English white chicks.

Browns/Pharaohs - brown is technically its own color, but it's rather hard to tell these two apart. It's considered the 'wild' base color.

Italian/Manchurian - Italian is one copy of a dilution gene, Manchurian is two copies. This gene is dominant to brown/pharoah and creates the 'blonde' look on some of your birds. It's considered a 'base' color, I believe.

Rosetta/Tibetan - Rosetta is one copy of the extended brown gene, Tibetan is two copies. This gene is also dominant to brown/pharoah and creates the darker look. It's also considered a 'base' color. I'm...not sure what happens if you have one copy of Italian and one copy of Rosetta on a bird.

Silver - I believe silver is a fatal gene, which is to say that two copies of the gene = a chick that will die in the egg. One copy is generally considered fine, but I've seen some of the more experienced keepers mention that silver birds are more delicate and have higher risk of hatching out albinos (which is bad as they're prone to going blind).

"Fee" - this gene removes the reds/yellows from a bird, creating a bird that's gray-ish. Depending on the base color, the bird will be a darker or lighter gray - so an Italian fee bird is a 'Pearl fee', a pharaoh fee is a 'Falb fee', and rosetta/tibetan bird is a 'Grau fee'.

I think you're likely to see a lot of pharoah, Italian, Rosetta, and tuxedo birds if you hatch out of your current flock. You might get some English whites and silvers as well, but it's less likely as your silver roo is only going to have one copy of silver, so he'll only pass it along 50% of the time. I thiiiink that English white can sometimes 'hide' on certain colors, but I'm not sure.

If you have a certain goal in breeding for color, you should probably keep all of the same color in a pen rather than all your birds together.

 

[Malhide]

I'm seeing a silver tuxedo, English white over a dilute color, browns/pharaohs, and Italian/Manchurians. There might be some fees in there as well, but I'm not sure due to lighting and the quail not cooperating for pictures.

My understanding of quail genetics is rather limited, but I'll write up what I know. I'm also going to assume you have some basic genetics knowledge, but please let me know if you don't! I'm happy to explain or provide resources, I'm just trying to keep things to the point.

English white and Tuxedo are the same gene and are what makes the bird's belly/body white. Tuxedo is one copy of this gene, English white is two copies. Thus, if you breed your English white hen to any male, you should get tuxedo and English white chicks.

Browns/Pharaohs - brown is technically its own color, but it's rather hard to tell these two apart. It's considered the 'wild' base color.

Italian/Manchurian - Italian is one copy of a dilution gene, Manchurian is two copies. This gene is dominant to brown/pharoah and creates the 'blonde' look on some of your birds. It's considered a 'base' color, I believe.

Rosetta/Tibetan - Rosetta is one copy of the extended brown gene, Tibetan is two copies. This gene is also dominant to brown/pharoah and creates the darker look. It's also considered a 'base' color. I'm...not sure what happens if you have one copy of Italian and one copy of Rosetta on a bird.

Silver - I believe silver is a fatal gene, which is to say that two copies of the gene = a chick that will die in the egg. One copy is generally considered fine, but I've seen some of the more experienced keepers mention that silver birds are more delicate and have higher risk of hatching out albinos (which is bad as they're prone to going blind).

"Fee" - this gene removes the reds/yellows from a bird, creating a bird that's gray-ish. Depending on the base color, the bird will be a darker or lighter gray - so an Italian fee bird is a 'Pearl fee', a pharaoh fee is a 'Falb fee', and rosetta/tibetan bird is a 'Grau fee'.

I think you're likely to see a lot of pharoah, Italian, Rosetta, and tuxedo birds if you hatch out of your current flock. You might get some English whites and silvers as well, but it's less likely as your silver roo is only going to have one copy of silver, so he'll only pass it along 50% of the time. I thiiiink that English white can sometimes 'hide' on certain colors, but I'm not sure.

If you have a certain goal in breeding for color, you should probably keep all of the same color in a pen rather than all your birds together.

So the silver one is a silver tuxedo?
I do have some knowledge of genetics

 

[scyllarus]

So the silver one is a silver tuxedo?
I do have some knowledge of genetics

I think so? Some silvers have white without tuxedo, but I think in those cases the white is limited to their wings. I'd wait and see if anyone else chimes in, though!

 

[Malhide]

I think so? Some silvers have white without tuxedo, but I think in those cases the white is limited to their wings. I'd wait and see if anyone else chimes in, though!

Thank you