Sexing and Separating

[yolkoroo]

So, several questions from a new-to-quail but want to continue with them Chicken gal.

1) How early can you sex your quail? I bought some to go with some that I incubated, and at the time the lady that I bought them from said they were all female. It seems dumb now, but they are not (to the best of my knowledge). So wondering, can you sex day-old quail like you do chickens? or do you really need to wait until 6-8 weeks of age?

2) Could I have mis-sexed them by vent sexing? I have ten birds and three have crowed, yet still others have exhibited "mounting" behaviors...in my sexing exploits, I think I may have 7 males and only 3 females- which will be a problem. So I press on the vent area and I see foam, is that a sure-fire male? Could I be wrong there? I have varied feathering, so some I can't sex by feathers.

3) How do I separate out? I don't think I will incubate again, so is it worth keeping even one male. I have a celedon-bred male that I hatched and I would like to keep, but will he be too much for the 3 girls? I pulled three males out (we are almost at 7 weeks old) because the back of the head of one of my females is looking bedraggled...not bleeding but no feathers. Do I just pull all the males? How long can I keep them together before I harvest them?

4) Also, it will be my first time to harvest. I think I am up for it? I have watched videos and know the process, but I am admittedly nervous. Any advice? And darn, what a lot of work for a meal. Hate that I got so many males! I really just wanted eggs!!!

 

[Nabiki]

I'm going to try to answer your questions as you asked them.

1. If your quail are feather sexable, you can tell by the time they are 3 weeks old. If you vent sex, it depends on how good you are. I've heard that you can successfully vent sex as chicks, but I have not been successful with this.

2. I have mis-sexed when vent sexing. If you get foam, it's definitely a male (unless it's a hen that's just been mounted). A fully adult, sexually active male will produce an unmistakable amount of foam in my experience.

3. If you don't plan on incubating any of the eggs, you don't need a male at all. If you want to keep a male, you should have three to five hens for him. You can keep them together until they start drawing blood. Once that happens, they may start to kill each other.

4. It just happens that a new article on how to process quail was published a couple of days ago. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/how-to-process-your-quail-including-gory-pictures.75834/

I hope this helps!

 

[muddy75]

I will go a bit further on question # 1.....there are sex-link quail eggs available that you can tell difference in gender from day 1, however, you will only have 1 color of female quail which is egyptian. All the males will be pharaoh

 

[muddy75]

same for question #4......if you only want guaranteed hens for egg laying, they can be purchased and shipped by myshire farms or purchase from a knowledgeable person. I personally just sold some that were not feather-sexable colors with the “guarantee” that I would trade out any that I may have vent-sexed incorrectly if they did not want to process them. (turns out, I was correct)
A quail can be dispatched and processed in under 4 minutes per bird.....having processed all types of poultry and wild game, yes it’s definitely worth it for a meal IMO. I also have a processing video and working on more. I would be happy to send you a link in a pm.

 

[yolkoroo]

Ok, I definitely got a lot of males in my "female" chicks. I am happy to know, @Nabiki and @muddy75, that they can be sexed that early, but that it may be difficult. These are Coturnix, so not sex-linked quail eggs. I do wish the sexing had been more accurate of course- as I have a lot of maleness out there now. I will take the video @muddy75, one can never know too much on a first-time endeavor such as this. Thanks all!