Sexing quail and colour

[Ruskin_Roost]

Only about 1/3 of ours have names, others have general descriptions like bandy, is the only one with his baby band still on his leg, tux, turkey etc.

We had a bad troublemaker, I pulled him Saturday when I went out to feed them and he was almost killing my favorite. He ripped out a ton of feathers trying to breed, she was screaming, the feathers came out and she flew up and hit the top hard and was knocked unconscious. I had seen some evidence of that bird creating some bad energy, but no violence before that. I kept him in the big brooder, and chose 3 other of the wilds (naughty flyers) I could tell are male and I invited them all to a bbq. It’s easier when they’ve hurt others, you can draw the line in your head, like all he had to do was be a nice guy.

Awe I totally get it! But I struggle with it too! Because it is “only their nature”! Boys will be boys and such. Trying to assert themselves in the pecking order... ugh! I vent sexed today and we have all males except for one female. We are coming up to five weeks on Friday so it may be time to seperate them into two groups, one with the gentle Silver “Blondie” main Roo, and Tux, the male runt, and “Speed Racer” our prize Hen! Haha Yaaay one hen at least! Then see if I can make a “bachelor pen” so the rest can have good company while I decide what to do. We will have to keep buying eggs and incubating until I get enough females. How do other people get the right ratio? Buy grown birds?

 

[Ruskin_Roost]

Th

i had a male quail who just mauled my female quail, ripping away a layer of skin on the back of her head and almost pecking her eye out. She healed with only a small scar where feathers didn't grow back behind her eye. The male got shipped off along with some other males for someone else to enrol them in freezer camp.

that’s hard! I empathise with you! That was a question I had, what to do with the extra males... do you sell them or give them away?

 

[Ruskin_Roost]

I have 4 roos and 16 hens with names ... I became attached to them and they will have their natural span of life.
Even they are causing problems, like the Pearl Fee named "Snowflake (Snowy)", now living alone, after heavily injured 3 other hens.

All others (at the moment 45 birds) are just the "boys and girls".
I try not to get too attached to them

What did you do with your other Roos that you hatched along the way? And also, did you get your eggs and are you incubating?!

 

[Ruskin_Roost]

Speed Racer, Tux and Blondie

 

[Fenrisulfr]

What did you do with your other Roos that you hatched along the way? And also, did you get your eggs and are you incubating?!

It is hard to give away males, as most ppl also have to many males ... .
The social media and market places are full of offering male quails.

I just relized, that these males turned miraculy into Celadon males, as they are rare and expensive. Probably a lot of scaming.

When I started keeping quails, and I read a lot before actually started breeding, I was aware, that I have to butcher birds.
It is not uncommon for me, as my grandparents were farmer and I was around and involved in the harvesting of livestock as child and teenager. But this is over 30 years ago...
... so I had to think about, ... can I still harvest livestock?

I can! It is definatly not stuff I like to do, but it has to be done.
I harvested 28 roos from my last hatch, 2 weeks ago. 10 were sold (kitchen ready birds are much easier to sell then living ones ) ... bbqed 8 fresh with friends and 10 are still in the freezer.
This reality.
Good thing is ... I know how they were raised, feeded and butchered human. All stuff you don't know from meat you get from the supermarket.

The alternative would be getting adults, so that you can control your ratio.

 

[Fenrisulfr]

P.S.: yes, I incubate all my birds. The only way to control feed and health, as I want it. Most are bought hatching eggs, but I also collect own hatching eggs, more and more.

 

[Quailobsessed]

Awe I totally get it! But I struggle with it too! Because it is “only their nature”! Boys will be boys and such. Trying to assert themselves in the pecking order... ugh! I vent sexed today and we have all males except for one female. We are coming up to five weeks on Friday so it may be time to seperate them into two groups, one with the gentle Silver “Blondie” main Roo, and Tux, the male runt, and “Speed Racer” our prize Hen! Haha Yaaay one hen at least! Then see if I can make a “bachelor pen” so the rest can have good company while I decide what to do. We will have to keep buying eggs and incubating until I get enough females. How do other people get the right ratio? Buy grown birds?

Just warning you, vent sexing them this young isn't always reliable. I bought some seven week old 'hens' and three of them turned out to be males (they were vent sexed).

 

[Pandaisy]

My permanent rooster was sold to me as a hen, he was 6 weeks old then. The breeder! vent sexed him. He started crowing and mating at 8 weeks old.

 

[FloorCandy]

I’ve been vent sexing, mine are 6.5 weeks, I catch a couple per day, but I have very little foam so far, no eggs so female vents are small. So Ive been banding Roos as they crow.

As long as they get along I’m in no rush to cull, but I accept it has to happen, they have good lives and swift deaths. Most grocery meat is not so lucky. Plus we make sure we put the meat to good use, we try to show gratitude by not being wasteful, it makes me feel better about it.

as for how to get females, you can order sex link chicks from breeders, all females of a certain mix are born one color, all males another, I think it’s roux and pharaoh, but not sure which parent is which.

I watched a hysterical video of a guy sexing eggs based on shape, and I plan to try it haha. It’s obviously hogwash, but it might make a fun “experiment“ for my kids, they had a science after school program, and now they’re always wanting to do experiments lol.

 

[Ruskin_Roost]

It is hard to give away males, as most ppl also have to many males ... .
The social media and market places are full of offering male quails.

I just relized, that these males turned miraculy into Celadon males, as they are rare and expensive. Probably a lot of scaming.

When I started keeping quails, and I read a lot before actually started breeding, I was aware, that I have to butcher birds.
It is not uncommon for me, as my grandparents were farmer and I was around and involved in the harvesting of livestock as child and teenager. But this is over 30 years ago...
... so I had to think about, ... can I still harvest livestock?

I can! It is definatly not stuff I like to do, but it has to be done.
I harvested 28 roos from my last hatch, 2 weeks ago. 10 were sold (kitchen ready birds are much easier to sell then living ones ) ... bbqed 8 fresh with friends and 10 are still in the freezer.
This reality.
Good thing is ... I know how they were raised, feeded and butchered human. All stuff you don't know from meat you get from the supermarket.

The alternative would be getting adults, so that you can control your ratio.

This is so helpful to know. Do you use the suggested butchering method of using scissors? I want to know the most humane way. Thank you for all of the information! I wasn’t sure if you butchered because you have quail for livestock but also you have quail as pets.