Sexing Quail

[TMarie]

View attachment 1472507 I have 13 quail that I hatched. They are exactly 8 weeks old today. I have not seen them crow but this morning I heard it through the window. They're silent when I'm around though. Some of them have missing neck feathers. Can I assume those are the females (from being bred?) I know to look for rust on the chest, but I feel like they all have rust lol Plus I have 2 white ones and one dark, possibly Tibetan? I will try to post pics later. Thank you for any advice!

 

[Erkenstein]

No don't assume missing feathers are female. For the pharaoh pattern, you should be able to sex by color easily at this age. For your other ones, you can vent sex them.

If your ratio is like my typical ratio, you can assume that you have 10 males and 3 females.

 

[TMarie]

No don't assume missing feathers are female. For the pharaoh pattern, you should be able to sex by color easily at this age. For your other ones, you can vent sex them.

If your ratio is like my typical ratio, you can assume that you have 10 males and 3 females.

Thank you so much for your response!

Oh great! I hope that's not the case lol but that'd probably be my luck

 

[TMarie]

I just heard one with missing feathers crowing so you're right- there goes that

 

[Sara L]

If there are not enough females the males will mount other males lower in the pecking order, leading to missing feathers. Were you able to determine genders for your quail?

 

[TMarie]

If there are not enough females the males will mount other males lower in the pecking order, leading to missing feathers. Were you able to determine genders for your quail?

I finally did it! Thank you. I was able to get a second pair of hands over here to help me vent sex them (my husband is afraid of birds lol) and now I'm proud to say that I've been able to vent sex them by myself since
Out of the 13 I was left with 6 hens and gave away the roos. But I just heard one crow the other day

BUT... they're all getting along now. So as long as he's nice and there's only 1 I'll allow him to stay...
And 1 of them started laying this week!

 

[CapricornFarm]

Congrats on your quail, since you have a male you can also hatch the eggs, sell them as hatching or eating eggs. Enjoy!

 

[TMarie]

Congrats on your quail, since you have a male you can also hatch the eggs, sell them as hatching or eating eggs. Enjoy!

Thank you! I hadn't considered selling them as hatching eggs. That's exciting! How long before you can expect them to be reliably fertile?

 

[lomine]

I usually wait until they are 12 weeks.

 

[Erkenstein]

Thank you! I hadn't considered selling them as hatching eggs. That's exciting! How long before you can expect them to be reliably fertile?

You can check eggs for fertility by cracking them and looking for the "bull's eye." So once you are seeing that regularly you are good to go.