Showing Coturnix Quail

[gastropoda]

Would anyone be willing to share your knowledge of showing their coturnix quail at their county fair? I would like to show a few birds this year as a hobby quail breeder - mostly just to possibly spark some interest in the breed in my community and maybe find any other quail keepers nearby that might be willing to swap genetics (right now I order new eggs online when I can't breed without risk of inbreeding and the eggs are always a poor hatch and seem to always have foot deformities or other strange problems - none of which I get when I hatch my own eggs from the yard).

My big questions are how you clean the birds, how you prepare them for the show so that they are calm and not too stressed, do you do any grooming in preparation (trimming of nails or beaks?). All I can seem to find online are articles on how to show chickens or other fowl and I'm just wondering what transfers to showing coturnix or if there are any tricks to this that are unique to quail.

Any advice is welcome - even if you want to tell me it's a terrible idea and don't do it. I haven't submitted my entry yet.

 

[Seriph]

Im looking into doing it this year. I’m pretty new to coturnix, and the closest person to me that has them is an hour and a half away. He’s a wealth of knowledge though. I’ve also noticed that any eggs I get offline have the same defects- cross beak, leg and foot deformities, failure to thrive. I’ve also been trying to drum up interest in coturnix, especially the colored ones. There is only one person who has quail at the fair here, and he’s about 100 and not very social. The guy I get mine from (the one 1 1/2hrs away) shows at legit shows I guess. He said he washes them just like he would his bantam chickens, makes sure their legs are clean, nails rounded, and beaks clean and shiny. We both handle ours a lot (I have two little boys, one is in love with quail) so they are really tame. He feeds a custom blend to make sure they grow appropriately and have gorgeous feather quality. I’m trying to convince him to give me all of his secrets But basically he said the key to success is nutrition, handling, and selective breeding.