Signs your quail chick might be a roo?

[Urbanhomestead_ut]

I was told there are "tricks" and signs to tell if your chicks are roos as early as 1 week. I am curious if you've had experience with anything like this.

One thing I was told is that roos are louder/noisier right from birth.
Another thing was that roo chicks are always "standing" and stretching tall more often.

Does any of this sound right? What other things have you noticed with young roos?

 

[chickentrains]

They develop combs faster than their flock mates

at a young age (2-4 weeks) their combs will begin to become red

thats all I've got

 

[JacinLarkwell]

The only sign I believe is that males will peck you more often. But I also have Cochins and they show signs real early which is how I know they're definately boys

 

[Urbanhomestead_ut]

They develop combs faster than their flock mates

at a young age (2-4 weeks) their combs will begin to become red

thats all I've got

Do quail have comb?

 

[chickentrains]

Do quail have comb?

I dont keep quail, I apologize, I missed the "quail" part in the title.

 

[Pandaisy]

I had a very loud chick, turned out to be a hen and her daughter was just as loud when she was a chick. I have never been able to figure out who is who until later. I've heard that roos, when frightened, stay still and look around, while hens run away. I can't confirm this theory either.

 

[shrimpsilkies]

I was told there are "tricks" and signs to tell if your chicks are roos as early as 1 week. I am curious if you've had experience with anything like this.

One thing I was told is that roos are louder/noisier right from birth.
Another thing was that roo chicks are always "standing" and stretching tall more often.

Does any of this sound right? What other things have you noticed with young roos?

Many times quail chicks will start tidbitting while very young. Since I feed my chicks a lot of live insects, I was giving the chicks cut up mealworm and I noticed this one chick was grabbing pieces, running to the corner, and making a rapid low peeping noise like the baby version of tidbitting. He ate it eventually but did this several more times, the others didn’t know what the sound meant so they didn’t eat it. Must’ve been only two weeks, maybe younger.

Noisiness really had nothing to do with it, I found. If anything the hens are louder and bossier as chicks. Sometimes a male will crow while still tiny, I think someone on here has a video of a chick crowing in the incubator!

With chicken chicks all the roos I’ve hatched have always had noticeably thicker legs than their sisters, from the first few weeks onwards. This doesn’t work for quail, although for some reason all of my male quail have had longer tails than their sisters at around four weeks (but by then, feather and behavior sexable, and isn’t a great indicator anyway)

In most cases the male behavior appears when the male feathering does for feather sexable colors. Unless the chicks are sex linked colors, there isn’t much to go by until a couple weeks have passed.

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

I usually can't tell if they're roos unless they start tidbitting, crowing or trying to mount females. It usually occurs in that order, so the idea of offering live insects makes sense.

FWIW, the most assertive birds I've had as young chicks turned out to be hens. It could be coincidence.

 

[Sammi_0411]

Quail dont have combs guessing they talking about chicks.... depending on colour u can tell by the reddish more plain chest where as females have speckled thats around 3-4 weeks but to be honest my boys were quiet and texas am so no chest signs even when gals started to lay then all of a sudden starts crowing when they hit maturity was about 7-8 weeks then started to mate around 9-10 weeks if that helps xx

 

[MadamContrary]

What type of quail? Natural colored Coturnix can be sexed as soon as the breast feathers come in. Speckled breast are female and rusty colored with less/no speckling are male. Other colors you'll usually have to wait until they begin to call. Not sure about other types like Bob whites.