Tatanka Breeders Club: Meat Quail project with history, discussion, pictures and videos

[dt1958]

Planning on weighing all the above birds again this weekend, I'm really looking forward to see how many of the 12/6/14 hatch (which will be 14 days old) make the "84g" mark. We only keep birds that make the standards set for the Tatanka's.

 

[quailmann]

The birds are beautiful and the numbers are impressive. Do you colony breed? Or what is your setup?
Has anyone been able to achieve uniform chicks (by size) out of their hatches?

 

[dt1958]

The birds are beautiful and the numbers are impressive. Do you colony breed? Or what is your setup?
Has anyone been able to achieve uniform chicks (by size) out of their hatches?

I have most of my pens set up for "Quads" (1-male / 3-females). Seems like there is always a few birds that don't live up to the standards and that is the reason that we cull very hard and only keep the best birds out of each hatch. "Keep The Best & Eat The Rest"

 

[dt1958]

Tatanka's hatched on 12/18/14. (19) total, 15 browns / 4 white

 

[dt1958]

Here's my 14 day weigh in on 26 Tatanka's that were hatched on 12/6/14. Weights and photos below. We're looking for 84g"s / 3-ozs at 14 days. We are always looking for birds that gain the weight the fastest, the quicker they make that weight the better = the less feed used = less cost to produce per bird up to butcher size.

88,101,104,89,103,107,99,98,80,101,103,101W,109W,
98,111,107,95,98,114,106,109,102,93,94,89,82,82,107

 

[dt1958]

We will be weighing our 11/16 hatch which will be 35 days old & our 11/26 hatch which will be 25 days old tomorrow. Looking forward to see how these are progressing

 

[quailmann]

We will be weighing our 11/16 hatch which will be 35 days old & our 11/26 hatch which will be 25 days old tomorrow. Looking forward to see how these are progressing

looking forward to it
btw, for how long (age) do you use the towels and do they clean easy? daily cleaning?

 

[hardscaper87]

I am very impressed with your groups work. I currently have a covey of 20 coturnix and have experienced that my buff males tended to be a bit larger than the wild type browns at the time of processing. I have definitely learned a thing or two from you guys and keep up the great documentation!

 

[dt1958]

looking forward to it
btw, for how long (age) do you use the towels and do they clean easy? daily cleaning?

In the brooders I use the rubber shelf liner (can be found at any dollar store), when I first started raising quail I used to wash & reuse the liner. But now I just replace it as needed, as for cleaning it all depends on how many birds that are in the brooder, the more birds the more often it needs cleaning.

 

[dt1958]

Got busy here yesterday & weighed / moved & dispatched some older birds to make room for this years hatches. Weighed the birds that were hatched on 11/16/14 which made them 41 days old yesterday. As you can see out of 8 birds there are only 3 that clearly made the cut (280g) to be considered a Tatanka breeder.

Weights: 293F(keeper), 270F, 237F, 243F, 286M(keeper), 286M(keeper), 247M, 240M