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

[quailmann]

Hi dt1958,

Do you have daily weights of your chicks? How long do you go line breeding before you add new blood? How many generations?

 

[dt1958]

Hi dt1958,

Do you have daily weights of your chicks? How long do you go line breeding before you add new blood? How many generations?

No daily weights, I try to weigh them once a week or when I clean the brooders. So far I haven't added any new blood, I still have a few pairs of my original stock (albeit they are getting old) that I work with along with their offspring.

 

[quailmann]

No daily weights, I try to weigh them once a week or when I clean the brooders. So far I haven't added any new blood, I still have a few pairs of my original stock (albeit they are getting old) that I work with along with their offspring.

I see, Moby standards say `80g at 2 weeks. I have a few who are 72/73 grams. Hoping to use them as breeders.
How far have you come (generations) without adding new stock?
I presume you are doing Mother/ Son, Father/ Daughter matings?
Also what is the proper definition of a Generation?

Sorry for the newbie confusion

 

[MobyQuail]

80g at 14 days is the first # I came up with for a standard, the updated # I shoot for is 84g=3 oz at 14 days.
I have some birds from my first test hatch last weekend, only setting eggs from a few select birds that lay dark brown camo eggs at least 14grams. (<14 grams, and brown colored eggs are the Tatanka standard we set-nice to see it catching on- we have definitely raised the bar for the jumbo species of coturnix)
at 7 days the test hatch birds are 47g, 46g and 43 grams. I expect they will hit the 84g mark by day 14.

 

[quailmann]

Yes your work is admirable. I followed all your threads. I'm starting this with stock in which females are max 210g and males 190g. I'm feeding them broiler starter 21% protein as thats the best I can find. After day 5 started mixing 20% soy bean meal to it to up the protein. Let's see what happens

You separate breeders at what age? I'm working with 200 chicks at the moment

 

[MobyQuail]

I try to move the advantaged birds into their own digs and away from the riff raff around 4-5 weeks. once the males start chasing females and each other, the energy they take in is used towards other pursuits rather than gaining weight.

 

[dt1958]

Here are the weights that were taken on 12/13/14.

Hatched on 11/16/14 (27-days old on 12/13/14)
178M, 202F, 205M, 196F, 221M, 190F, 161F, 206M (I see a few potential keepers here)

Hatched on 11/26/14 (17-days old on 12/13/14)
126W, 112F, 128M, 138M, 126F, 135F, 143F, 104M, 120W, 106W, 136W, 110W, 132M, 147F, 137M, 121M, 141F, 125F, 140F, 122F, 136M, 127M, 140M, 134M (geez, a lot of males in this batch)

Hatched on 12/6/14 (7-days old on 12/3/14)
45,41,49,45,33,44,42,45,48,46,42,43,41,43W,31,42,42,40,43,41,33,41,44,46,42,36,37,47W

Next hatch due on 12/17/14


14 days ~84g
21 days ~130g
28 days ~200g
42 days = 280g+

Fat Daddy Clause
56 days ~350+

 

[dt1958]

Here's the photos of the above weights.
Hatched on 11/16/14 (27-days old)

 

[dt1958]

Here's the photos of the batch that was hatched on 11/26/14 (17-days old)

 

[dt1958]

And Here's the batch that was hatched on 12/6/14 (7-days old)