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

[MobyQuail]

Rocky Mountain Division reporting in:
Selling the jumbo egg from the Tatanka line is all my customers expect now. If I slip in a small egg from the other lines, it just looks bad. These eggs as you can see FILL the carton space. NOW, I sell mine at $6. I will be bumping up the price for the GMO free.

I have such incredible demand for these large eggs that it has reached all the way to Northern Colorado and out to Montana now. I have a mother of twin baby boys who need an alternative egg for food reaction reasons. She was hopelessly seeking out different eggs and having a hard time...So now ...I have to provide 12 doz every three weeks to 3 natral food stores, 100 per week to a Sushi Establishment. 12 doz every three weeks to Boulder Co and 10 or 12 doz every three weeks to Monanta.

Momma Montana was near tears when she told me there was NO ONE in the WEST providing a quaility large organic/ or even just regular Quail egg. These eggs are big enough, that a family, literally relying on them as the only digestable type of protein they can consume, make the $5 or $6. spent, worth it... The larger egg can feed a little one with less eggs used. It used to take 5 quail eggs to equal the Chicken egg.

Moby...help me here. The eggs we are producing out of these girls...they lessen the need of quail eggs to fulfil that measurment equaling a chicken egg. Even if it were only by one egg.. that is still saving the consumer by offering a quality egg of a type of proetein that they CAN eat.


Anyway...you can see what my delivery needs are...Well a long time 4-H friend and mentor has been watching my progress. We had talked long prior to meeting up with and joining in with the Tatanka. We saw the niche. He is watching the shelves...He approached me in the last month and told me that they are gone in the first week I place them...then the customers are waiting. So I have to up this production....Get them out faster...So now I have my partner and we are going to fully service our area with this huge laid back bird.
What I like about them as a different perspective than say the meat quality (and forgive me Moby...but I sell eggs using the Tatanka..they are too big not to sell to these families who need them..they are PERFECT for the family who have reactive (egg allergic) children. It isn't a rip off to sell this SIZE of an egg to these families who need it. So here are some of the benefits the Rocky Mountain division sees in the Tatanka and why I choose to keep my clean line running and expanding:
1. They don't fight and scalp eachother!!!!
2. They don't jump up and bonk and die just cause I feed them.
3. When they are this calm, they handle shifting from cage to cage or different locations with literally no disruption in their behavior or outward observable stress levels.
4. Food conversion...I get more egg for my money in feed. Yes they mature out fast and big and require some feed...but the SIZE OF EGG I am able to provide my consumer has set a new standard. PERIOD.

My covey is now tripled in size. I did not have any other successful hatches other than the Tatanka over the winter. I tried. I bought other sources with no luck and hatched side by side some of the pay it forward Tatanka. Tatanka hatched. So now the Slowsprings Quail house of the Rocky Mountain Division is tripled utilizing Tatanka through survival of the fitest, and will be doubling that size with my parner who saw me struggling to fulfill the consumer demand in only one city in a multi city County. On that note.....

The west has yet to be touched. When you have a Montana mom calling me (in SW Colorado) after seeing these eggs in the natural food store while visiting here...and stating she can find them no where in the Rocky West....The Rocky Mountain West is prime territory... A vast (forgive me but it's true) frontier for these Tatanka... Now I have a restaurant (high quality) wanting them after offering a 30 pack like Moby pictured....Easter special salad, into summer... and eventually meat for her Christmas special. I am sorry to brag but these eggs are the talk of the town and nice restaurants are contacting me. Thank you partner (you know who you are you awesome man...he's here) for coming forward to help me build more infrastructure, deliver, produce....
You can too you know. I have contributed a sticky to help you get started selling the eggs.."a sample plan" if you will...

Thank you for putting out the work Moby. I wanted to report in. I have been busy keeping orders filled (near impossible) and hatching more and more.
So easy to handle these birds...what a relief...particularly in the Quail world....a docile huge Coturnix Quail...unheard of till now. I love it. Now that I have a partner...We are gonna love it even more.
I had been using a cage with flooring not designed for Quail (you know the bars across the floor parakeet cage....changed that!!!). My partner...much more experienced in all Poultry pointed out to me how to keep the birds more comfortable...and fit, building more muscle through movement and developing tone. Much like you would do with a Beef sSteer or Market Lamb. One simple adjustment fixed it and these Tatanka are flourishing BIG, with BIG EGGS.

Moby, I hope you don't mind I checked in to report on the Rocky Mtn Division. and what we are seeing...developing...We are going places with these giants... Thank you Fat Daddy, Moby, and ultimately Buttercup for keeping the line alive and futher improving upon it with documentation, scienced based research and citation. It was much needed and we are on our way.. Incredible and I feel so fortunate to be part of the "movement of improvement"..

Thanks again.
Tonya

Awesome!

thank you Tonya!

 

[MobyQuail]

Ok TD, Yes, the Northeast facility has offered these eggs to the local public for about 3 months now. The response from my local community has been incredible. I'm currently running 30 laying hens, churning out the eggs daily, and I have sold so many, and currently have a backlog of pre-orders, that it has been difficult for me to save enough to load my incubators. Add in the recent "giftings" that I have sent out, and I probably should increase my laying flock to 50 hens.

So far, I have sold all of my eggs locally, with customers/breeders meeting with me, and checking out the birds in person, in all stages of growth. Although I have had increased requests from my ad to ship eggs, I have yet to send any out, and still prefer to look the person in the eye before I let these eggs leave my farm. I haven't ruled out shipping, and am still considering doing so. I have been hesitant to ship them to avoid having people "claim them" as their own project, and later make false public statements about the "line", as you have already witnessed here in this section. Below is a copy of my ad, and you will notice that these birds are never referred to as the Tatanka line.

http://providence.craigslist.org/grd/2827780609.html

Northeast upgrading production
Rocky Mountain upgrading production

guess Southeast will have to up production, gonna fill the bator every full moon with browns and splits. the more splits I get the better the potential for a big white down the line and we all know thats what I am hunting the "white buffalo".

Mille thank you for keeping your ad concise, one of the better I have seen.

forward together, TD

 

[MobyQuail]

we did an eggtopsy after the first setting of F2 splits we set 10 eggs, of the eggs that did not hatch we did an eggtopsy. looks like 2 early quitters and 1 late.



We are set to lockdown our 5th setting of this cross tonight, just 5 eggs, the 6th setting has 5 more in 5 more days
With the lockdown tonight we also bred the F1 split roo back to the largest white hen P1 and 5 of her eggs are set to hatch

-- and going back to our blackratbook

when different known lines are brought together for a breeding the offspring may all appear to be robust and free of any unwanted genetic issues.

Test breeding the siblings and/or breeding an offspring back to the parent can help to identify undesirable traits by doubling up on the recessives of the two different parents.
It is said, by some, that test breeding can create offspring with genetic issues. This is true at times, and yet it is important that this be done so that the health and viability of the new line can be evaluated and possibly discontinued if there are problems.
Without multiple close test breeding negative recessive traits are swept under the rug and may be perpetuated indefinitely only to resurface later in a much larger gene pool.

-- and then

It seems a common practice in some parts of the fancy to outcross repeatedly (generation after generation) without testing for health issues, and without stopping to evaluate the rats, without attempting to set desirable traits, etc. This practice does not meet the definition of having a line(s) and should not be referred to as such.

Outcrossing can be used to strengthen or add a trait to a line, but it is the inbreeding of those offspring back to the foundation line that helps it to remain true to the original definition of a line.

Animals outcrossed whose offspring are bred to the outcrossed animals would become a related or sub line, but would denote a new line or “branch.”

So we are performing our test breeding the siblings through the first 6 settings and the 6th setting also includes crossing back to the outcross

the cross back to the outcross should give us Br/wh x wh/wh and we are going to end up with in theory more white birds than our split x split cross
in this scenario we should expect 74.9% white birds with 24.9% brown bird which is actually a split and we know its a split, interesting way to get whites and splits that you can tell are splits at hatch.

 

[yinepu]

 

[MobyQuail]

these eggs are headed back to Texas, I find that funny, last year at this time the eggs were headed from Texas to Kansas (bill), Bill then sent them to me, and now after a few generations, they are headed back to Texas.

Didnt zero the scale out so subtract ~56 grams, the 30 eggs avg ~14.5, no double-yolkers, take into account the ones marked with a "B" are a brown tatanka roo over my white hens, their eggs are just over 14 grams too,
but not as large as the Tatanka hens so they may be bringing the avg down here a lil.

since we are hoping some of these make the trip and hatch, we should point out this thread on hatchability.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatchability-problem-analysis

very good read...

 

[MobyQuail]

Moby...help me here. The eggs we are producing out of these girls...they lessen the need of quail eggs to fulfil that measurment equaling a chicken egg. Even if it were only by one egg.. that is still saving the consumer by offering a quality egg of a type of proetein that they CAN eat.

Tonya, the avg. japanese quail egg is ~9 grams, avg chicken egg ~56, the avg "Tatanka" egg is 14g, and if we only set eggs that are 14g+ should help our goal to create a group of birds that only lay eggs that are a half ounce.

We have talked before how much nicer it would be to sell a dozen quail eggs that weighed 168 grams = 6 oz, than it is to see a dozen quail eggs coming in at just 120 grams = just over 4 oz.

and hey I like easy math, 14 grams = half ounce, 2 eggs = 1 ounce, 100 eggs = 50 oz. etc.

here is the chart we talk about. here is the standard quail egg at 9 grams




and here is the nutrition data for 1 ounce (28g) of Quail eggs, just 2 Tatanka eggs (2x14g), instead of 3 standard quail eggs (3x9g).





and to answer your question: ."they lessen the need of quail eggs to fulfil that measurment equaling a chicken egg. Even if it were only by one egg."

actually, avg standard quail egg at 9 grams, Tatanka egg at 14 g and chicken egg at 56 grams

would take 6 standard quail eggs (6x9g) to equal 54g or about one large chicken egg

and it would take only 4 Tatanka Quail eggs (4x14g) to equal 56g or one large chicken egg.

 

[MobyQuail]

we have pipping on our 5th set of test eggs.
these will be version v2.24.2012 from v10.27.2011 F1 split x split,
and a backcross with a double pike twist F1 split X P1 white.
out of the ten set eggs we should see more whites? almost a 50/50 mix.
the F1 split x split should give us 25% brown, 50% splits (brown colored) with 25% white
the F1 split x P1 white should give us 75% white with 25% splits.

here is the P1 we are backcrossing to, my old favorite, one of Miss Ruth's best, pure white birds over 300g+
this pic is her best one, its been around, sorry.



and the other P1 white bird, again over 300g, we used to get the F1 Splits. remember, we bred a Brown Tatanka roo to both these white hens.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

TD-

You are The Man and this thread is awesome! I have no idea how I missed it 'till now. Nice website too. I love all the data, info and records! I would be honored to be your "Western Division" in California to work with the Tatankas.

 

[MobyQuail]

Thank you Cari! that is awesome, you are in. The Tatankas have a "Cali" connection.

We will be honored to have you aboard, like the work you do with your wheaten ameraucanas.

and just 4 out so far, 2 white, 2 brown.

 

[MobyQuail]

ok, is everyone up to speed? cause we are gonna hit the gas a little...