What color are these? Help! All you Quail experts.

[BirdCrazyLady]

Hello all, I have several different color varieties popping up in my quail flock. I started out with a batch of jumbo eggs from a very mixed pen, as well as a batch of Stellar Gamebirds brown jumbos. I have had them in basically 2 batches, all the colors in one with extra Stellar roos, and the stellar birds in another. I have been hatch, hatch, hatching away to get a good amount of hens to choose from, and now want to start selectively breeding.
Could you possibly help me with color identification, and maybe some helpful, hints, tips, ideas on how to set up my pens to breed for more color as well as larger birds, Thank you so much in advance.

bird # 1 hen- this bird is HUGE she came from the mixed pen but is the same size or bigger than my Stellar Jumbos What color is she?

Bird # 2 Roo

Bird #3 Roo
Bird #4 hen she looks like hen #1 but muted not as pale as hen #5 though
Bird # 5 Hen ( I actually have two just like this)

Bird #6 tux! roo
all of them in a group with a wild hen for comparison

 

[BirdCrazyLady]

I also have these reddish birds. Are they Scarlet Tux? they are all hens- poor things have had some head feathers pulled out!

 

[TheRealTimShady]

Hello all, I have several different color varieties popping up in my quail flock. I started out with a batch of jumbo eggs from a very mixed pen, as well as a batch of Stellar Gamebirds brown jumbos. I have had them in basically 2 batches, all the colors in one with extra Stellar roos, and the stellar birds in another. I have been hatch, hatch, hatching away to get a good amount of hens to choose from, and now want to start selectively breeding.
Could you possibly help me with color identification, and maybe some helpful, hints, tips, ideas on how to set up my pens to breed for more color as well as larger birds, Thank you so much in advance.

bird # 1 hen- this bird is HUGE she came from the mixed pen but is the same size or bigger than my Stellar Jumbos What color is she?

Golden hen
Bird # 2 Roo

looks like a golden/manchurian mix
Bird #3 Roo
Manchurian
Bird #4 hen she looks like hen #1 but muted not as pale as hen #5 though
she kinda looks like a roux diluite

another roux looking color
Bird # 5 Hen ( I actually have two just like this)

both of these are pharaohs, looks to be a slight golden gene in there somewhere maybe
Bird #6 tux! roo
Pharaoh tux
all of them in a group with a wild hen for comparison

i just commented under each photo

 

[TheRealTimShady]

as for the other hen, yea she looks to be a red range tux, with some pharaoh in there

 

[MobyQuail]

#5 looks roux to me, the others look like fawn/roux splits. maybe some single factor fawn and roux in there, to peg it down would have to run some test crosses

pretty birds

here is a roux hen from my pen her color code is Wh+Wh+brb (brb) yw+yw+ e+e+ pi pi, the brb is the roux gene

 

[MobyQuail]

by fawn/roux splits I mean they could be

roux italian
roux manchurian
roux split italian
roux split manchurian

your roux splits will usually show the dilute brown look in females only.
males carrying one copy of roux are usually brown and you cant see the recessive roux gene like you can with the females.

birds coming from mixed pens are hard to tell exactly, getting an "italian" fawn single factor bird descended from a "roux italian", which you would get crossing the roux italian to a pure wildtype you may find the darker colors are actually lighter than normal, like using a splash x blue chicken instead of a blue x black cross to get your blues. the blue x splash cross usually dilutes the black outlines more than the black x blue cross would

all the same theory in feathers 101

 

[MobyQuail]

and very pretty birds btw

 

[dt1958]

First of all I would start with birds that breed true, if they dont breed true there is no telling what the breeder you bought your birds from has crossed into them & when you hatch eggs from those birds there will be no telling what youre going to get until you hatch some, Ive had the same issue with eggs ive purchased in the past, was told they were one thing & after I raised them & hatched some of the eggs I would end up with all kinds of different birds, you just have to be carefull nowadays because there are a lot of people out there that will sell you & tell you they are one thing to only find out later (after hatching some out) that they are a mixed batch (what I call mutts) of birds, so please do yourself a favor & make sure where you get you birds from that they will indeed breed true, if you do that you will get a decent start !!!

 

[BirdCrazyLady]

Thank you all for your replies! Moby Quail, I found your comment on the Roux splits only showing up in females very interesting. I went and looked in all my pens, and I have 2-4 Roux birds in each age group, that are all Female. Just like you said. So the question is if they are splits, I would have to breed them to the male splits to create more, correct? But how in the world do I find the male splits? Without tons of test breedings. If it works like my lavender chickens, I could breed a brown to the roux splits and then I would have 50% brown and 50% split. But none would show up Roux. So test breedings again. Is there another way?

I have these birds mainly for eating and selling some eggs, so if working on a color on the side is a fun venture, that I can work on and eat up the mistakes. Then I am happy. I would like to work towards colors that breed true though, then add size.

 

[BirdCrazyLady]

First of all I would start with birds that breed true, if they don't breed true there is no telling what the breeder you bought your birds from has crossed into them & when you hatch eggs from those birds there will be no telling what youre going to get until you hatch some, Ive had the same issue with eggs ive purchased in the past, was told they were one thing & after I raised them & hatched some of the eggs I would end up with all kinds of different birds, you just have to be carefull nowadays because there are a lot of people out there that will sell you & tell you they are one thing to only find out later (after hatching some out) that they are a mixed batch (what I call mutts) of birds, so please do yourself a favor & make sure where you get you birds from that they will indeed breed true, if you do that you will get a decent start !!!

dt1958
I have also had many instances of buying "purebreds" to only end up with mutts a generation or so down the line when funky things start to hatch out! Like buying 30 Blue Laced Red Wayandottes only to have 4 hatch and one a Turken. So I agree with you there, it is very frustrating. Luckily I bought some of my quail knowing that was the case. Though I do have some Pure birds from Stellar Game birds that I am happy with, and are huge! I would love a journey of playing with colors, and maybe create some birds on my own, that breed pure. I can always eat them if they don't work out!
I see you are in Harlingen. So nice to meet you!! I am a fellow Rio Grande Valley girl, I live in Mercedes/ Progreso area. I wonder if I know you. Do you have A&M quail, Pheasants, and Marans?