What did I hatch? Coturnix Genetics Questions.

[chrishel]

OK. Here's what I started with. The breeders are from eggs that I hatched from Quaillady.

From left to right: Tiramisu, Italian Hen; Dot, English White Hen; Houdini, Dark Range Hen; Tamale, English White Roo; Tiny (smallest chick that of course is now the biggest of the bunch), English White Hen

And my other roo, Curious George, a red range tux

Also, my crazy roo, Pokey, who is a normal brown. And when I say "normal", I mean coloring, not personality.

Pokey got conjugal visits. Maybe only 2 and he only mates with white birds, doesn't matter if they are a hen or a roo.

So as you can imagine, I got a bunch of colors and patterns of chicks:

They are starting to feather out, so I'll post the most interesting ones (to me) in my next post.

 

[chrishel]

The chicks are a little over 2 weeks old now and here's a picture of the interesting ones:

In the very back is a red range tux, (2) ? (these look like wild type pattern, but darker colored), in the back is a dark range tux, in the front is the back of one of my ? birds, then a roux dilute ? and then in the far right back is my single Italian Chick.

Any thoughts on what the ? chicks are? They are all darker or lighter than a normal brown, but patterned like a normal brown with more spots on their breasts. That is, unless they are all hens?

Also, I have a few English Whites and two came out with spots on their backs as well as their heads. One has spots like a wild type brown, the stripes follow the quill. The other has stripes that go across like a dark range. I tried to take a picture, but it's a little blurry. I thought this one was interesting because I thought all English Whites had just wild type spots and I know Quaillady has a project to create some different colored spotted English Whites.

 

[snyd08]

you seem to know what you have... theres one bird that im in queestion on... the "roux" possible bird. idk much about those but it is certainly different looking...your spotted whites are perfectly normal. most whites have spots on the head/and/or backs.. very common.(more common than an all white one)...btw that looks like a fantastic hatch from only a select number of breeders and GREAT variety. congrats on that hatch...

 

[Missi]

OMG They are gorrrrrgeous & I love the adults' names! Especially Tiramisu & Curious George!

 

[chrishel]

Thank you! They are a little ratty since they don't have a sandbox. I haven't figured out how to give them one without having them make a complete mess in the house.

The kids named Curious George and Tamale. Luckily, George turned out to be a boy! I named Tiramisu since my daughter wanted to name her "Oddy."

I don't know if the color is really "Roux" or not. I just know they aren't "normal" browns. I was counting how many dark chicks there were since I started with 43 eggs, so 11 eggs were from the dark range hen, but there are more than 11 dark chicks so maybe the Italian +Red Range gave some dark ones as well?

I suppose, I should tally what colors I have. I did expect some normal browns out of this mix, but I don't think I got any!

 

[The Critter Place]

They are a little ratty since they don't have a sandbox. I haven't figured out how to give them one without having them make a complete mess in the house.

Aw...Their kids, just let them make a mess.

And they will! I can't believe how far mine fling sand. LOL!

You could get a plastic tote, cut out part of the lid and attach wire, and just put a few in at a time every couple of days.

I had given mine a shoe box thinking that would be good with high sides. Wrong!

And you should have seen them pile in! 5 jumbo in one shoe box! It was funny.

Bath time is alot of fun to watch, try making them a tote.

They are beautiful birds! And love the names too! we have a parakeet named Taco (came with the name) lol. Names should be fun.

We had one keep escaping the brooder my son was calling Houdini, and the runt was pee wee.​

 

[TheRealTimShady]

Quote:

thats what they look like to me, the Roux you can tell b/c of the lighter red/brown wild color, their eyes should give off a red glare as well, almost like albino.

as far as your whites, most of them, as you say, have some sort of spot on them. and yes quaillady is working on a golden tuxedo with a full golden back and white underbelly, i don't believe she has gotten EXACTLY what she wanted, but it is in the works.

 

[chrishel]

The problem with naming birds is that you never know what sex they are until after you've named them. So ours get named unisex names. Our budgies are Green Bean, Blueberry, and Jumbles, and my daughter's lovebird is Milk Dud. That makes 46 birds in one room. The chicks have to move out soon. The two brooders aren't big enough. At night, it's like one complete layer of chicks.

I was thinking about using a cat litter box to see if that would help keep the sand in.

Houdini got her name since she escaped the brooder and disappeared. I found her in another bedroom closet. If she's out and notices the bedroom door is open, she's gone. Also, sometimes if I glance at her, I can't tell at first which is her head and which is her tail, at first. I think it's because she's almost nearly black.

 

[snyd08]

Quote:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s180/bigbopperdo/yourbirds.jpg
thats what they look like to me, the Roux you can tell b/c of the lighter red/brown wild color, their eyes should give off a red glare as well, almost like albino.

as far as your whites, most of them, as you say, have some sort of spot on them. and yes quaillady is working on a golden tuxedo with a full golden back and white underbelly, i don't believe she has gotten EXACTLY what she wanted, but it is in the works.

1 is a red range

 

[TheRealTimShady]

best sand box i can think of is a high wall litter box, with a small cutout for them to walk into it