What feather color is this? (Coturnix Pics included)

[MiracleHatch]

I’m a chicken breeder turned new Coturnix quail keeper when a breeder friend gave me 9 quail. They are now 4.5 weeks old. They are all supposed to be standard brown/Pharaoh but two have barring on their chests and are a different pattern & shade than the others.

Can anyone tell me what this color is called?
Or what is crossed to make this color?


It seems to not be feather sexable. Is that correct? Or do I have 2 females here and males actually would have some rust color somewhere?

 

[MDBird]

Sorry not sure about the colors, but those are some pretty birds!

 

[Kale the Quail]

I’m not to knowledgeable about feather colouring, but out of the ones I know I think it looks like some sort of grau fee or something...

@Nabiki

 

[Nabiki]

@muddy75 is much better at colours than I am.

 

[MiracleHatch]

Here is one of the other hens. She’s quite gray and I’m thinking there *might* be Schofield Silver in her lineage (as in she’s half pharaoh, half Schofield).

Edited to add: after more research I think she has the Fee gene and is actually a Falb Fee hen.

 

[MiracleHatch]

Some more info: These quail hatched from eggs a breeder friend of mine got from a quail breeder who said they were “standard brown”. The eggs were standard size but some were blueish with brown speckles.

My friend gave me 9 and kept 2 (another gray/brown barred and the only golden colored one that hatched which looked like an Italian to my newbie eyes). She decided to do celadons instead.

Out of my 9 I have 2 grayish brown barred (shown in above pictures; sex unknown), 2 Falb fee hens, 1 Pharaoh hen, 4 Pharaoh males.

I’m guessing the breeder had purchased a few of each of a couple different types, let them mix, probably including some celadon, and this is what is coming out a generation or two later.

Are the barred birds some type of Tibetan dilute?

 

[FloorCandy]

I’m a chicken breeder turned new Coturnix quail keeper when a breeder friend gave me 9 quail. They are now 4.5 weeks old. They are all supposed to be standard brown/Pharaoh but two have barring on their chests and are a different pattern & shade than the others.

Can anyone tell me what this color is called?
Or what is crossed to make this color?


It seems to not be feather sexable. Is that correct? Or do I have 2 females here and males actually would have some rust color somewhere?

I’m not an expert, but I think that is grau fee, which is fee+Tibetan/Rosetta.
I believe the other is falb fee, pharaoh+fee.

 

[MiracleHatch]

I’m not an expert, but I think that is grau fee, which is fee+Tibetan/Rosetta.
I believe the other is falb fee, pharaoh+fee.

Thank you so much! All my research had led to the same conclusions: Falb fee and likely a type of Grau Fee.