White quail are trouble

[CovidtimeQuail]

My observation, that's all. I have two in this batch and they've already taken to establishing their pecking order although though they are only two birds out of eight. They're only one week old.

The weird thing is that I didn't think I bred any white genes in this last round since I've had trouble integrating them in the past.

 

[NY Coturnix]

I only have a couple but have found them quite calm compared to the golden/Italian colored ones.

I honestly don't think color has anything to do with it. I've heard the same thing with silvers.

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

I only have a couple but have found them quite calm compared to the golden/Italian colored ones.

I honestly don't think color has anything to do with it. I've heard the same thing with silvers.

You're right. I think it amounts to overall balance and breeding stock. I asked the experts here and everyone had a different color that was problematic for them. For me, it's white.

 

[NY Coturnix]

I think what could make certain colors be problematic for some is that when people breed for color specifically they may not be looking at the other genetic traits involved and only be looking at color. Same could be said for size. If you only breed large quail and don't take care to weed out the aggressive ones before you know it you could say "All large quail are aggressive" when someone else could have the same large size quail that are calm because the trait had been monitored to breed calm as well as large. Make sense?

There are people on here that know way more about genetics than I do but just wanted to throw that out there.

 

[Shannon Robinson50]

I just hatched my first quail yesterday, so I can’t comment on them, but we stopped raising Rhode island roosters, because they were too protective of their hens. We couldn’t collect eggs. I’m hopping that our quail aren’t too homicidal, as we are building an aviary setting for them. We can’t wait for eggs and for meat from extra males. We hatched out 41 ssc.

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

Congratulations. With 41 quail, you should have plenty good eating.

 

[Shannon Robinson50]

We also have 60 more in the incubator.

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

We also have 60 more in the incubator.

OMG! Good luck!

 

[FloorCandy]

I have 2 partial albinos, and they are super docile. Their group lives indoors and I often give them chicks to brood, which they happily do, especially the male. My Myshire snowies had several with bad attitudes and or aggression issues, some I culled, and some were fixed by a day in quail jail. I think it comes down to selecting calm birds and culling aggressive ones. Also it is not uncommon for quail to be visually racist lol. They often do not like birds that are different colors from them, I often find roux to be singled out and picked on more than others, so I try to raise any I keep with some reds so they’re used to them.

 

[Shannon Robinson50]

The chicks that are reddish and brown did get picked on at first, but now they all get along. The well behaved ones get more attention, and ours seem to be attention hounds.they have started running over the runts, so we may put them into the second brooder today. No overt acts of aggression, just not accommodating the tiny ones. They are feathering at the same rate as the others, just small.