Will Jumbo Coturnix and Texas A&Ms get along?

[beakmaster]

I recently moved 5 hours away and was unable to take my birds with. I was worried they would not be welcome in my new neighborhood and didn't have the room in the moving truck to take my pens. I was able to barter my birds to a neighbor whom had taken a liking to the eggs I had gave him and the new hobby. While the 29 birds have a great new home, I was sad to give them up. I am able to have birds in the new yard so I have built a lot bigger cage, incubator and about 90 eggs (20 jumbos+ 60 A&Ms) I do however have 2 questions, 1 will these 2 breeds get along? and 2 will these birds mix if kept in the same pen? I have had jumbos before but never A&Ms. Thanks in advance for any help on this subject.

 

[bryan8]

Yes, there not differnt breeds but rather just color strains! Enjoy your new birds!

Bryan

 

[Sycamore27]

While they will get along perfectly fine you might find that they don't interbreed as much as you might expect. I have one A&M hen in with some browns and the roo doesn't mate her at all, I've heard the same from several other people so it seems to be a bit common for them.
The only way that might be any kind of problem is in regard to getting fertile eggs, but if you keep large mixed coveys of both color birds so there are roos and hens of each in a pen then you shouldn't have any problems there.

Cheers,
Jessie

 

[beakmaster]

I just ordered 60 A&Ms (for my large incubator) and I have 20 jumbo in my small incubator now. So I will have some cross breeding with a group like that? I have heard the A&Ms are a white me bird, it that true? Thanks

 

[Sycamore27]

I just ordered 60 A&Ms (for my large incubator) and I have 20 jumbo in my small incubator now. So I will have some cross breeding with a group like that? I have heard the A&Ms are a white me bird, it that true? Thanks

Again, I would think it would depend on how you divide them, if at all. I can't speak from experience on larger groupings like that, only my own small covey and what I have heard from a few others whose flock size I haven't really known. It would naturally depend on what sexes you actually have hatch too. I imagine if you only had A&M roos and brown hens or some such they would make do with those available to them. Hopefully someone with more of a mixed flock can tell you how that works.

A&Ms are not white meat, if that's what you meant. Paler flesh than jumbos sometimes, but by no means white meat. That's a myth that tends to be spread by breeders. They are the same species and activity level and thus will be no different texture wise. Most report that after processing, especially if skinning, they can't tell one from the other.

Cheers,
Jessie

 

[beakmaster]

Thanks for the help. Durham puts you right in the war zone so to speak. Are you a blue devil or a tarheel? I am grew up in Winston-Salem/Greensboro area myself.
I was hoping to get a bird more palatable to my wife and daughter in the A&M, they don't have a taste for the dark meat from the quail I have previously grown. My son and I can't get enough though. Compared to wild turkey and dove that I have harvested from the wild I wouldn't even consider quail dark. Thanks for your help.

 

[Sycamore27]

Thanks for the help. Durham puts you right in the war zone so to speak. Are you a blue devil or a tarheel? I am grew up in Winston-Salem/Greensboro area myself.
I was hoping to get a bird more palatable to my wife and daughter in the A&M, they don't have a taste for the dark meat from the quail I have previously grown. My son and I can't get enough though. Compared to wild turkey and dove that I have harvested from the wild I wouldn't even consider quail dark. Thanks for your help.

I'm purely civilian in the matter, I love walking around Duke campus and the forests and all but I don't care to pull for the teams. Never much of a sports person. I work back and forth between Durham and Chapel Hill so all those conversations are very much background noise to me.

Good luck with the A&Ms, it seems like a lot of that is perception so perhaps if you maintain to them that they're all white meat birds they'll be swayed to give them a fair second chance.

Definitely the more range and flying space a bird has the darker the meat, I'm a big dark meat fan so quail are a very sensible meat source for my tastes. Some day I may try aviary style raising to up the ante on that.

Cheers,
Jessie

 

[beakmaster]

Good answer, I am sorry to put you on the spot. I am not a sports fan either.
That's a clever plan but they are rather sly and aware that I am prone to trickery. I have thought of bringing a rotisserie bird home from the store and when I am about to serve it up make a switch. They would eat the quail and only then I would reveal the truth. If I could get away with it....if not more for me and my son. The kids are funny, the girl loves the quail eggs and the boy loves the quail meat. Thanks