Worn feathers from mating

[beepbeepinajeep]

I am trying to determine which of our quail are female & will probably eat some of our males if I can get brave enough to 'process' them (and is there a resource for how to process quail... I would want to be as humane as possible esp since I think I might have a hard time doing it esp. that first time.) I have noticed that some of the quail have feathers worn not at the neck, but further down the back. I know some colors & the A&M aren't able to be sexed by color (or can I sex by beak color?). Thanks for the help

 

[shelleyd2008]

Missing feathers on the back can be due to picking. My young females seem to lose their head feathers if there are too many males, the only ones with back feathers missing from breeding are my older tuxedos, cause there was 2 females and 1 male.

monarc23 has a post in the meat birds forum on how to process them.

 

[monarc23]

Like Shelley says.

But if you have a large golden pen like me (that includes browns as well) with 3 roos and 15 hens, and some of those hens willingly lay down everytime a roo walks near them, they end up loosing feathers regardless, now mind you, these birds aren't bare backed they just dont have their outer feathers on their back, showing the dark grey down.