Breeding Coturnix Quail For Dummies

[mdees88]

I talked to Robbie from JMF a while back before I got my birds and he gave me more info than I could handle over the phone and alot of it went right over my head...

I want to establish a simple breeding program for jumbo pharaoh quail. I want to keep the size up and continually hatch healthy chicks while adding as little new blood as necessary.

I have nine 6sqft cages available for different "lines"? I know VERY little about genetics. From my research it seems that breeding brother sister is asking for trouble and I should breed father/daughter?

Basically I'm hoping someone can give me a crash course in line/inbreeding, genetics, etc. I see "F1", "F2", "lines", "crosses" and I'm not 100% sure what they mean.

If anyone can explain how I can setup up a simple breeding program or refer me to an article, thread, or specific post that details how to setup a breeding program (without going straight over my head) I would greatly appreciate it....

 

[Fishkeeper]

What's the goal? To have a steady supply of meat birds that you've bred yourself?

 

[DK newbie]

In general you should just keep the best birds (best is defined by what you want - docile, healthy, heavy, many eggs..) and use them as breeders - and I'd breed them to the most distant relative you have, but I suspect you'll set eggs from all enclosures at the same time and that will make it very hard to keep track of which chicks came from which parents.. Simply doing it at random might work as well, with 6 enclosures there is a decent chance it's not a close relative if you just place them together at random.
Quail are relatively sensitive to inbreeding, it'll only take a few generations of breeding close relatives (like brother and sister) together before you notice a drop in fertility. But if you breed distant relatives it should take many generations to happen, if it happens at all.

F1 is first generation offspring - basically the first chicks you get from your birds will be F1. If you pair two F1 birds together, their offspring will be F2 - second generation offspring.
A line is basically what you are trying to create (and actually already have, since I'm pretty sure the JMF jumbos are considered a line) - a group that is bred generation by generation without bringing in new blood from the outside, thus the offspring of the group becomes more uniform (big birds, big eggs, many eggs, fast growth) generation by generation. But it also means they all have a similar sensitivity to diseases, so if they come by a disease they are receptive of, you might loose many more than you would have if the group was genetically diverse.

A cross can basically be any kind of pairing - you can cross an F1 bird with an F2 bird, you can cross two F2 birds, you can do an 'outcross' (bringing in a bird from the outside and breeding it with one of yours, then continuing to breed their offspring with your line).

 

[mdees88]

What's the goal? To have a steady supply of meat birds that you've bred yourself?

Pretty much, I want to hatch a steady supply of birds for eggs, meat, and to sell. I also want to keep the Jumbos, Jumbos. And I want to keep the genetics as "pure"? as possible. Since I'll be selling the birds I want them to be as healthy as possible...

 

[mdees88]

In general you should just keep the best birds (best is defined by what you want - docile, healthy, heavy, many eggs..) and use them as breeders - and I'd breed them to the most distant relative you have, but I suspect you'll set eggs from all enclosures at the same time and that will make it very hard to keep track of which chicks came from which parents.. Simply doing it at random might work as well, with 6 enclosures there is a decent chance it's not a close relative if you just place them together at random.
Quail are relatively sensitive to inbreeding, it'll only take a few generations of breeding close relatives (like brother and sister) together before you notice a drop in fertility. But if you breed distant relatives it should take many generations to happen, if it happens at all.

F1 is first generation offspring - basically the first chicks you get from your birds will be F1. If you pair two F1 birds together, their offspring will be F2 - second generation offspring.
A line is basically what you are trying to create (and actually already have, since I'm pretty sure the JMF jumbos are considered a line) - a group that is bred generation by generation without bringing in new blood from the outside, thus the offspring of the group becomes more uniform (big birds, big eggs, many eggs, fast growth) generation by generation. But it also means they all have a similar sensitivity to diseases, so if they come by a disease they are receptive of, you might loose many more than you would have if the group was genetically diverse.

A cross can basically be any kind of pairing - you can cross an F1 bird with an F2 bird, you can cross two F2 birds, you can do an 'outcross' (bringing in a bird from the outside and breeding it with one of yours, then continuing to breed their offspring with your line).

Good stuff thank you. Okay so I have 9 separate "breeder" cages. I will have no problem keeping the eggs separated even during incubation and hatching.

Here's what I was planning to do and tell me if it's not a good stragety. I have 2 cages (cage 1 and cage 2) with the same size JMF Jumbos in them. I was going to hatch chick's from each cage (F1). Then I was going to keep the largest chick's from each group. Then I was going to swap the F1 males so that cage 1 F1 males are with cage 2 F1 females, and vice versa. This way I'm not breeding brother sister.

But I guess since I'm not breeding father daughter I might be losing some of the big bird characteristics? But I am breeding with another JMF Jumbo bird.

Which way do you think is better. My way or breeding F1 back to the parents?

 

[DK newbie]

I think your way sounds just fine. As the birds are from the same line, it's the same genes that are causing their size and thus it shouldn't cause the size to go down that you breed them together.