QUAIL DILEMA...need opinions

[Mrs MIA]

Me personally, I like the purebreeds... but I like being able to choose whether I want all one breed or a mix, but not mutts... does that make sense? I have a couple of birds that I know are mutts - brown coturnix with white TAM mixed in. They're pretty, but they're not pure, which is what I'm looking for. My customers don't seem to mind the mutts, though. I plan on keeping mine separated by colors (and yes, I want on the list for blacks, too...)

 

[ticks]

As a future customer/swaper

I would like an array of colors.

 

[SamG347]

Yah this year I will work on my Jumbo Browns and BLACKS...next year add GOLDENS. And a new pen or two...lol.
Might even branch into TEXAS A&Ms but who knows.
hahah

 

[Ace_king_brahma]

I prefer variety and since th quail don't take up a lot of space or eat too much on the feed bill I'm keeping quite a few types in seperate pens. I have goldens, chocolates, tuxedo, TAM and browns and then I have jumbos of the same breeds. It's like my chickens I like to see more than one kind only. I say if you got the space and resources go for it since variety spices things up.

 

[Omniskies]

I'm a color addict. Even if I don't really care for a color I absolutely have to have it. I wish I knew why so I could stop

I prefer pure colors but I will be keeping a lot of mixed color pens to see what strange things crop up. I probably won't sell anything from the mixed pens - pure varieties tend to sell for more and I certainly don't want to sell a quail for less that costs me the same to raise as a quail that brings in more.

Still, only keep the colors if you can expand somehow. Or if you feel like you can keep enough of a single color to keep producing quality stock. A trio of browns will require new blood fast and usually finding good replacement stock can be a huge pain (as I'm finding out while trying to build up a flock of Tibetans. Urgh).

Also, aren't you supposed to cross Manchurian Golds with browns to get the color? I thought it didn't breed true and the best cross to get it was a gold/brown one?

Must learn more quail genentics...

Must demand that nature standardizes color genetics...

 

[SamG347]

No you can breed golden x golden. Im pretty sure of that at least. And yes the golden x brown works but you get 50/50 on chicks. My Jumbo BLACKS will be double factor british range birds crossed with my jumbo browns.
Should be getting my eggs in the mail tomorrow...to kick start my JUMBO BLACK COTURNIX project!

 

[Omniskies]

I could have swore someone told me goldens didn't breed true. I'm glad to know that they do. I'll probably still cross them with some of my Jumbos. I want my goldens to grow to the size of small cats

Also, while looking up information on the goldens I found this:

"The ITALIAN GOLDEN QUAIL probably go by many names in many places. They were popularized in the USA during the early 1970's by Albert Marsh of California who introduced the breed as Manchurian Golden Quail."

Is that referring to the Italian Speckled? I always though of Italian Speckled and Manchurian Golds as different colors.

 

[BirdBoy88]

I think it's a great idea...the more colors the more customers

i know when you start breeding the black coturnixs i'm going to be ordering some of thoughs eggs...lol

and you do a great job at taking care of them so i think you will do good if not better with more colors

 

[Ace_king_brahma]

You see this had me confused actually! I saw on an ebay item that goldens should be bred: brown x golden. They claimed golden x golden= 25% egg mortality. I was wondering how a color could be a lethel allele. I started thinking this might be true since the first batch of golds I bought had some browns in the mix, at first I thought maybe there was a mix up. Now I'm not sure.

 

[Omniskies]

You probably saw the same ebay auction I did. I haven't seen another reference to Golden Manchurians being a lethal gene but I didn't think it was impossible. I kinda liked it, since I wanted to cross my Jumbo Browns with the Golds to get Quailzilla Goldens.

In the end I hope to have every color in jumbo. The standard Coturnix is just too small.