[Daisys Mum]

Decided today to have a cull of quail boys and discovered that out of 10 quail 5 were boys so now my 5 little girls are rattling around their big house, albeit a lot happier and more settled. I did actually mean to keep one off the boys but somehow that didn't happen.
So if anyone has any coturnex quail eggs to sell me I will have another shot at hatching some

[doganjo]

I just gace 6 to Fifesmallholder to hatch, with a female to return to me, but I'm getting one a day from 'Daisy' and 'Joe' - if you can't get any closer you can have some of mine, but not sure how we'd get them to you - David (Bloomer) is going to see Mr & Mrs Happy Hippy some time soon if you can get up to them - South Lanark I think?

[Daisys Mum]

  Duh! I have fertile quail eggs from before I dispatched the males, I can't imagine that out of the 30 eggs that I incubated the 10 that hatched are all related, or will they be    or doesn't it matter ? Oh dear may just be too easy to be ok.

[doganjo]

I don't think it matters with birds till you get to 9 or 10 generations of teh same way bred.  It's not like dog breeding.

[Daisys Mum]

Right that's it eggs into the incy it is then    if they hatch with 2 heads or 3 legs will just have to wring necks 

[doganjo]

Problem is you may end up with a surplus of boys in which case you will still have to wring necks or they'll kill each other.  less blood wringing the necks method 

I have only just found out how to tell the difference. (thank you, Langfauld EasyCare) I was looking for a plain chest with no freckling/spotting, not realising I shoudl have been looking for a tiny white bib just under the beak    Not sure when that is visible though, there might be a way of knowing before they get their feathers - apart from the  obvious method which I believe is inconclusive in birds 

[Daisys Mum]

I am about to eat one of the boys I necked yesterday

[bloomer]

mmm quail...


only ever had it once, would definitely eat it again though!!!

[Daisys Mum]

He was delicious, could have done with another one

[sokel]

I was told its 1 quail per person as a starter or 2 as a main course.
I am going to have to dispatch some of mine and start again as we have 5 boys out of 5 

[doganjo]

At what age can you tell they are males?

[Clarebelle]

You can sex them at about 3/4 weeks when their feathers come through. They also begin to start crowing etc soon after that. With a strain like the white quail or Texas A&M (also white) you have to wait until they reach maturity (about 7/8 weeks) then you need to pick them up, turn them over and give their rear end a squeeze, what you are looking for are the foam balls which males drop.

We breed quail for meat. If you roast the birds I would say you are probably looking at 1 bird per person for a starter/child, and 2 for an adult main meal. However, I usually slow cook my birds then let them cool and pick every last bit of meat off, and serve portions out of that. I cooked 5 birds that way and fed 5 children plus me and OH, my OH probably would have liked a bit more meat so if I hadn't had my two nieces there I would definitely have had enough for the 5 of us. I find the meat quite rich so I wouldn't want a lot. 

[in the hills]

Wild coloured quail have pale/plain chest without speckles (males) and females have speckled chest.


Quails with "tuxedo" colouring are different and it is the males with this colouring that have the white bib (or tuxedo).


There is a book by Katie Thear called (I think) "keeping Quail". It is very good and explains all you need to know about keeping and rearing and also the many colours/plumage types.

[sokel]

oops good job I didn't do the deed straight away as it turns out we have 3 male and 2 females  2 eggs layed today 

[in the hills]

Hee, hee .... good job you put that job off. 


I would wait a bit longer .... maybe all girls 


Unless they are the pure "wild" colouration they can be difficult to sex .... unless by vent. Mine have never appreciated vent sexing though so I tend not to do it.