Coturnix Quail AKA Japanese Quail
Coturnix Quail are one of the most interesting types of fowl i have worked with. They are very hardy and easy birds to raise and are fully mature at 8 weeks. They make a delicious little meat bird and lay an abundance of surprisingly large eggs for their size. They are easily hand tamed and make nice pets as well. Dog Trainers will often use them for training their hunting dogs. They come in a nice assortment of colours as well. We love how versatile they are! Sizes range from around 100 grams for small coloured males to over 300 grams for jumbo females (over 10 oz). I'm working on improving and stabilizing the size on all my colours as well as producing strong vibrant birds! We have the birds separated into colour specific pens for breeding spring summer and fall, and often have eggs, chicks and pairs for sale. Occasionally trios as well.
Chick care is similar to turkeys, they need a high protein starter diet. Some times the starter crumbs will need to be ground down a bit to be easier for newly hatched chicks to eat. Always use a narrow based quail waterer for chicks, wet quail chicks=dead quail chicks. We start them off on textured paper towel and move them on to shavings once they are eating and drinking well. Be sure to elevate the waterer when on shavings as they are constantly scratching and dust bathing in the shavings and will fill up the waterer in no time! Other then water issues they are very easy to keep and grow like weeds!
Chick care is similar to turkeys, they need a high protein starter diet. Some times the starter crumbs will need to be ground down a bit to be easier for newly hatched chicks to eat. Always use a narrow based quail waterer for chicks, wet quail chicks=dead quail chicks. We start them off on textured paper towel and move them on to shavings once they are eating and drinking well. Be sure to elevate the waterer when on shavings as they are constantly scratching and dust bathing in the shavings and will fill up the waterer in no time! Other then water issues they are very easy to keep and grow like weeds!
Meet the Colours I'm currently working with!
Jumbo Brown
Jumbo browns are just that, Wild type (brown) coturnix bred up to the jumbo weight category (250 grams+ for males and 300+ grams for females). Many times when jumbos are offered they are from vigorously culled breeding stock so the offspring can be all over the map when it comes to weight. We select the biggest and strongest each generation and anything sub par goes directly to the freezer. They are a great all around variety to start with, their larger size makes them easy to handle even for children. Browns can be feather sexed, males have clear salmon/beige breast and females have a speckled chest.
Roux Dilute (Fawn)
Another nice variation on the Wild Pattern. The darker pigments are removed making the body colour buff/rust/cinnamon.
Speckled Italian (Golden Jumbo)
Female left, Male right
The goldens are another strain that have reached the jumbo size mark, most of the time. They are not as reliably large as the browns but are well on their way. I expect to have the size reasonably stable in a couple generations. The golds are a distinct and beautiful colour variation on the browns. Like the browns they can be feather sexed with females having speckled breasts and males have clear chests.
Golden Manchurian
This golden variety is much harder to feather sex. Males tend to be overall a deeper reddish buff overall and have brown face markings, They lack any spots, but may have under feather color and a bit of dark in flights. Females LACK breast spotting, and can be completely void of back spots, or have very few, facial markings are black.
Golden Exotic (home brew)
Golden exotics are a mutation that just showed up in one of the hatches we had. It is an interesting variant exhibiting traits from wild pattern, golden colouring as well as some patterning from tibetans. The wing bows in particular have some impressive intricate penciling. They are somewhat feather sex-able, but not nearly so easy as goldens or wilds. Unlike the others mentioned, both the female and male lack breast spotting to separate the sexes. I do find that the females have a solid warm coloured breast, where as the males have a brighter, whitish breast. Also the crescent mark going from ear to ear under their throats are more noticeable on males. The bird pictured left is a female.
Rosettas (sometimes referred to as British Range)
This is one of the 2 colours that are referred to as British Range, the other being a darker version called Tibetan. So far my Rosettas have shown better uniformity of size and colour so i have decided to focus on them (though Tibetans will still show up on occasion). Rosettas are another pretty variety have a rich russet rose base colour for their feathers complemented by white streaks, and black dots with orange highlights. Both male and female look the same in this colour so you cannot feather sex them, only vent sexing works for sure. My line has really began to put out some nice strong red breasted birds.
Barred Rosetta
Built on the basic Rosetta colour pattern but with distinctive barring.
Tuxedo - Rosetta
Tuxedo is more of a pattern then a colour. By that i mean that the pied pattern can be bred into any of the colours, but is most often used in Rosettas and Tibetans as the dark colour gives the best contrast. The best tuxedos are solid coloured on top and have a white throat, chest and belly and perhaps some white wing feathers as well. Proper selection and mating can improve the consistency of both amount of white and placement of white. Due to the placement of the white, tuxedos are almost always vent sexed and cannot be feather sexed. So far my Tibetan Tuxedo are of average size. I plan to pair him up with my jumbo Rosetta in the spring to get some Rosetta tuxedos as well as Tibetan tuxedos as well as to improve on the overall size.
Tibetan (Dark Range)
Similar to the Rosettas but a darker and more even colour. Males and females cannot be sexed by feather
Tuxedo - Tibetan
Classic Tibetan body colour with tuxedo patterning. Not feather sexable.
Silver Pharoh
Are sexable based on feather pattern, females have spotted breasts.
Pewter
We've just added the ultra rare silver coloured coturnix. Silver is apparently a wild pattern based colour and is brought on by a lethal gene so this little guy(or gal) will be paired up with a top of the line jumbo brown to start its flock. They are easily mistaken for white or manchurian goldens as chicks as they are pure yellow. Even when they start to feather in they look white, it isn't until about 2 weeks before all the silver gray comes out. As you can see the bird pictured is still young and still has its yellow down on its face. I'll be sure to update the photo as soon it matures.
Blue
Another very rare variety of coturnix we have been lucky enough to get is blue. Its a darker steel gray then the silvers are, and a bit more uniform in colour (so far at least), but definitely on the smaller side! Looking at the patterning comming through it is quite possible that blues are on Rosetta Patterned birds. I see cream/white shafts and cream spots just like you would see on a Rosetta.
At this point i'm not sure what i will pair it up with, much will depend on if its male or female, but i will be giving it top priority come spring!
At this point i'm not sure what i will pair it up with, much will depend on if its male or female, but i will be giving it top priority come spring!
Blue Barred (also Tux)
This striking variety features the beautiful silver blue base colour with distinctive barring. Males and females are coloured the same so they need to be vent sexed.
Charcoal
Solid dusky grey