Blood lines

Hi all, if we decide to hatch eggs from unrelated birds, would the offspring be brother and sisters? Which means we can't breed them?

Thanks for any help.

x.x.x.

that would depend on a few things - such as how many unrelated males & females made up your breeding group, - 1 male : 4 females - makes all offspring half siblings, obviously the more males & females in a group the chicks are less likely to be siblings.

It is however much better to have at least 2 breeding pens going at a time. Pen 1 would have males from source A and females from source B, and Pen 2 birds from source C & D, then these pens chicks would be bred together.

Hi,

I would class any offspring from one breeding group brother and sister, as you can not guarantee any of the parentage.

I either buy in eggs from other breeders for unrelated males or buy young adult males. I always breed my own replacement females, as I know they have come from unrelated breeding groups.

Inbreeding only reduces the size of quail, they are not as strong/healthy as birds bred from unrelated birds.Eggs are less fertile and hatching is difficult, so it's not really worth the time and effort in incubating eggs from siblings/ ½ siblings.

Derek.

I guess its easier to understand when you physically have them in separate housing Well it is for me.

My newly hatched quail will, when old enough, have bought in males from a different bloodline. As I have different colours - I might not be able to 'marry' them up with the same colour male - so I guess that is not important really, I might be able to do that with future offspring.

Just a silly question - do quails stick to their own breed. i.e. would a Japanese mate with a Bobtail? I don't intend to do this - just wondered.

They can't crossbreed...cos they're different species.

Bobwhite & Japanese quail shouldn't be housed together, they have different housing requirements

Thanks for that - as I said I have no intention of having Bobtails or housing any mix of quail in with others I was just inquisitive as there seems to be so many different coloured Japanese quail around - all lovely colours and I appear to have 4 different colours - but I assume they will all be fine together as they are all Japanese - and hatched together. I also presume that I could group the colours (if I could find the same colour male) - to ensure one particular colour could be guaranteed.

Or maybe not - its nice on a 'new journey' discovering all sorts of things.

And it revived this bloodlines thread - which will be of interest to new members I am sure.

Once again thanks