Which to keep??

If I do keep some of my jumbo japs to breed from do I keep the biggest hoping the offspring will be nice and fat and juicy or do I do go for the smaller in the hope that they will be more fertile?? :?:

And will it be ok if I keep a male and female from this same group (they may well not be related as he had hundreds where i got the eggs from) or should I definitely get an unrelated chappie??

Ta very much

Harrie

Hi Harrie,

It might be worth while keeping two groups, one selected from largest birds, the other from the smallest birds.

I would breed from this group, as you say, they may not be related.

I would keep records of the resulting chicks from both group, as it maybe of intrest to other people too.Good luck, your on your way to a quail breeding farm, lol. Derek.

Thanks for that Derek. I am planning on keeping just one group of the jumbo so will see how the male/female ratio works out and try to keep a fat bloke/skinny bird or vice versa.

Harrie

Hi Harrie,

Like everyone else here, I expect you'll get more males than females. As for a "Skinny bird" you'll find female quail are always bigger than the males. Derek.

Oh bum - then I've got 2 female and 6 male!!!! I'll know for sure in a few weeks - don't the males have a reddy chest??

yeah they do and females will have a speckled chest, you can usually tell them apart at 16-17 days (ish) but now and again one will fool you into thinking its something its not - or maybe thats just me lol