Quail Chicks arriving today.

[GaryD]

Hi,

We're going to rear a bunch of Japanese quail chicks out for a friend. They arrive here later today.

We've set up a brooder pen in the utility area in the back of the house.

I'll post some photos after they get settled in.

Gary

[kellenw]

My favorite! I can't wait to start raising them again when we get out to our new "farm".

[GaryD]

Hi Kellen,

We're going to have to wait a bit longer for the quail. They failed to materialise. It looks like the hatch may have failed for some reason.

Gary

[kellenw]

That's unfortunate. Sorry to hear that Gary.

Are these the standard color, the "Manchurian" (golden) color or the whites? I used to raise all three colors. The white birds I had came from Texas A&M, and they were very impressive birds.

[GaryD]

Hi Kellen,

Most of the quail that I've had have been the traditional colour. I prefer these since I don't breed for colour (but rather for meat and eggs) and the standard colour means that I can sex the birds from a very early age.

We first bred quail (commercially) about 38 years ago......and they are one of my all-time favourite micro-livestock species.

Gary

[kellenw]

We vent sexed all of ours. For whatever reason, I always found quail far easier to vent sex than chickens/chooks. I consider myself a pro with vent sexing quail and a bumbling novice with chickens.

[GaryD]

Hi Kellen,

When you refer to vent sexing are you talking about expressing the white foam from the cloacal gland to identify the males?

Gary

[kellenw]

That certainly made it easier once they were old enough (foam), but you can ID them a little earlier by looking for the little cloacal "dot". It became quite easy to detect after a little practice.