8 so far, with one more pipped but not high hopes. The box they arrived in was a bit battered, with 4 eggs broken on arrival.
These birds were specifically bred by the Texas A & M University for their size and their white meat traits. Dr. Fred Thornberry of the Poultry Science Dept. at Texas A & M University developed these to be the ‘birds of the future’ and replace chickens. This is our first attempt with them. They are supposed to be 10ozs at 6 weeks, and dress out at just over 70%. Ideal slaughter time seems to be when they reach the 12-14oz mark.
They became vigorous after hatch much earlier than the Pharaoh quail we hatched in December. The one that broke out of it’s shell at 2pm was practicing it’s hopping by 8pm, where the Pharaoh quail took almost a full day to gain basic coordination skills.
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What was your luck with the A&M quail. Did they grow out the way you expected. If so, where did you get your stock?
I got the stock from a seller on ebay, and honestly I’m disappointed. They are very jumpy birds, three of them have died of broken necks from panicking at the smallest thing, they laid a grand total of four eggs and then quit altogether, they are about 25% smaller than my standard coturnix, and are vicious little butts who attack me whenever I have to put my hands in the cage to change their food or water. I’m down to four of the original ones, as one died at the two week mark.
I do have another in the brooder though who is showing signs of being much more promising. Only one hatch out of those eggs though, as the post was not kind to the shipment. He’s only 4 weeks old and already bigger than the first birds, and is much better tempered. The person who sent me those eggs originally got their stock from Lake Cumberland Game birds, I think.
I will be trying again in a little while with some better stock, as there are several people nagging me as to when I’m going to start having quail meat available for them. My pharaoh girls are way too good at the egg-laying to go into the oven. I’ve got six new pharaohs in the brooder now. Had ten, but four went to some 4H kids who wanted to try their hands at quail. Those are going to be some spoiled little birds.