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In recent years, quail breeding has become very popular. Compact size, fast growth, excellent quality meat and very healthy eggs – these are just the general advantages of breeding this bird. Due to the growing popularity of quails, many breeds of both meat and egg laying were bred. One of the strong meat breeds is the Texas white quail.
Breed description
The breed of Texas white quail got its name from the place of its breeding. It was Texas scientists who, by crossing Japanese meat breeds and English White quail, obtained this breed.
As the name implies, the color of the feathers of this bird is white, but there are small patches of black feathers.
The physique is strong: powerful legs, a wide back and a large chest.
The weight of an adult female of the Texas White Pharaoh breed reaches 400-450 grams, and a cockerel – 300-360 grams.
A distinctive feature of the behavior of the Texas quail breed is calmness, even some apathy. In view of this, reproduction is possible with a larger than usual number of males. Approximately one male for two females.
Bird weight by timing
The given data may fluctuate slightly, and are only a rough guideline for comparing the weight of broiler quails.
| Age by week | Males | females | ||
| Live weight, g | Weight of the finished carcass, g | Live weight, g | Weight of the finished carcass, g | |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | 36 – 37 94 – 95 146 – 148 247 – 251 300 – 304 335 – 340 350 – 355 |
142 175 220 236 | 36 – 37 94 – 95 148 – 150 244 – 247 320 – 325 360 – 365 400 – 405 |
132 180 222 282 |
Features of growing Texas quail
With proper equipment of the working room and compliance with all the rules of keeping, breeding quails of the Texas White Pharaoh breed will be not so much a difficult process as an interesting process.
Temperature conditions
This is a very important aspect, compliance with which will determine the quality of weight gain. It is the conditions of the first week of life that lay the start for good growth.
When hatching from eggs, the chicks are carefully moved to boxes or cages with a temperature of 36-38 degrees. In the room where the cells are located, it is also important to observe a temperature regime of 26-28 degrees. Such conditions are observed from birth to 10 days of life.
The next week, that is, until the age of 17, the temperature in the cage is gradually reduced to 30-32 degrees, the room temperature is up to 25 degrees.
In the period from 17 to 25 days, the temperature in the cage is 25 degrees, the temperature in the room is 22 degrees. After 25 days, a favorable temperature regime is maintained in the range from 18 to 22 degrees.
Air humidity
A very important condition for keeping Texas quails is the correct air humidity – 60-70%. As a rule, heated rooms have dry air. You can solve this problem by installing a wide container of water in the room.
Food
Nowadays, it is not necessary to think over the diet of animals yourself, there is a wide choice of feeds, selected according to the needs of the breed and specific age. You just need to find a good manufacturer whose feed is of high quality and competent composition. However, there are aspects of feeding Texas White Pharaoh quails that you need to know about:
- In the first week of a broiler quail’s life, food supplements are required in the form of boiled eggs, meat and bone meal, curdled milk, cottage cheese or other products containing a large amount of protein in their composition. In general, food at the initial stage should be very well crushed;
- In addition to feed, be sure to add greens; in winter, grated vegetables can replace it: boiled potatoes, beets, carrots, turnips, etc .;
- It is important to monitor the presence of mineral supplements in the feed, but it is better to take care of them yourself. For all birds, especially rapidly gaining weight, calcium supplements are required in the form of crushed eggshells, chalk or bone meal. Gravel will be another source of minerals;
- The addition of animal feed: insects and fish has a very beneficial effect on weight gain.
Texas quail should always have access to fresh water, which must be changed daily, because when heated, it deteriorates, harming the digestive system.
Lighting
The peculiarity of the breed of Texas white pharaohs is that they do not like bright lighting. A 60 W light bulb is enough for a small room, in bright light the birds become aggressive and can peck at each other, the quail egg production decreases. Daylight hours at the age of 0 to 2 weeks support all 24 hours, from 2 to 4 weeks – 20 hours, in the future – 17 hours.
Place of detention
Of great importance in the development of broiler quail of the Texas Pharaoh breed is the competent equipment of cages, the density of planting birds.
You can buy special quail cages, but this is not always possible, so the following parameters will be important in the manufacture:
- It is desirable to make the floor of the cells fine-meshed with a pallet underneath. The litter will fall onto the pallet, this will facilitate the cleaning of the cages and improve the hygienic parameters of the content.
- The floor should have a slight slope with the egg collector towards the bottom, otherwise the eggs will simply be pecked and trampled.
- Feeders and drinkers are placed outside along the entire cage for ease of use.
- Planting density is determined taking into account the fact that one adult quail needs 50 cm2 of floor.
- The cells on the side walls should be such that the quail’s head passes freely. An example in the photo.
How to determine the sex of a Texas white broiler
By what characteristics can a female be distinguished from a male? Experienced sparrowhawks can distinguish them by various properties: color, physique and even voice, but this is for professionals.
You can determine the sex for a period of 3 weeks as follows: turn it upside down, spread the feathers under the tail, if a tubercle is felt there, when pressed on which foam is released, then this is a male.
You can clearly see how to distinguish a female from a male of the Texas White Pharaoh breed in a YouTube video on this topic:
