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A medium-sized golden bird that recently appeared on the farmsteads of poultry farmers quickly won the hearts of quail lovers and farmers who grow this type of bird for dietary meat and eggs.
It is rather difficult to say which direction Manchurian quails belong to, since their body weight is small compared to Texas broilers, but more than that of egg-bearing quails. Manchurians ripen on a par with broiler breeds.
Egg production is lower than that of the Japanese quail, but the eggs are very large relative to the size of the Manchus.
Many quail breeders attribute Manchurian quails to the meat direction, but some believe that this is an egg-meat breed. Be that as it may, the high return of production per 1 feed unit and the decorative appearance of the Manchurian quail made it popular not only among amateur poultry farmers, but also among farmers engaged in industrial production.
Description of Manchurian golden quails
The photo shows a completely wonderful color of a golden Manchurian quail with a clearly defined mask in the male. Such birds are very good as decorative ones, as they look no worse than any exotic bird, but do not require such attention as exotic ones.
Usually the color of Manchurian quails is duller, although it has a very pleasant yellow color.
Manchurians are relatively small birds, although their weight is twice that of their wild ancestor. Females are larger than males, but even a female is unlikely to be able to fatten more than up to 200 g. They are inferior even to the Pharaoh meat breed bred in America, weighing up to 300 g.
Compared to the Texas broiler breed, Manchurian quails look small at all. The weight of a Texan can reach almost half a kilogram. Moreover, it is precisely among Texas quails, which are also called white pharaohs, that the male is larger than the female and weighs 470 g, while the female is “only” 360 g.
If you cross a Manchurian quail with a Texas quail, you can get such a charming cross. Although usually such crossing is carried out in order to increase the yield of meat.
It is precisely because of the crossing of Texans with Manchus that serious battles between quail breeders are going on today: whether to consider the Golden Phoenix quail as a separate breed of quail, a cross with a white pharaoh, or only a branch of the Manchu golden French selection. The weight of the Golden Phoenix is almost equal to the weight of the white Pharaoh, but in plumage, completely identical to the color of the Manchu golden, nothing indicates an admixture of another breed. At the same time, phoenixes do not give splitting in the offspring, which indicates the genetic solidity of the livestock.
Perhaps this is the option when the breed was bred from the parent exclusively by selection for the necessary qualities without the influx of other blood. Such cases are known in other domesticated species. For example, the German giant rabbit is identical in blood to the Belgian giant, but is registered as a separate breed. By the way, among rabbit breeders, too, many do not agree with the existence of a separate breed of German giant.
Among horses, the Haflinger and Aveline breeds have absolutely identical origins and a common area of uXNUMXbuXNUMXborigin, but today they are registered as two different breeds. Among the dogs, one can recall the East European Shepherd Dog, bred in the USSR from the German one without the influx of other blood, but by strict selection for the needs of the armed forces and internal troops.
Therefore, the option of breeding a large variety of the Manchurian quail in France is quite real, and whether it is considered a breed is still a matter of taste.
The original breed, that is, the Manchu, in addition to rapid maturation (2 months), is also distinguished by good egg production, producing up to 250 eggs per year. Egg weight about 17 g.
However, the reviews of farmers containing meat and meat and egg quails characterize both branches of golden quails on the positive side.
Industrial content
In addition to keeping Manchurians as pets with a free life in an aviary, there is the cultivation of Manchurian quails for meat and eggs while keeping birds in cages on a farm.
This content is similar to the content of chickens for meat and eggs. The density of quails or chickens per 1 m² depends on the size of the bird. If egg hens usually have a density of 5-6 heads per meter, then the number of quails can exceed 50 heads. Since the Manchurian quail is somewhat larger than its counterparts belonging to the egg-bearing breeds, it is recommended to limit the number of golden Manchurians to 50 heads per m². The height of the cage should not greatly exceed the size of the bird itself.
A big plus of Manchurian golden quails is the attractiveness of the quail carcass for the buyer. This is explained by the fact that the stumps of light feathers are not noticeable on the skin of a plucked carcass. And light meat does not scare off inexperienced buyers. In dark breeds of quail, after plucking, black stumps and blackness around the abdomen are visible, which usually does not add appetite.
When feeding quails for meat, there is no need to separate males from females, and in the photo above it is easy to see that males with a dark mask on their heads are kept together with females.
To obtain food quail eggs, females are kept separately from males and fed with feed for laying hens. The rest of the conditions of keeping them do not differ from the content of meat livestock.
But for breeding, the bird needs to create more favorable conditions with more living space.
Breeding quail breed Manchurian golden
When breeding quails for high-quality fertilization, 3-4 females are determined for one male, seating families in separate cells, since males can sort things out with each other. The instinct of incubation in Manchus is poorly developed, therefore the incubation of eggs is recommended.
The Manchurian golden reaches puberty at 2 months and retains high egg production and egg fertility for up to 8 months. Birds of this age are selected for breeding.
For livestock kept in cages for fattening and eggs, containers filled with sand and ash can be placed once a week. The container broodstock can be left permanently in the cages. Given the division of families into separate cells, containers will have to be placed in each.
How to determine the sex of quails
Fortunately for quail breeders, the sexual dimorphism of the Manchurian golden is well expressed in the color of the plumage and it can be determined already from a month. With colored breeds, where the female does not differ in color from the male, the sex of the bird can only be recognized after puberty.
There are several ways to understand where the quail is and where the quail is. It is believed that Manchurian goldens differ in sex from 3 weeks.
If you have time and the number of birds is small, you can watch the quails. Males will be distinguished from quails by periodic sharp cries, which you will never hear from a quail. If there is no time, and the livestock is younger than 2 months, you can try to determine the sex by color.
Manchus are distinguished by the color of the chest and head.
The female has a mottled chest and no mask on her head. Her head is almost the same color as her body.
The male can be recognized by the even, without speckles, more red than the plumage of the quail and the mask on the head. The mask can be brown, light ocher, or rusty.
But males have one caveat. Very often in quails there is a situation when, due to underdeveloped testicles, the bird has the color of a male, but is not able to fertilize females.
How to distinguish a male suitable for breeding
The same method is suitable for guaranteed sex determination in an adult bird. Quails are distinguished from quails by the appearance of the cloaca and the presence of a subcaudal gland, which is absent in the female. The quail has a pink cloaca and between the anus and the tail, almost on the border with the cloaca, there is an oblong protrusion, when pressed on which a white foamy liquid appears. The female has no such projection.
A quail, determined by plumage as a male, but not having a subcaudal gland in two months, is not suitable for breeding, since its testes are underdeveloped. Such quail is culled for meat.
The owner of a quail farm expresses his opinion about the Manchurian golden quail breed fairly impartially:
Perhaps the owner of this farm is right about the children’s interest in golden Manchurian quails. But then the charming golden quails will have to be hidden from children.
Reviews of owners of golden Manchurian quails
Conclusion
As a meat and partly egg breed, the Manchurian golden ones have proven themselves very well among quail breeders. Given the French line of these quails, everyone can choose quails to their taste: either large for meat, or smaller for meat and food eggs. However, the large line also rushes well, producing just giant eggs on the broiler feed.