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Keeping and breeding quails is becoming more and more popular among the population, because from them you can get both eggs and meat, which are distinguished by dietary and medicinal properties. And it’s really profitable! Judge for yourself – a female quail is capable of laying eggs with a total weight of 20 times more than the bird itself in a year. By the way, in chickens this ratio is 1:8.
In addition, there are decorative quail breeds that can decorate your site and serve as interesting and exotic representatives of your home mini-zoo. After all, these birds tolerate captivity well, it is not so difficult to care for them, they are not picky about food.
To the question “What breed of quail is the best?” there is no single answer, because it all depends on what you want to get from the bird first of all. All known breeds of quails are conditionally divided into egg, meat, universal (meat-egg) and decorative ones. The table below shows all the main characteristics of the quail breeds most common in Our Country. Next, you can find a photo and description.
Quail breeds | Male weight (g) | Female weight (g) | Number of eggs per year | Egg size (g) | Age at which eggs begin to lay | Fertility, % | Conclusion quail,% | Color |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
wild or common | 80 – 100 | 110 – 150 |
| 9 – 11 | 8-9 weeks |
|
| yellow-brown |
Japanese | 110 – 120 | 135 – 150 | 300 – 320 | 10 – 12 | 35-40 days | 80 – 90 | 78 – 80 | brown mottled |
Marble | 110 – 120 | 135 – 150 | 300 | 10 – 12 | 35-40 days | 80 – 90 | 78 – 80 | Brown with veins |
English (British) Whites | 140 – 160 | 160 – 180 | 280 | 11 | 40-45 days | 80 – 85 | 80 | White (with black dots) |
English (British) blacks | 160 – 170 | 180 – 200 | 280 | 11 | 6 weeks | 75 | 70 | Brown to black |
Tuxedos | 140 – 160 | 160 – 180 | 270 – 280 | 11 | 6-7 weeks | 80 | 75 | White with dark brown |
Manchurian golden | 160 – 180 | 180-200 (up to 300) | 240 – 280 | 15 – 16 | 6 weeks | 80 – 90 | 80 | Sandy with a golden sheen |
NGO “Complex” | 160 – 180 | 180 – 200 | 250 – 270 | 10 – 12 | 6-7 weeks | 80 | 75 | Like a Japanese breed or marble |
Estonian | 160 – 170 | 190 – 200 | 280 – 320 | 11 – 12 | 37-40 days | 92 – 93 | 82 – 83 | ocher brown with stripes |
Pharaoh | 170 – 260 | 180 – 310 | 200 – 220 | 12 – 18 | 6-7 weeks | 75 | 75 | Like a Japanese quail |
Texas | 300 – 360 | 370 – 480 | 220 | 12 – 18 | 6-7 weeks | 65 – 75 | 75 – 80 | White with dark spots |
virgin |
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| brown motley |
Painted (Chinese) |
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| Multicolored |
California |
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| Grayish white with brown |
egg breeds
In general, all currently existing breeds of quail originate from the wild mute or Japanese quail.
Japanese quail
And, of course, the most popular breed, if you need quail eggs in the first place, is the Japanese quail. This breed is the standard of color for others bred on its basis. While the body is slightly elongated, the wings and tail are small. The advantage is that the sex of young quails can be determined already from the age of 20 days. Differences in the field are clearly visible in the color of the breast plumage: in males it is brown, and in females it is light gray with black speckles. The beak of males is also much darker than that of females.
In addition, mature males have a pronounced pinkish cloacal gland, which looks like a slight thickening and is located above the cloaca. Females do not have this gland, and the surface of the skin around the cloaca is bluish in color.
Under favorable conditions, females can start laying eggs as early as 35-40 days of age. While in natural conditions, oviposition usually begins when it reaches two months of age. In a year, a female can lay more than 300 eggs, although their weight is small, about 9-12 g.
Therefore, the hatching of chicks can only be carried out using an incubator.
In this breed, the most intensive growth occurs in the first weeks of life. By the age of 40 days, young quails reach the mass of adult birds.
This breed has strong immunity, undemanding to the conditions of detention. It is often used as a base for obtaining new varieties of quail.
True, special lines have been created in Europe, in which they managed to achieve an increase in the live weight of this quail breed by 50-70%. Work in this direction is constantly ongoing.
In addition, there are also forms of Japanese quail with colored plumage: Mahurion (golden), Lotus (white) and Turedo (white breast). In apartments, Japanese quails are often kept as a decorative bird.
English or British blacks
Based on the name, the breed was produced in England and imported from Hungary in 1971. Color can vary from all shades of brown to black. The eyes are light brown. The beak is dark brown.
Birds are much larger in live weight than Japanese quails, while their egg production is reduced. But still, according to this indicator, they can be placed in 3rd place after Japanese and Estonian ones. Therefore, they are classified as an egg direction, especially since the carcass, due to the dark color of the plumage, does not look very attractive when cut (with a blue tint), which is a marriage for not very knowledgeable buyers.
To obtain hatching eggs, black quails are usually seated in family groups (1 male for two or three females). In the future, birds of this breed react poorly to regrouping (there is a decrease in egg production), so it is better to keep it as it was originally intended.
The disadvantages of the breed are a rather low fertility and a low survival rate of chicks (see the figures in the table).
English or British Whites
This breed of quail was also obtained in England from Japanese quails, by fixing a white mutation. She came to our country in the same way as her black relatives, through Hungary, but later in 1987. As the name implies, the color of females is pure snow-white, males occasionally have individual blotches of black. The eyes are gray-black, and the beak and paws are a delicate light pink hue.
Despite the small body weight, only slightly exceeding the live weight of Japanese quails, the color of the carcass of the birds, due to the light plumage, is very attractive to buyers. Therefore, the breed is also used for meat production.
The breed is very unpretentious in content and eats a little feed per head of a bird. Its only drawback can be considered the difficulty in distinguishing between sexes before reaching 7-8 weeks of age.
Marble
This breed is a mutant form of Japanese quail, bred by specialists from the Timiryazev Academy and the Institute of General Genetics. The color of the plumage is from red to light gray with a pattern resembling marbling. A similar color was obtained as a result of X-ray irradiation of the testes of male quails. All characteristics are completely identical to those of Japanese quails. Differences only in color.
Tuxedo
This breed is obtained by crossing white and black English quails. The result is a very original bird in appearance. In quails, the entire lower body and also the neck and head are white. The upper part of the body is covered with brown and brown feathers to varying degrees. According to its characteristics, it usually refers to the egg or universal type. See the table for detailed figures.
General purpose or meat-and-egg breeds
Many quail breeds related to this section are classified by a number of authors as both egg and meat. There is no clear division between the types of breeds; it is a matter of taste for each person to start one or another breed.
Manchurian golden
Another name is Golden Phoenix. Quails of the Manchurian Golden breed are very popular, primarily for their color. The golden hue is obtained due to the beautiful combination of yellow and brown feathers on a general light background. In terms of the number of hatched eggs, the breed, of course, is inferior to Japanese quails, but the eggs themselves are larger.
The breed is especially popular in Europe, mainly because the young are gaining weight very quickly. In addition, the breed serves as the basis for creating large broiler lines when crossed with other meat quails. Breeders manage to get female quails of the Manchurian golden breed weighing up to 300 grams or more. And thanks to the light color, the color of the carcass is again attractive to buyers.
The birds themselves, because of their interesting color, are very popular with children, who are happy to help care for them. Watch a video with a story about quiet quails:
NGO “Complex”
This breed for “internal” use was bred at the NPO Complex factory by crossing marble and meat pharaoh breeds. The color of the birds is absolutely identical to the color of the Japanese quail, but according to their characteristics they are a typical meat and egg breed. Sometimes, you can meet birds of a marble color, which resulted from the splitting of this population.
Estonian
Another name for this breed is kitavers. It was bred on the basis of the Moscow line of Japanese quails, by crossing the English White, Japanese and Pharaoh breeds. Differences in sexual coloration can be traced well. The main shade is ocher brown with dark stripes. There is a small hump at the front of the back. Males have a head and neck with a large predominance of dark brown shades, only on the head there are three yellow-white stripes. While in females, the head and neck are light gray-brown. The bill of the male is black-brown, but has a light tip. In females, it is brownish-gray. Interestingly, birds of this breed are able to fly.
The Estonian breed has many advantages:
- High survival rate and viability of young animals – up to 98%.
- Unpretentiousness to the conditions of detention and vitality of adult quails.
- High fertility of eggs – 92-93%.
- Long lifespan and long laying period.
- They have a rapid weight gain in the first weeks of life.
Below you can look at the table – a graph of the growth of live weight of quails of the Estonian breed.
Due to its universal characteristics and unpretentiousness, the Estonian breed is the most ideal for beginners.
Below you can watch a video that talks about the Estonian breed.
Meat
Of the meat breeds in our country, only two breeds of quail have received distribution at the moment. Although the work in this direction is very intensive, many quail broiler lines have already been created abroad.
Pharaoh
The breed came to us from the USA and the quails are quite large – the weight of the female exceeds 300 or even 400 grams. Egg production is low, but the eggs themselves are quite large, up to 18 grams. Birds of this breed are most demanding on the conditions of keeping and feeding. Some disadvantage is the dark color of the plumage, which can worsen the presentation of carcasses.
The advantage can be called the rapid growth of young animals, by five weeks the live weight of quail reaches 140-150 grams.
The weight gain tables show this process well by day.
Texas white
It is also called the Texas Pharaoh, since it was bred and used mainly in the state of Texas, USA. It was brought to Our Country several years ago and began to enjoy great popularity as a meat breed. In addition to the large weight (up to 450-500 g) that female quails reach, the white color is also very attractive for sale.
The advantage of Texas white quails is that the amount of food that these giant quails consume is the same as that of other breeds. Moreover, the young are gaining weight very quickly, like the Pharaoh.
The breed is very calm, which is a disadvantage for breeding, since no more than two females should be placed per male.
The disadvantage is also the low fertility of the eggs and the insufficiently high hatchability – see the figures in the table.
Decorative breeds
There are quite a few decorative breeds of quails, but in our country the following are the most popular:
- Painted or Chinese – just look at the photo of a quail of this breed and it becomes clear why it is considered a decorative breed. In coloring there are a variety of colors from blue-blue, red to yellowish. The birds are small, 11-14 cm long. The female usually incubates 5-7 eggs for 15-17 days. It is desirable to keep birds not in pairs, but in small groups. Their voice is pleasant. They mostly run on the ground, not fly.
- virgin – quails of medium size, reach a length of 22 cm. The color is variegated brown-red. The character is flexible, they easily breed in captivity. A female can incubate a clutch of 14 eggs for 24 days. These quails are often kept not only for decorative purposes, but also for meat.
- California – very decorative representatives of the crested group of quails. The clutch consists of 9-15 eggs, which incubate for about 20 days. These quails are very thermophilic and do not withstand temperatures below +10°C. Therefore, they need insulated poultry houses for the winter.
Having become acquainted with all the main breeds of quails, you can choose the one that best suits your needs and interests.