Quail sexing

[Fizz]

Hi.
I'm in red of some more experienced opinions than my own.
About 2 months ago I got my first two quail girls although I wanted 4 there were only 2 available. I was told I could introduce some new ones when his next batch was ready.

So here we are... a few days ago I brought one 2 new additions who are living along side the older two for the time being while they get used to each other which is going quite well. They have been in a shared run together yesterday and the only issue came from one of the girls being a bit too curious about the new feathers still coming through on a babys back... anyway

The babies look very different to my older girls and i have put this down to not having 100% of their fethring through yet however, i have heard one of my new babies making what sounds like a crowing sound (although I've never had a male so can't be sure) I will try to upload a video and some pics in the hopes someone can tell me if my new girls are actually boys. My intention was to onmy keep hens and thw farmer i got them from says he will take thwm back if they turn out to be male but they are very sweet natured... picture attempts to follow thanks

 

[Fizz]

Please notice the leg ring. One blue one purple
Also please not this is not their cage it's a temporary run that I have used to introduce them to the older ones only supervised.

http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/q702/assassindali1/20180601_142240_zpswfy4fyb4.jpg
http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/q702/assassindali1/20180601_142239_zpssu5ynvfj.jpg
http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/q702/assassindali1/20180601_142158_zpsim81ir59.jpg
http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/q702/assassindali1/20180601_142153_zps2q2xikk4.jpg

They are golden jumbo and I've been told are about 6 weeks old.

Video taking a while to upload.. will follow

 

[Marigold]

Hi Fizz and welcome to the Forum. Coturnix quails mature very fast, some girls can lay eggs, and crow if boys, by 6 weeks. The fancy colours show no difference in appearance between boys and girls, and it's difficult to tell the sex before it becomes obvious from their behaviour, unless you do the sperm ball test on the boys. You can tell the sex of boys by gently squeezing their bums and if they're mature boys, a drop of foam will come out - this is sperm lubricant. If you Search on YouTube for 'sexing Coturnix quails' there are several good videos which will help. Actually I've found the boys seem to have a rush of male hormones overnight and will start raping the girls, or anything else in sight whatever sex it is. This can be very dangerous to the girls because the boys hang on to the girls' heads with their beaks and when they try to throw him off the clenched beak can tear the skin on the girls head, causing a lot of damage. I had to put one girl down because her whole eye had been torn away. You need to set up a separate hospital cage in case this happens and be sure to have purple antiseptic spray to apply to injured heads (spray it on to a saucer and use a cotton bud to apply to the right place.) A small hamster cage is good. You may also find that when the boys mature they become aggressive to the younger ones, in fact I'm surprised you managed to integrate a second batch of younger birds with no initial trouble.
I hatched a couple of batches of my own, and got so fed up with coming down to find a bloodbath in the cage in the mornings that I culled all the boys, and the remaining 6 girls lived happy and productive lives in an all-girl environment for some years. So if the breeder offers to take back any boys, I would do this if it's an option.

 

[Sandrine]

Hi Fizz!
I was just reading something about sexing quails earlier as I was curious about my newly hatched Chinese painted quails... Apparently male are plain breasted and female speckled? Not sure that helps?

I wonder if mine can be sexed earlier? I just want to deal with the males as early as possible this time... I can deal with one more but not sure they'll be happy with more than that...