Sexual Dimorphism in Golden Giant Quail

[MalcolmP]

Or, how do we sex our new GG quail !
Previously I have kept 'ordinary' Japanese quail and telling the boys from the girls was easy : spotty chests = girls and plain chestnut coloured chests = boys. I could do this and segregate them before serious agro/bloody destruction started. Not so in these GGquail I seems.

Today morning inspection showed a bird with a bloody head (not the usual male on female de-feathering of the back of the head, this was serious agro of master upon inferior type damage, it is segregated and eating well so no serious harm done, I think, I hope)
So some serious enlightenment is needed before this all gets out of hand !
They are only 5&1/2 weeks old.
There are crowing noises from one or more boy birds, but not long enough to catch them in action
I took some photos (with difficulty, you try holding camera in one hand and persuading subject to pose and not run away with the other ! )
here :- http://tinyurl.com/QuailHatch (tinyurl.com/QuailHatch)
dont be worried when that tiny url takes you to another place, just to my Dropbox which has a very long url!

A friend has suggested that a characteristic is that, similar to Italian Quail, these show brown heads for male. (which is a shame that I have mis-aimed one shot and missed its head totally !) and possibly spotty backs (not chests) to indicate girls ???

Any thoughts please ,,,

PS the attacked one (an inferior boy ? ) is #11, last one, bottom right.

 

[Marigold]

I don't think feather sexing on colouris going to help much with these, as you say. There are lots of colours where it doesn't work, eg tuxedos, range, cream or whites, because the required markings just aren't there. Have you tried the foam test? Tis is the most reliable way to sort out the boys, whatever their colour. There's a good YouTube video on sexing quail which may help. See http://youtu.be/LfTv831gilc
I agree about the need to separate and space them out. Young males in particular will shag anything in sight, whatever its sex, so if you can remove the males fom the females' pen it will help the girls, but you will still have to deal with plenty of action in the boys' cage! And I found there were some surprises in the girls cage, from later developing males that I thought were females, making up for lost time!

 

[MalcolmP]

Hi M. no foam yet. Thanks for the vid. link,
about 40sec. in he says
"Golden hens are easy to tell a black spotted chest is the normal give away" and " a golden hen with obvious chest spots"
and later, about 1min30 in he says
"Now on to the golden roos same thing as the brown roo, no spots rusty-like chest this roo is in breeding plumage"
Which is what I was expecting !
So either
(1) he and I are both mistaken (but he doesnt say at what age this will manifest) or
(2) I have 11 boys and no girls or
(3) I dont have true golden, but a mixed blood line of various types as you describe

>"Young males in particular will shag anything in sight, whatever its sex, so if you can remove the males fom the females' pen it will help the girls, but you will still have to deal with plenty of action in the boys' cage! "

Yes, true, but in the past with ordinary Japs I found that if I could get the boys out at a young age they would live relatively happily in a pen together, the dominants mounting (for the want of anything else!) the subordinates, but it didnt often result in much blood and they could be kept to a good age that way.
The big blood and fratricide would only occur if too many boys were left to mature in with the girls.

So, patience, I will have to watch and wait The good news, so far, is no more bloody agro today.