#I'm not the fastest or largest breeder

[sassyhazelowl]

When picking up an escaped quail yesterday, I realized how much larger my g3 and g4 quail are compared to the ogs. This has actually created an unanticipated problem where the ogs are inadvertently getting bullied solely because their offspring are almost twice their size and push them off places. Either need to make them a retirement pen or find them homes that don't mind a lack of eggs. On the flipside, I introduced some 3 week old babies into the colony to get more color variety in there and only 1 gen3 hen took a chance to pull rank (guessing she's low on the totem pole) vs 2 of the og hens. So they're getting bigger but they're also getting better mannered and nicer.

#my bird talks #I'm pleased with the size/temperament improvements in a few generations #I'm not the fastest or largest breeder #I'm very reluctant to breed a lot because I'm not big on culling #as I don't eat the culled birds and no longer have animals that would eat them #I do compost them so they go back into the bugs/soil/plants if I need to do a mercy cull for medical reasons #and I do sell [live] BBQ packs to others who would like a nice quail dinner #but the amount of food they eat/space they take up/noise vs $ isn't worth raising them up for other people #I already have at least 4 roosters from the test hatches #Biggie is a SLB with a fantastic temperament/size #shame about his color #but if he stays nice and quiet I plan to keep him as a spare breeder #the other 3 aren't anything special #there are 5 that are not feather sexable - hopefully 3 or 4 are hens #2 are very strange dilutes so I'm hoping they're hens