Cpq

[chris]

Hi all,

after a pretty terrible season so far, it turns out the cock cpq is very much fertile but just hasn't been doing his job untill now. there has been a hen sitting on her nest for several weeks, i reckoned around about 10 eggs untill this morning when i counted 15 chicks and 5 unhatched/infertile eggs!

since the aviary is large and has plants and pots everywhere, and that there are so many chicks for one hen alone, i've moved the hen into a 4 foot double breeder untill the chicks are a little larger. even so 3 chicks managed to get left behind and went cold, so have been moved into a brooder to be returned with their siblings at a later date when they have a few feathers.

the only problem is out of 15 chicks, i think only 2 at best are normals:lol: the rest are pearls, 2 whites (a first for me) and 3/4 which i'm not sure about as i've never seen anything like them. they're a yellow colour with red/brown stripes. i remember Laus mentioning some golden cinnamons he'd bred last year and this is one of his hens i bought at stafford...

i've well impressed anyway i'd never have expected 15 chicks from one round

Chris:D

[Waxbillman]

well done Chris

thats amazing!!

Matthew

[Rogerb]

nice one mate :-D :-D :-D :-D MR B

[PAUL HEARN]

Nice one Chris,;)

How have you identified the Normals, Pearls, Whites and the others you aren't sure of?

Paul.:D

[kenny]

hi chris
thats brilliant news mate,cant wait to see the other mutation colours,get some pics up when you can!


ken

[chris]

Hi Paul,

the normals are a light brown with stripes after hatching, the perals are the same but dark brown, silvers are yellow which i normally have a few of but none this time, and the whites are blonde/highlighter yellow.

i'll try for some photos later on, and i'll upload those gecko photos at the same time

Chris;-)

[chris]

here they are

[chris]

and the rest

[chris]

last one now

[vixen]

hi Chris my cpq are sitting at the mo one has loads have not counted the eggs its about three hens worth and one is sitting on nine eggs.due out in about seven days.i have one male Grey or silver and four hens are brown. will keep you posted.

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Vixen and Chris,

Vixen,

Best of luck with your CPQ hatching their eggs, I hope your chicks will be easier to identify than Chris's.:D

Chris,

What the hell have you got there?:shock: I was going to suggest the yellow chicks with orange stripes would be Fawns, but after looking at the photos I think you have every mutation under the sun in there?:lol:

I'm not going to offer any guesses until they moult.:lol:

Paul.

[kenny]

hi chris
they all look really great ,really well are you sure you haven`t got some ducklings there mate.....seriously though they look fantastic


ken



http://bestsmileys.com/family/1.gif

[Waxbillman]

lovely little chicks you have there, makes me want to pick them up

Matthew

[chris]

Hi all,

unfortunately none of the photos seem to show the weird 4 very well, making them look like silvers but i'm sure they aren't as i never remember having a silver with red stripes in the past.

i don't know if i've said this already on this forum, but the 3 chicks are now back with their mother with a light on the double breeder just incase they do get left behind. she does seem to be coping with them which is good.

even though i'm only in this for breeding normals i can't wait to see what the rest of them turn out like:-)

Chris;)

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Chris,

A huge well done to you in getting the hen to accept the other three chicks back again.:D Out of interest how long were they away from the hen?

I realise you want to breed pure normals, but it will be a bit difficult with the hen you have there mate.:lol:

But on a serious note, I too would be interested to see what you have there when they begin to feather up.

On the subject of Chinese Painted Quail mutations, have you been in contact with Mark and Sharen from Quails from Wales?
I remember hearing that they have the American Red Breasted mutation in stock, but I wondered if they had established them to have these birds for sale yet?

Paul.;-)

[chris]

Hi Paul,

the chicks were away from the hen for a day and a half before i re-introduced them. i'm confident i could have left it a lot longer than i did, the reason i didn't however was the fear that they may forget how to brood and lose the parent rearing instinct.

i haven't been in touch with Mark for a while but i may send a few photos of the wierd ones once they've feathered up fully assuming i don't know what they are by then. he does have the red breasted CPQ in but i don't know how many and if they are available yet. they won't be parent reared though...

as for the hen i'm using, the reason for that is i only have one normal hen at the moment that parent rears other than the 4 pearl hens. since the cocks are normals the chicks will either be normals or carriers which can produce normals next season. the important part is keeping the lot of them parent reared as that's a bit more difficult to breed back into them unlike a few genes.

the 2 normals i do have in the brood though are just what i'm after and should produce far more normals next year.

Chris;-)

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Chris,

All the best in producing the Normal CPQ you are striving to produce mate,:wink: the hen of the pair of Normals I got from Laura last year is currently incubating, if she hatches a good number of Normal's then you are welcome to how many you want.:grin:

I'm not sure if Red Breasted CPQ are to be offered on the UK market in general, but I have contacted Mark and he has promised me a pair of Red Breasted from the next Stafford sale.

On that note I'm a very happy bunny.:-D

Paul.

[chris]

Hi Paul,

great news mate, they are damn nice birds. it'd be good if you could produce a parent rearing strain from the birds you get, shouldn't be too difficult either as i've noticed when you keep hens together they lay in each other's nests, so you'd only need to add any old parent rearing hen to the pair and she'd quite happily sit on whatever gets laid in her nest by the red breasts

on another note, my oddballs are starting to feather up now. the red striped yellow chicks are now silver, and orange/red/brown on the shoulder area and parts of the wing feathers. should be interesting to see what they turn out like

Chris:wink:

[Rogerb]

hiya chriss the hen you gave me at Stafford is sitting again on 8 eggs this time :-D me happy bunny too :-D

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Chris and Roger,

Chris,

I intend to use the hen from the pair I bought from Laura to incubate at least some of the eggs from the Red Breasted I will be buying from Mark in order to produce parent reared Red Breasted.

I look forward to seeing all of your youngsters in full adult feather in order to identify them.

Roger,

Congratulations to you too, I hope your hen hatches and rears a good number of chicks.

Paul.:-D

[chris]

Hi All,

all 15 chicks are doing well and have feathers all over apart from on the head and part of the chest. there are 3 normals, not 2 as i originally thought so i've got a bit more to work with. the 4 odd ones are silver all over with light brown at the tips of the feathers, not like any silvers i've ever seen before and i can't find anything like them on the net either:shock:

the parent's are one cock normal, split for white, and one hen pearl also split for white. so where the hell this mutaiton as has come from is beyond me. i'll try to remember to take some photos

Chris;)

[laurab]

Hi Chris

well done, I look forward to seeing the photos' :smile:

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Chris,

I'll second that, I'd love to see the photos, especially of the four unidentified chicks, you never know mate you may have bred a new mutation?:D

Congtratulations to your hen in rearing all 15 chcicks too.

Paul.;)

[chris]

Hi All,

i've been worried up till now as one of my hen CPQ has been missing for most of the week. i'm happy to say however that i've found her sitting on 6 eggs hidden up the far end of the aviary. how i missed her i don't know as i walk past the exact spot everytime i go past the aviary to the shed etc. it's the incubator bred normal hen from last year that's sitting, and all the eggs are her's this time. hopefully they'll be fertile and i can look forward to 5/6 normal CPQ chicks in a few weeks time.

both CPQ cocks are normals so this particular pairing looks good, it will also be the same cock birds that fathered the last 15 chicks so the chances are there will be a few mutations in there other than normals, i'm hoping for mostly normals though

Chris:D

[kenny]

hi chris
thats great news mate,i wish mine would sit thier eggs,i think the only way i am going to get anything from them is to sit on the eggs myself

ken:roll: :D

[chris]

Hi All,

these mutation babies get weirder by the day. they're sexing up now and the normals and pearl cocks are developing the blue breast, however more interesting is that the red/ silvers are also developing a blue/grey breast:shock: by the looks of it i've got 2 normal red/silver (or whatever they are) cocks with the white face mask and grey/blue breasts, but also another cock red/silver with pearl feathering and no mask:shock: and one true hen which still has red feather tips but is far less intense than in the other 3.

the good news is that my dad has sorted out the USB problem with my PC so i can now get some photos up, assuming the photos don't drown out the red feathering again

also, i've heard of pearl backed normals but untill now have never known which is which as i've had no comparison. however, one, possibly both normal cocks are far lighter on the backs than the 2 i have outside. being more light brown on the backs with the latter being a darker colour

i wonder what the next lot of eggs can bring:lol:

Chris;-)

[chris]

alrighty then,

these are some last minute photos taken on my phone, the red doesn't show up brilliantly but it's better than the last lot. i'll try for some better tomorrow but these do show up the red to an extent and the blue breasts and masks

also, i don't have a 2 headed quail it's one cock cleverly positioned behind another:razz:

Chris

[chris]

and the one that looks like it's got 2 heads

[kenny]

hi chris
they are really startling colours i have not seen anything like them before.do you think you may have a new mutation there or do you know of anyone else who has some the same.i love em!

ken

[chris]

Hi Kenny,

i have no idea mate, i remember the first time i bred some ordinary blue pearls and thought it was something special as the cocks have a blue slate like breat with no mask and that just turned out to be a common mutation that somehow i'd missed uptil then:oops:

hopefully these will turn out to be something new but i won't hold my breath this time round. although i've yet to come across a photo on the net similar to these. hopefully i can take some better shots tomorrow at some point with the digital camera, and then send an e-mail to mark from quailsfromwales as if anyone knows it'll be him

they've still got a fair bit of colouring up to do yet, if i'm lucky they'll be fully coloured before i go to uni, if not they should definately be come stafford when i hope to be back for the weekend and show

Chris

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Chris,

From the photos it looks as though they are Fawns, this mutation does vary quite a lot from being solid fawn, through to looking patchy in colour showing a paler unerflue of the feather.
But I'm still looking forward to seeing them, because I agree they do look different to the Fawns we generally see.

Paul.;)

[chris]

Hi Paul,

i've had a look at the fawns on Mark's website and they are nothing alike, however the cinnamon/fawn CPQ on the zebrafinch.com websites do bear some resemblence to what i have, at least the cock anyway the hens still look nothing alike. also the cinnamon blue face looks nothing like the maskless cock bird i have either

http://www.zebrafinch.com/NewButtonquail/Cinnamon.html

still, they've got a bit more moulting to go yet before they're fully coloured. if they turn out to be a bog standard mutation then i'll move them on, however if they aren't...

Chris:wink:

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Chris,

I do hope you have something different there mate,;) as you say though, you will know more when the birds finish the moult, but can you please post some photos of the hens too, this will help in identifying them if they are something different to the standard Fawn mutation.
Over the years I've noticed that the Fawn hens are less variable in colour than cocks, and they don't show the lighter underflue of the feather as much as the cocks resulting in patchy colour.

Paul.:D

[chris]

Round number 2 has just started to hatch, so far i've seen 2 chicks one silver and one normal, 4 eggs left to hatch but the hen hasn't budged yet

also one of the whites is a cock from the last round so that leaves me with 11 cocks.....

Chris

[Rogerb]

hiya Chris can you tell me why mine and Elsa's c p q move there eggs and nests so often then only to move to another site and start all over again :-? they do eventually sit on there eggs :D but it bugs me as to why they do this ps your silver hen has done me proud this year big thanks mate :wink: MR B

[chris]

Hi Roger,

mine used to do this a hell of a lot in the first year, i've read that it's to do with acting as a decoy for predators or something like that, although i reckon it's probably moreso to do with something disturbing them where they are.

what kind of nest sites are they picking? how well hidden? and is there any disturbances from other birds or even yourself walking past to get to the aviary or feed inside?

i think the problem with mine first year round was that the aviary was smaller and they kept nesting right next to the door, or in the corner of the aviary where the cat used to look in, and at least once due to fledgling canaries jumping out onto their nest

Chris:wink:

[Rogerb]

hiya Chris thanks for the quick response I did have a idea that it might be a disturbance thing like walking in and out of there territory they seem to lay 3 or 4 eggs then move to a more secluded part of the Avery leaving the other 3 so called nesting sites vacant me thinks maybe its a case of let the predators have the crap eggs meanwhile I'm rearing the chicks in a protected site that you cant get to , there is nowhere that they wont lay you really got to watch where you put your size 9zz they are all over the place , as IV sead before your little silver is a prolific layer she has done us both proud :grin:

[chris]

Hi Roger,

no problem, i'm glad the silver hen is doing so well, her mother is one of my best PR hens so it must run in the family! 19 chicks so far ths year from 2 rounds, my best so far although i did have more in the first year as i used the incubator with a mate, only the PR birds count though!

Chris

[Rogerb]

thanks Chris , I do agree that p r Chic's do better than incubated ones methinks its that they learn the instincts that the parents have then pass that to there Young and so on . a bit more street wise so to speak :lol:

[Rogerb]

hiya Chris just to say your little silver is now sitting on6 eggs its a bit late for this year I know but if I spit them up they will pine for each other they are totally inseparable and devoted to each other what would you do :?: MR B

[chris]

hi roger,

i would leave the hen to incubate, then if/wen the eggs hatch move the chicks, mother and cock to either a 4 foot double breeder, or an indoor aviary to prevent the chicks getting chilled/wet.

i'm getting into the habit of bringing mine into the indoor aviary as soon as anything hatches, haven't lost any chicks this year, although i did lose 2 juveniles in the storm we had a few weeks back.

the other advantage about this is that the chicks don't have to fight through all the plant growth in my aviary, and if anything goes wrong you can pick up on it far far quicker

Chris

[Rogerb]

thanks chris they are in the indoor flight its aprox 6 by 8 foot thats where they have nested and layed so will leave them in there:-) :-)

[laurab]

3 of the 6 eggs have hatched today :razz: I doubt that they will bother with the other 3 now

[kenny]

hi laura
it makes me so jelous i have just answered chris`s post about parent reared quail and i wish mine would do it they lay plenty of eggs but dont sit em

ken

[chris]

Hi Kenny,

what mutation CPQ do you have? i might have a hen from this year's batch that you can have, just have to get it to you somehow

incubating the eggs of a quail that already has no intention of sitting just propogates the problem unfortunately. when i do incubate mine as part of a test of their genetics, they will end up as eagle owl food so won't get a chance at reproducing

Chris;)

[kenny]

hi chris
i have a normal hen and a silver cock

ken

[chris]

Hi Kenny,

i have at least one Fawn hen, which are similar to the the silvers (but obviously not silvers). if you want her it's your, just have to find a way of getting her to you

Chris;)

[kenny]

hi chris
sorry i havent replied earlier as i totally missed this post,its really good of you to offer mate but there is no way i can get it as my wife is not a long distance driver and i no longer can so i will have to say no it really is good of you to offer which is one of the things i like about this site people so ready to help each other...thanks again mate

ken

[chris]

Hi All,

the spare CPQ i had bred this year have all now been sold to West Hagley Aviaries, so if anyone in the area is after some Parent reared CPQ, that's the place to go!

the only birds i've kept back for breeding are all parent rearing and all are of the normal mutation. 3 pairs in all, fingers crossed next year should be the best yet for CPQ as so far i've found that individual pairs work far better than groups or colonies as far as parent rearing goes

Chris:-D

[kenny]

hi all
been back in hour after seeing to my birds ..went in the aviary to top up the water and my hen quail was laid at an odd angle so i scooped her up and she didnt struggle..which is not a good sign and when i got her she had a closed plastic ring on her leg and she must have caught it somewhere because her leg was cut to the bone and the ring was embedded in the skin..i was going to take it off her when i bought it but didnt bother..but i whished i had done...my wife had to hold her while i got the damned thing of i had to cut the thing away while its leg was pooring whith blood but we managed it i have kept her inside tonight and i have given her some antibiotics and cleaned the wound and disinfected it she seems ok but i also had to catch the cock bird as he was calling for her and it was getting dark and i didnt want the neighbours moaning i hope she is ok i will check first thing in the morning


ken

[chris]

Hi All,

well our lot seem to think now is as good a time as any to breed, and one of the hens is sitting on roughly 9 eggs and has been for the past week or so now. they should be fertile as the cock is nearly always 'on the job':lol: regardless of the weather! so fingers crossed my dad will have to put up with several CPQlings in a couple of weeks time. shame i wont be there to see them hatch really

Chris;)

[kenny]

hi chris
mine have just this week started laying they have 2 in a scrape at the moment but i dont know whether they will sit them

ken

[chris]

well i got to see the nutter on the weekend, and she is/was still incubating. no one has told me otherwise since so i assume all is well. interestingly i've also seen the cock incubating with the hen which is unusual, but the second cock bird i've had do this so far now. must be coming out more with each generation of PR birds, whch can only be a good thing

Chris;-)

[chris]

2 dead in shell and 7 clear eggs....:roll:

good news is she's going for round 2 now, hopefully the cock will pull his finger out this time and do the job properly

[laurab]

Lets hope it's better luck next time Chris. ;)

[chris]

both my hens are now one eggs, one has been sitting for a week now and the other as of last night althouh both have built in very daft places... both nests are right on the doors! the one in the indoor aviary but fortunately the hen is used to me so doesnt get off provided i dont go inside the aviary. the second hen has built it just under the doorway in the outdoor aviary. although she is a steadier bird this will be the first time she has bred so i expect a few relocations before she finally goes down on some eggs. that said.. who knows i might be lucky

hopefully i'll have a new hen for the odd cock bird soon to make up the 3rd pair

Chris

[chris]

as expected the daft sod outside has moved already. she was sitting 6 eggs so no major loss. probably start laying again in a week or so and most likely probably go through a few rounds before finally sitting the whole incubation period. seems to happen a lot with first time hens.

the good news is the daft one inside has no intention of budging, even after i cleaned the aviary out and lined the floor with straw. provided all goes well they should be hatching in around a week and a half

Chris

[kenny]

hi chris
i know mine will never show the interest that yours are showing in breeding but this weekend i made preperations to put mine back out on to the aviary floor,i had to keep them in the outside shelter as my roof was leaking and i didnt like the thought of them getting wet so i bunged them in the shelter in 3 inches of wood shavings so they would be warm and dry until i fixed the leak and they enjoyed all of the spiders and other insects that had gathered on the floor

ken

[chris]

the pair outside have a new nest with 4 eggs in at present. if they decide to stay put then there should be chicks the week i come back before the exams if not then they've either laid more than 12 or have moved again

the pair inside hatched an egg yesterday and moved off the nest. when i got there the rest of the eggs were cold, but since none were due to hatch until wednesday ish made me wonder what the hell was going on, so got the incubator out. did it want to work.. no! after a good half an hour we fixed it some dodgy connection in it but the eggs were stone cold so i went to throw them out. before doing so i checked just to make sure and found 4 out of the 5 eggs had near fully developed chicks apparently dead. then one of the buggers moved it's beak so the lot went in the incubator. after a few minutes it was obvious all were still alive so we cranked up the humidity to avoid the now exposed membrane from drying on the eggs and killing the chicks.

all was going well for a few hours, then i come back after my dinner and fine 2 are dead, and my dad helping the others out of the shell. one was too young and died after a few minutes, the other was up and running by about 7 o clock so i took it back to the mother. accepted by mom and all was fine

today about 9.30 i go up and find the original chick that she'd hatched dead and the other doing fine. nothing apperently wrong with it, and not long dead either as it was still soft and not stiff as a board

[kenny]

hi chris
i dont want to count my chickens ( or quail ) but i think my cpq hen is icubating eggs ..she has never ever shown any interest in doing this before ..but i had not seen her for a few days and i was in the aviary picking up stuff of the floor and found a few eggs in places around the aviary floor but they were stone cold i saw the cock bird running around but not the hen and i looked inside the indoor shelter and she was in one corner ...now normally when she sees me she comes to me to see if i have any mealworms..but she didnt move and i noticed ahe was sat on some eggs with her wings spread out..do you think there is a chance she will hatch these eggs

ken:roll:

[chris]

Hi Kenny,

it's definately a good sign, the only problem with first time broodies is that they often dont complete the full incubation term and move on to nest again elsewhere.

good luck though, sounds promising

Chris

[kenny]

hi chris
i f she did that i would not be surprised having read all the stuff you have put down about c p q but up to now she still hasnt moved much away from the eggs but there is rather a lot under her

ken

[chris]

Hi Kenny,

i think the incubation period is usually 16/17 days, although mine have hatched over a week overdue before now, and one batch even a few days early than they should. weird how it seems to vary

i hope you have success with her hatching an raising the chicks, would be great to add to the P/R strain of CPQ

Chris

[kenny]

hi chris
thanks for the info,i hope she does rear them as you say we could do with more captive bred quail

ken