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A medium-sized golden bird that recently appeared in the farmsteads of poultry farmers quickly won the hearts of quail lovers and farmers who raise this species of birds for dietary meat and eggs.
It is rather difficult to say which direction the Manchu quails belong to, since their body weight is small compared to Texas broilers, but more than that of egg-laying quail breeds. Manchurians ripen on a par with broiler breeds.
Egg production is lower than that of Japanese quail, but the eggs are very large relative to the size of the Manchus.
Many quail breeders attribute the Manchurian quail breed to the meat direction, but some believe that this is an egg-meat breed... Be that as it may, but the high yield of products per 1 feed unit and the decorative appearance of the Manchurian quail made it popular not only among poultry enthusiasts, but also among farmers engaged in industrial production.
Description of Manchu golden quails
In the photo there is an absolutely wonderful color of the golden Manchu quail with a clearly pronounced mask in the male. Such birds are very good as decorative ones, as they look no worse than any exotic bird, but they do not require as much attention as exotic ones.
Usually, the color of Manchu quails is duller, although it has a very pleasant yellow color.
Manchu are relatively small birds, although their weight is twice that of their wild ancestor. Females are larger than males, but even a female can hardly be fattened more than up to 200 g. They are inferior even to the Pharaoh meat breed bred in America, weighing up to 300 g.
Compared to the Texas broiler quail breed, Manchu quails look small at all. The weight of a Texan can reach almost half a kilogram. Moreover, it is at texas quailalso called white pharaohs, the male is larger than the female and weighs 470 g, while the female “only” 360 g.
If you cross Manchu quails with Texas quails, you can get such a charming cross. Although usually such a cross is produced in order to increase the meat yield.
It is because of the crossing of Texans with Manchus that there are serious battles between quail breeders today: should the Golden Phoenix quail be considered a separate quail breed, a cross with a white pharaoh, or just a branch of the Manchu golden French selection. The weight of the Golden Phoenix is almost equal to the weight of the white pharaoh, but in the plumage, which is completely identical to the color of the Manchu golden, nothing indicates an admixture of another breed. At the same time, phoenixes do not split in the offspring, which indicates the genetic monolithicity of the livestock.
Perhaps this is the option when the breed was bred from the parent exclusively by selection for the desired qualities without the addition of other blood. Such cases are known in other domesticated species. For example, the German giant rabbit is identical in blood to the Belgian giant, but is registered as a separate breed. By the way, among rabbit breeders, many do not agree with the existence of a separate breed, the German Giant.
Among horses, the Haflinger and the Avelinsky breeds have absolutely identical origins and a common area of origin, but today they are registered as two different breeds.Among the dogs, one can recall the East European Shepherd Dog, bred in the USSR from the German one without the addition of other blood, but by strict selection for the needs of the armed forces and internal troops.
Therefore, the option of breeding a large variety of Manchurian quail in France is quite real, but whether to consider it a breed is still a matter of taste.
The original breed, that is, the Manchurian, in addition to rapid maturation (2 months), is also distinguished by good egg production, producing up to 250 eggs per year. Egg weight is about 17 g.
However, the reviews of farmers containing meat and meat and egg quails characterize both branches of golden quails on the positive side.
Industrial content
In addition to keeping Manchu as pets with a free life in an aviary, there is the cultivation of Manchu quails for meat and eggs while keeping birds in cages on the farm.
This content is similar to the content of chickens for meat and eggs. The density of quails or chickens per square meter depends on the size of the bird. If egg chickens usually have a density of 5-6 heads per meter, then the number of quails can exceed 50 heads. Since the Manchu quail are somewhat larger than their counterparts belonging to the egg-bearing breeds, it is recommended to limit the number of golden Manchu quails to 50 heads per m². The height of the cage should not be much greater than the size of the bird itself.
A big plus of Manchu golden quails is the attractiveness of the quail carcass for the buyer. This is explained by the fact that hemp of light feathers are not noticeable on the skin of a plucked carcass. And light meat does not scare off inexperienced buyers. In dark breeds of quail, after plucking, black hemp and blackness around the abdomen are visible, which usually does not add appetite.
When feeding quails for meat, there is no need to separate males from females and in the photo above it is easy to see that males with a dark mask on their heads are kept together with females.
To obtain edible quail eggs, females are kept separately from males and fed with compound feed for layers. The rest of their conditions of detention do not differ from the maintenance of the meat herd.
But for breeding poultry, you need to create more favorable conditions with more living space.
Breeding of Manchurian golden quail
When quail breeding for high-quality fertilization, 3-4 females determine one male, seating families in separate cages, since males can sort things out among themselves. The Manchu incubation instinct is poorly developed; therefore, the incubation of eggs is recommended.
Manchurian golden reaches sexual maturity at 2 months and retains high egg production and fertilization of eggs up to 8 months. Birds of this age are selected for breeding.
For feed cages and eggs, containers filled with sand and ash can be placed once a week. The broodstock can be kept in the cages permanently. Given the division of families into separate cells, containers will have to be placed in each.
How to determine the sex of quails
Fortunately for quail breeders, the sexual dimorphism of the Manchurian golden is well expressed in the color of the plumage and it can be determined already from a month. With colored breeds, where the female does not differ in color from the male, the sex of the bird can only be recognized after puberty.
There are several ways to understand where the quail is and where the quail is. It is believed that Manchu goldens differ in sex as early as 3 weeks.
If you have time and the number of birds is small, you can watch quails. Males will differ from quails by periodic sharp cries, which you will never hear from quails.If there is no time and the herd is under 2 months old, you can try to find out the gender by color.
Manchurians are distinguished by the color of the chest and head.
The female has a variegated chest and no mask on her head. Her head is almost the same color as the body.
The male can be recognized by the even, without specks, more reddish than the quail's plumage of the chest and the mask on the head. The mask can be brown, light ocher or rust colored.
But males have one caveat. Very often in quails there is a situation when, due to underdeveloped testes, the bird has the color of the male, but is not able to fertilize the females.
How to tell a breeding male
The same method is suitable for guaranteed sex determination in an adult bird. Quails are distinguished from quails by the appearance of the cloaca and the presence of a tail gland, which is absent in the female. In a quail, the cloaca is pink and between the anus and the tail, almost on the border with the cloaca, there is an oblong protrusion, when pressed on which a white foamy liquid appears. The female does not have such a protrusion.
A quail, defined by its plumage as a male, but not having a tail gland at two months, is not suitable for breeding, since its testes are underdeveloped. Such quail is culled for meat.
The owner of the quail farm expresses his opinion about the Manchurian golden quail breed quite impartially:
Perhaps the owner of this farm is right about the children's interest in golden Manchu quails. But then the charming golden quail will have to be hidden from the children.
Reviews of the owners of golden Manchu quails
Conclusion
As a meat and partially egg breed, the Manchu golden have proven themselves very well among quail breeders. Taking into account the French line of these quails, everyone can choose quails to their taste: either large for meat, or smaller for meat and edible eggs. However, the large line also runs well, producing simply giant eggs for broiler feed.
