Egg laying is triggered by day length, so as the daylight increases so does production from the poultry. Yay!Proof also that I am still playing catch up. The male Tibetan Corturnix quail pair that I am keeping from the summer hatch...are not a pair. Of males, that is.
"Er...duh."
9 comments:
Don't you just hate it when the animals fool you like that? Dang.
P.S. The days REALLY are getting longer? My brain doesn't believe it when I try to get up in the morning when it's still PITCH DARK! ;O\
Oh, ratz. Not a boy in sight? I am still looking for the jackets, by the way.
Well, I thought they were BOTH boys...so maybe we've got one of each....here's to hoping....
Hehe. Are quail really big enough to know the difference?
Congrats on the egg!
Gorgeous sheep. :-)
Know the difference of what?
If you mean daylight....we ALL notice that. Every teeny, little extra minute of it. (Not TOO anxious for Spring, am I?)
If you mean gender, well they obviously weren't displaying much gender-specific behaviors like calling or egg laying (hence the mistaken identity). But I'm sure that if one quail didn't notice the difference and tried something hinky with the other, there would be a battle to the death. They're pretty serious little fowl...
Sorry, Melanie. I meant are they large enough to sex, yes, since you mentioned you thought they were both boys and now you're hoping you got a pair. :-)
I'm anxious for spring, too, but not the heat of summer. ;-)
Typically, we watch for overt signs of gender, like egg laying, mounting, and calling to sort them out. Only the Spotted Quail have reliable plumage distinctions for male vs. female. They are our main laying flock...
But the Tibetan are really cool looking -dark grey/brown, so I wanted a pair for breeding. When I found we had two males (or so I thought) I was willing to settle for that and simply keep them as eye candy. I had them separate from the main flock, to avoid fighting and other problems.
I imagine even if I had the fundamentals on equipment sexing, they WOULD be too small. Or my hands too big...
What a tiny egg! My girls are starting to pick up their laying,thank goodness!If I had to go buy some eggs there was going to be some serious threats of dumpling making in the hen house!
Love you mitts! The egg is pretty too.
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