The Texas white broiler quail is also known by the names: white pharaoh albino or Texas white giant (which sometimes causes confusion among inexperienced poultry farmers). These quails are not only valued for healthy eggs, but also for dietary meat.
A little bit about the breed
American breeders have worked on the breed. The Japanese quail became the progenitor, while only large specimens were selected for selection. The breed got its white color by crossing a Japanese with a white English quail.
In appearance, the Texan is similar to the English representative. The breed is one of the promising, because the birds are unpretentious in care and undemanding to the diet. Unlike the Pharaohs, they quickly gain mass and have tender meat.
Today, the Texas broiler is grown everywhere, not only in America, but also in central Russia.
Appearance
The representative of this breed has white plumage, small dark gray spots on the head are allowed. Moreover, under the white plumage, the skin has a pinkish color, and in places of spots - gray. Therefore, when selecting young birds, chicks with a minimum number of spots are selected to improve the appearance of the carcass.
The plumage of the bird is magnificent. The back and bulging chest are well developed. A small head and a short neck discord with a large, dense physique. Eyes are round and black, beige beak sometimes with a dark tip. Light pink, muscular legs.
Advantages and disadvantages of the breed
The breed has both significant advantages and disadvantages.
The positive aspects include:
- Birds quickly gain weight and have a high carcass yield when slaughtered (approximately 260 g). Males weigh 360 g, females - 450 g. Often fatten individuals to a maximum weight of 550 g.
- The carcass has an attractive appearance, the meat is tasty.
- Feather is easily plucked.
- Low-maintenance bird, easy to care for.
- They are unobtrusive, calm disposition.
- Females have virtually no problems with the oviduct.
- They begin to rush early - from the age of two months.
However, the breed has no less disadvantages:
- Low or medium egg production, but there should be no question, since the breed belongs to the meat type. Quail eggs are large, they can weigh up to 20 g. On average, the weight of one egg is 12-14 g. Often, two yolks are found in one egg. However, such eggs are suitable only for food, eggs weighing 10-11 g are selected for incubation.
- Due to the phlegmatic nature, males show little activity towards females, due to such a cool attitude towards the opposite half, breeding problems arise, since the fertilization of eggs is low. Therefore, 2 females should have 1 cockerel.
- The hatchability of the chicks is also not happy and averages 60%.
- Chicks are born weak, unbearable and require attention. The survival rate is 70-80%.
- High feed consumption.
- It is immediately impossible to distinguish a female from a male; one will have to wait until they begin to lay eggs or learn to identify them by other signs.
How to distinguish a female from a male?
People with good ear for music who have already heard male and female “trills” of quail can be distinguished by voice. In males it is piercing and sharp, in quails it is more melodic and melodious, reminiscent of a quiet gurgling. Failed to figure out the sounds made by the birds? Then there is a more practical way.
Chicks at five weeks from birth go through puberty. At this age, it is already possible to distinguish the sex of individuals in the form of the genital organs. To do this, they take it and deploy it to their tummy. Feathers are spreading near the cesspools. In the female, this zone has the shape of an elongated gap, in males the cloaca is rounded and if you slightly press on the sides, a white colored liquid appears.
Maintenance and care
Texans are placed in any room or building. The main thing is that there are no drafts, it should be warm, light and dry.
Lighting
Windows are best done on the south or east side. Quail does not like direct sunlight, they are curtained with a light cloth or net, or cells are placed away from windows. They feel quite good under artificial lighting as well, enough 2 lamps of 40 watts each. The duration of daylight hours is maintained up to 16-17 hours a day.
Ventilation
Be sure to install ventilation so that the air circulates in the shed, does not stagnate. Birds and a small patio for walks will please you. It is fenced with a fine net to prevent fans from quailing on quail territory - these are cats, rats and other animals, and they make a canopy that protects the livestock from direct sunlight. Walking pad should be at least 10-15 square meters. m. With this content, the quail does not experience stress and anxiety, and feels like in its own element.
Cells
If there is not enough space, then cell maintenance is practiced. Cells are set in rows in several tiers.
When calculating, it is necessary to take into account that one bird needs 20-30 cm of personal space (ideally 50 cm), the height of the structure should be 40 cm, and not 20 cm as for other smaller breeds. The optimal mesh size is 35x45 cm so that the quail can calmly stick its head in.
Each cage is equipped from the outside with a watering trough and a feeding trough, egg collectors are made, as laying hens can easily crush eggs on the floor. This design greatly facilitates bird care.
To make it easier to clean out the droppings, drawer plastic and wooden pallets are made below.
Quails feeding for slaughter are divided by sex - to males and layers, and kept separately from each other.
Read about how to make a quail cage with your own hands.
Temperature
Texas broilers react sharply to sudden temperature fluctuations. Comfortable for them is the temperature + 18-22 ° C. If the thermometer drops below, the birds begin to freeze and pile up to keep warm. Such a pandemonium sometimes leads to their injury.
Above 22 ° C the heat of the bird completely becomes lazy and passive. A signal that the quail is hot is their behavior. They often breathe and keep their beaks open.
Air humidity
It is also necessary to control air humidity. Its optimal performance is 60-70%. With increasing humidity, birds gain less weight, rush worse and often get sick, as a result, the mortality rate increases.
What to feed?
Texas giants are famous for their excellent appetite. For quick weight gain, the diet must be balanced. One quail per day eats up to 40-50 g of feed, that is, up to 4-5 kg of feed per day will be needed on a livestock of 100 birds. For them, they get industrial quality feed.
Unlike chickens, quails immediately begin to eat food for adult birds, only in a more chopped form. But for an accelerated rate of mass gain, they are fed according to the following scheme:
- First, the hatched quails are given protein-rich food:
- crushed boiled eggs;
- cottage cheese rubbed through a fine sieve;
- fermented milk products - yogurt, kefir.
- Next, greens, crackers finely ground, feed for the chicks are introduced.
- Compound feed is added to the grown-up chicks, as well as calcium-rich foods - chalk, shells, crushed shells and bone meal.
- In the menu of females that started to sweep, they definitely introduce crushed raw sea fish and salt.
Fresh water at room temperature should always be in the drinking cups of birds from birth, so that they can freely drink at any time.
Slaughter and culling
The broiler gains maximum weight by 5 months. By the age of 6 months, laying layers decrease in laying hens, and the fertility of eggs decreases. Therefore, keeping birds for more than 6 months is impractical.
Large-sized birds with a minimum number of spots are selected for breeding. Discard small quail, stunted or having any defects. They are kept separate from the main herd and are not used for breeding.
Breeding Texans
Layers of this breed are completely deprived of the instinct of incubation, even with open-air cages, no more than 3% of females become hens. Therefore, breeding Texans is possible only with the help of an incubator.
With incubation, there are several nuances that should be considered:
- For incubation, it is better to take the eggs of young females who are not yet 10 months old. In more mature individuals, the number of fertilized eggs decreases several times.
- Eggs are harvested for 7 days and stored at + 18-22 ° C.
- Chicks hatch on days 16-18, but usually a massive "birth" occurs on the 17th day.
- During incubation, eggs are not required to be turned over. This does not affect the successful conclusion and the health of the chicks in the future (according to the observations of specialists).
- The newborns will be quit for several hours, left in the incubator to dry completely, and only then moved to a special room - a brooder, where the optimum temperature is maintained for them (32-34 ° C). Otherwise, the feathers will dry quickly and cover with a hard crust.
For two weeks of quailing, the ambient temperature begins to gradually decrease, and by the end of the third week it is brought to +26 ° C. Four-week-old young animals are transferred to cages or a common place where they maintain the temperature within 22-24 ° C.
Disease and Prevention
Unlike egg and meat and egg breeds, Texans have a weaker immune system. Therefore, for prevention, starting from three days of age, they are given vitamin preparations. And also birds are fed with high-quality, balanced fodder, give calcium-containing products and proteins. Be sure to monitor the quality of drinking water. It should not be musty, cold or heated. A sick bird is immediately separated from healthy counterparts separately.
The most common diseases are associated with improper quail content and a lack of nutrients in their diet.
Birds are affected by:
- vitamin deficiency;
- cannibalism;
- baldness - loss of plumage.
More information about quail diseases and their treatment - look here.
How to distinguish a sick bird from a healthy one?
To understand which bird is sick, it is necessary to observe the behavior of birds:
- A sick bird becomes lethargic and usually slaughtered in a corner.
- Does not show any interest in what is happening around her.
- Refuses to eat, sometimes drink.
- Her feathers are tousled, her eyes half-open.
- She throws her head back and cranes her neck.
- Pulls feathers out of himself, pecks eggs.
Sick birds need to be identified in a timely manner and look for the cause of their poor health. Often eliminating the negative factors of maintenance or nutrition, the bird recovers without any consequences.
How much and where to buy a white Texas broiler?
If you intend to purchase this breed of birds, then select a trusted seller so that you do not become disappointed in the future. The white Texas broiler is similar in appearance to the English quail, which is much smaller in size, since it belongs to the egg breed. When buying, pay attention to the plumage, the less dark spots, the better - the carcass will have a more attractive appearance.
On average, the price of layers varies from 100 to 200 rubles, depending on age, the younger the individual, the cheaper it is. So, the price of a daily quail is 40-60 rubles. You can also find an incubation egg from 15 rubles / pc on sale, but no one will give you a guarantee that it is fertilized and a Texan will certainly emerge from it.
Poultry is acquired on farms engaged in their breeding or from private traders.
White Texas broiler and Pharaoh are two meat breeds that are represented on the poultry market. Which breed to choose, everyone decides for himself. The main characteristics are presented in the table below.
Breed / Characteristics | Texas White Broiler | Pharaoh |
The mass of the female (average), g | 450 | 300 |
Weight of the cockerel (average), g | 360 | 250 |
Egg production (pcs / year) | 200 | 220 |
Egg weight, g | 15 | 18 |
This breed of quail is well suited for breeding and selling meat. The requirements are not too high, unlike many other breeds. Quality products, business quickly pays off. But you have to tinker a bit with breeding