Auto-Sexing vs Sex-Linked Quail: Genetics, Breeding Strategies & Humane Culling for Poultry Nerds

In this Poultry Nerds Podcast episode, we dive deep into auto-sexing vs sex-linked breeding in quail and chickens. Learn the genetic differences, why auto-sexing doesn’t apply to quail, how sex-linking can boost hatchery efficiency, and why Egyptian × Pharaoh crosses make one of the best-selling sex-linked quail lines.

We also have a real conversation about humane CO₂ culling for surplus males, responsible flock management, and how reptile and raw-feeding communities create zero-waste solutions.

Perfect for quail breeders, gamefowl enthusiasts, and anyone moving from hobby to business.

📌 Key Topics:

• Auto-sexing vs sex-linked genetics explained
• Pharaoh & Egyptian cross for sex-linked quail
• Managing surplus males ethically
• CO₂ euthanasia setup & equipment tips
• How reptile markets reduce waste
• Turning your hobby into a profitable poultry business

🎧 Listen now and join the conversation at Poultry Nerds Podcast

auto sexing quail, sex linked chickens, sex linked quail breeding, quail genetics, Pharaoh quail, Egyptian quail, poultry breeding podcast, humane CO2 culling poultry, reptile feeder quail, raw feeding, poultry business tips, poultry nerds podcast, gamefowl breeding, quail hatchery management

Transcript

Jennifer: 0:23

Welcome poultry nerds. Both of us are coughing, so we're gonna try to do our best at recording today.

Carey: 0:32

One thing's for sure. We won't get them sick.

Jennifer: 0:35

We will not, we will keep our germs to ourself in our own little cubbies here.

Carey: 0:41

But I mean, this time of year it's really, really rough.

Jennifer: 0:45

I have paid attention.

Carey: 0:46

Everything's changing outside.

Jennifer: 0:49

I have paid attention and it seems like I get this every October, but we get crop dusters coming through and I think that just stirs up a lot of dust in the air here. They'll deny. They do deny it. So it is what it is. Deal with it and move on. But today we are going to touch on autos, sexing versus sex linked. Again, we did it once before with Gina.

Carey: 1:23

Yeah, we talked about some of the stuff that she's doing. With, with some of her birds making some zombies and a few other things. And it was a really fun to do podcasts. So y'all should go check that out and give it a listen. And especially if you've ever learned, wanted to learn about doing sex link chickens and all that kind of stuff. Or if you wanna know what makes up a zombie chicken, they're fully alive, even though you know we're. Close to Halloween right now while we're recording this.

Jennifer: 1:57

Yeah we got a lot of questions last week after doing the episode where moving from the hobby to the business, and so we figured I would take one of the. The, I guess my better selling quail out of the website and kind of explain why it's so popular and how I do it. And it is a sex-linked hatch

Carey: 2:27

and the reason behind it,

Jennifer: 2:30

well, the reason behind it is because it's in demand and it makes money. We'll just lay that out on the table right there.

Carey: 2:36

Yeah, I mean, that's part of going from hobby to businesses. Everybody wants to pay their feed bill, but if you can actually give yourself a dollar or two, that makes it even better.

Jennifer: 2:47

So let's kind of back up just a little bit and talk about the difference between auto sexing and sex linked, just because that seems to confuse some people. When it comes to the quail, there are no quail color varieties that are auto sexing, period. Auto sexing simply means that they breed true and they are sex at hatch. None of the quail do that. Sex linked is where you manipulate genes that are on the sex chromosomes in order to change the plumage color. And hatch to sex them. Did I say that right?

Carey: 3:36

Yeah. So basically it's when you're playing tic-tac toe with chromosomes and using Z's and W's instead of X's and O's.

Jennifer: 3:51

Yeah. I

Carey: 3:52

You know, that way you can put this over this and you know that with it being poultry. Then they're gonna swap when they hatch. So like if you use a Pharaoh rooster,

Jennifer: 4:09

no. Then

Carey: 4:09

your hands are gonna look like Pharaohs.

Jennifer: 4:11

No. Okay. They do

Carey: 4:14

on chickens.

Jennifer: 4:16

So look, look, so Egyptian, we're gonna talk about what I use. There are a couple other methods of doing it. Mm-hmm. But I use Egyptians, which is the RU gene. Right, and it is located on the sex chromosome. Yeah. And if it's recessive, okay. So on a male, he can be a carrier and not have the phenotype of ru, okay? Mm-hmm. But a female only can have one copy of it because she only has. One, one copy of it on her chromosomes.

Carey: 5:02

She only got one copy on her side,

Jennifer: 5:04

right? So if she is ru, then she is homozygous. If the male is ru, he's homozygous, but you can also have heterozygous, but I'm digressing there for a second. Okay, so what you do is you take a ru rooster, which in my case I use Egyptian, which means he has two copies of the ru jean and I put them. Over Pharaoh hens because Pharaoh hens would be homozygous. They can't hide anything.

Carey: 5:47

They really can't. Because you, you put anything with a Pharaoh hen and it's coming.

Jennifer: 5:55

And so the offspring will be Egyptian hens and split Pharaoh roosters. And that's important to remember the split Pharaoh, because remember the, the dad's Egyptian and he can give something to his sons and mom can give something to the sons, so they end up with two copies. Okay. Mm-hmm. So she gives them Pharaoh, which is dominant, but he is giving them Egyptian, which is recessive. That's why we call them split. So you cannot tell by looking at them that they are split because it's a recessive trait. So the reason why that is important is you do not want to put those. Boys in your Pharaoh cages because they will mess you up.

Carey: 6:55

They will come out and you will wind up with a Valentine's candy gift.

Jennifer: 7:03

You'll end up with Egyptians everywhere

Carey: 7:05

because they'll be like a box of chocolates. You don't know what's coming out of those eggs,

Jennifer: 7:11

In order to make this work, you have to keep breeding groups of Egyptians, right.'cause they breed true. Mm-hmm. And then you have to keep breeding groups of pharaohs that breed. True. So you can use the Egyptian roosters and the feral hands. Okay. So this, the magic is the Egyptian rooster over the phal hands. And then the. Offspring will be Egyptian hens. That is my biggest seller. I ship chicks, which a lot of people are scared to do, but I can ship guaranteed Quail chicks doing that, and that is my biggest seller because a lot of people only want females. Well, that's fine and dandy, but that leaves me with half a hatch of split. Genetic males. Okay. And I can't use them. They're, they're basically useless as far as breeding is concerned.

Carey: 8:24

Unless you, but lemme tell you those things are useful. When you have a spoiled rotten dog that likes to eat really good. Uh, when you have reptiles When you. Don't even wanna put'em in the brooder, but you wanna make money off of them. Mm-hmm. They're useful. Gas'em and freeze them.

Jennifer: 8:46

So that is what I do with them. I gas'em and freeze them. That is where my frozen freezers come from. Four. My website that I ship out for reptiles, snakes, dogs, whatever. But I can also sell them to people who just wanna grow'em out for food because they don't care. But for whatever reason, they have to leave here when they're chick stage because I don't wanna brood them. I don't wanna raise them and I don't wanna risk them getting mixed up with my true pharaohs because that would be bad for a long time. It would take me a while to make sure everything was sorted again,

Carey: 10:04

because yeah, that's just, when you're doing stuff on any kind of scale, you, you can't afford that kind of mix up'cause that can set you back.

Jennifer: 10:14

Exactly. So the other thing is, is if I don't sell the Egyptian hens as chicks. I can go ahead and grow them out and keep them separate. I end up with more hens growing out that I can then sell as the live adult shippers. Or not shippers, but you know what I mean. Frozen shipping out. No shipping out. Live birds.'cause everybody orders hens. Yeah. So I can, I know my space is better spent because I only grew out the hens, and I do get a lot of orders for the Egyptians, but I would say bulk of my orders would be hens choice, which just means I can pick what I have. That's probably gonna be a lot of Egyptians, because hey, if

Carey: 11:09

that's what you got, that's what you got,

Jennifer: 11:11

because it's. It's smarter on my brooder space, in my grow out space versus trying to grow a lot of stuff out just to sex it later. Okay, so now that we've got the reason for it how do I, well, you do it too, but how do we gas'em and freeze'em, like logistically we've seen on Facebook recently where people just set them in the freezer. Please do not do that,

Carey: 11:39

man. That's, that's like horrible.

Jennifer: 11:41

You know, it's like you, I on Facebook,

Carey: 11:44

you know, and, and different people talk about doing different things. I don't even like to snap their necks. You know, you, you talk about wanting it to be as humane as possible. I can take, so when I take my hats and baskets out. If, let's use this, um, Egyptian Pharaoh combo, for example. And I know I'm not gonna grow the roosters, so I open the basket, I look and y'all go here and I put'em in there, sit the lid on it pull the tape off the little hole at the top on the far side. I opened the gas up. When I start feeling the cool breeze, I cover the tape back up, leave it on for about 30 more seconds, cut it off. And they're move. They're not moving anymore.

Jennifer: 12:39

Well, that's kind of what I mean. So since we're a podcast, we need to like walk through the visual here. So you use carbon dioxide, I mean you're set up similar to mine.

Carey: 12:48

Yep.

Jennifer: 12:48

We use carbon dioxide. I here in middle Tennessee get mine at a welding supply store.

Carey: 12:55

That's what I do. And when I walked in the first time I was like, Hey, I need to get a tank of carbon dioxide. Guy looked at me kind of funny. He said, you come in here all the time and get different things, but I gotta ask. And I just started laughing and I said, well this is, you know, this is what I'm doing. And he was like, that is really fast. That's. I could, I mean, I couldn't think of a more humane way. I was like, well, that, I mean, that's what I wanna do. So, you know, he, he helped me out, got what I needed, and it, I mean, it works. I, I don't know anywhere else you can go buy this stuff besides the welding supply house.

Jennifer: 13:40

Well, it's the same stuff that you would get for like soda machines, but I would assume it would be more expensive that way since, because they're so, those tanks are

Carey: 13:49

huge.

Jennifer: 13:50

Oh, okay. Gotcha. I don't know, I just go to the welding supply store, I think, I don't know how big that tank is. Was like 50 pounds or something.

Carey: 13:59

Yeah, I wanna say it is three feet tall, no. Mm-hmm. Two feet tall probably. Yeah. Somewhere between two and three. I will say, if you're gonna start doing this, you've gotta get a regulator specifically made for carbon dioxide because they all have different types of fittings on the top. I learned that the hard way. And, um, Don't freak out when they tell you what your bill is the first time

Jennifer: 14:26

for the regulator.

Carey: 14:27

cause if you don't have a tank, you gotta buy a tank. Um, I, I ordered my regulator and hose and stuff off Amazon. It was cheap, but that tank first

Jennifer: 14:39

time? Yeah. I think it was like dollars, but it's only like$30 to swap it.

Carey: 14:45

Yeah, you gotta swap it. 30 bucks. You're done.

Jennifer: 14:48

Right now I bought the, um, the gauges because I have run out before and I didn't want to do that bef again. So I did go ahead and buy gauges, uh, a couple refills ago. Okay, so you've got your CO2 tank. The gauges are optional but they're pricey, so make sure it is something you wanna stick with before you invest in the gauges.

Carey: 15:12

I will say this, don't buy your gauges. From your welding supply store?

Jennifer: 15:17

Well, I did.

Carey: 15:19

I didn't, and when I went back to look for a propane torch, I, the guy was like, dude, you don't wanna buy your gauges here. You, I mean, you're buy'em on Amazon and probably won't even buy empty tanks for propane on Amazon and bring them to fill'em. I was like, okay. So I think I paid like 50 or 60 bucks for my gauges.

Jennifer: 15:46

I paid 80, but mine's fancy. Mine has its own cutoff and everything on it.

Carey: 15:51

Yeah, mine have two gauges. They, I can adjust the pressure.

Jennifer: 15:56

Okay, fine. We got the same gauge it sounds like. Okay, so I paid 80 at the room. Great

Carey: 15:59

minds think alike,

Jennifer: 16:01

and he saved money on Amazon. Okay, so there's that. Then all you need, um, I have clear hosing. I don't know if everybody uses clear hosing that hooks on the end, and then you just need a. Like a tub. What is it? A Rubbermaid tub that's got clamping lid.

Carey: 16:22

So yeah, I got a, what I did was, because I had seen your setup, I got my hatching basket and I knew about how wide and stuff and checked how tall it was, and I literally went to Dollar Tree and found a container that was about two inches taller and several inches around. So I could just put the whole hatching bag because sometimes if I have a big order and I'm not needing anything for the future, I'll just out of the hatcher into that, into the freezer. It is a thing.

Jennifer: 17:03

You don't want to get a Rubbermaid tub that is too big because then you're just wasting gas. Mm-hmm. And so, so like what he is talking about is if you're gonna use your hatching baskets, then set'em down in there, which I do that too. Then it, you just want a tub that's just a little bit bigger. Yeah. So mine is. I think mine is like the one that goes under your bed, so it's like six or seven inches tall.

Carey: 17:31

Yeah, that's what mine is.

Jennifer: 17:32

Yeah. So you don't want it like a big, deep one because what you're gonna do is you're gonna open the gas and fill the tub, so you need to have a relief hole in the top of the lid. The lid needs to clamp on other than otherwise, that thing will blow off. So it needs to have clamping clamps on the side of the lid, and then you're gonna open the valve all the way. Don't try at this point to conserve gas because we want to be as humane as possible. So you wanna open it up, fill that thing with gas. Then cover the hole. I use a piece of painter's tape to cover the hole, and the stuff works

Carey: 18:16

for everything

Jennifer: 18:17

I know. I use it everywhere and then, then cut the tank off. Now it will get really cold coming out of the tank, and you could freeze your line. I did something the other day that I've never done before. The line was frozen and I bumped it and cracked the line and had to cut it and reconnected it again. So the line was frozen. The tubing was mm-hmm. So frozen that when I touched it, it, it broke it. Uh, yeah. So don't skimp on the tubing. Go ahead and like, leave it long so when you break it, you can rehook it back up again.

Carey: 18:56

So, like, when I got my gauges, I got one that had a probably four foot liter on it.

Jennifer: 19:03

Mm-hmm.

Carey: 19:05

It had a connector on the end of it and I, I got a piece that I could go, I drilled a hole through the tank or through the Tupperware thing and put that in it. So I'm using the tube that came with it because apparently those tanks are so expensive because they're like 3000 PSI. And that's a lot of pressure. But it works fast.

Jennifer: 19:32

Yes. So the birds go to sleep. Fob around just a little bit. Go to sleep, gone, come back in a couple minutes. You don't wanna wait too terribly long. I would say no more than three to five minutes and then place them on single layer trays to go in the freezer. I actually use my old hutchin baskets that I don't use anymore and just lay'em flat on there and, um, freeze'em and then just stack'em up that way and fill the freezer.

Carey: 20:09

Yeah. Guys, I will say this. If your wife is a baker and she has those cooling racks for cakes, while those are perfect for this. Don't use them. You, after you get a stern talking to you, will be buying her some new ones. So if you wanna use those, just, save yourself the headache and order you some. But the, the cooling racks for cakes work really well if you don't have hats and baskets that have the perforated holes all in them that you don't use anymore for hatching.

Jennifer: 20:51

So two more tips that I have learned doing this is you don't want to wait too long, like I said, three to five minutes because if you wait any longer, they, they sweat is like bad. I don't know the, they do. I don't know what that is about. Yeah. And so they get they'll get like, um, like, um, freezer burn is what they look like because they're wet and then they'll freeze. Um, so you want to freeze them relatively quickly and, um. Wipe out the bottom of the tub really good because there'll be some poop and stuff in there. So you wanna wipe that out for the next go around. And the second thing that I've learned is you really want to freeze them before you bag them. Because otherwise you get that sweating situation again. I don't understand it.

Carey: 21:46

Yeah. Or you can be lazy and also pull out a paper towel. Put that in the bottom of your storage container. Then set your hatching basket on top of that. Put the lid on it, the paper towel away so you don't have to clean it. Like I'm, I know it's a wasted paper towel, but I'm bad about that.

Jennifer: 22:14

I do also, while we're on this topic, I, um, freeze adult males for, um, other creatures to eat. And when you freeze them, try to. Position them, I guess would be the right word, um, in the freezer where their feet are kind of under them and it will make it easier to go in the bags later. You'll kind of learn what works for your packaging later. Um, but once they're frozen, it's really hard to reposition them. And the smaller they are. Try not to let them touch the side of the freezer, because occasionally they might lose pieces.

Carey: 23:00

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Jennifer: 23:01

So you, you sell 75 and a half

Carey: 23:05

And I will say this don't put them in your freezer in your house.

Jennifer: 23:09

No, don't do that

Carey: 23:11

because you may be sitting in your recliner. Enjoying tv. First time you got to sit down and watch your favorite show for a while, and your wife is cooking supper and she screams out your name like you're in trouble because a chick just fell out of the freezer.

Jennifer: 23:34

Yeah. Yeah, I have a barn Fri an old barn fridge. It's rusty, but it still works and so highly

Carey: 23:42

recommend that.

Jennifer: 23:43

Yeah.

Carey: 23:44

Or get a deep freeze just for this.

Jennifer: 23:47

So the purpose of this topic, which I know is not gonna be for everybody, but. It was because neither one of us are about wasting things. And so even baby chicks have a purpose as food. It just may not be for people food. But other creatures have to eat and in the wild, I mean, they would get eaten. Well, you know, I, I feel like it's okay because we are providing a food source for other animals to eat and not wasting anything. And basically everybody gets what they need.

Carey: 24:27

Well, and like no matter how good your genetics are, you're still gonna wind up with a chick every now and then it's play legged. Mm-hmm. Or just you don't like it out of the brooder. Mm-hmm. And, you know, that's, um. It's a great thing to do with the ones that you don't need anymore.

Jennifer: 24:47

So, and then snakes and lizards and stuff, they eat different sizes, so you don't have to decide that today. You know, when they come out of that hatcher, you can decide three weeks from now that it's not doing, you know, it's. It's failing to thrive as much as it's bruder mates or it's the wrong color markings that you need, or it's the wrong sex. You can sex it at that point and then go ahead and freeze'em for the mid-size feeders. So there's, it's useful all the way through. But be humane about it. Um, be smart about it and try not to waste anything. And that is my tip for the day. Anything else you wanna add?

Carey: 25:30

I mean, no, like it's, it does sound weird to do this, but there's a whole community out there of people that feed their dog raw. Raw feeding is a thing, and if you look at what goes into dog food, it's about as bad, if not worse, than what goes into chicken feed. If you want the best for little sparky, make their fee. It's a thing. And when it comes to reptiles, quail are a lot more nutritious than mice and they don't stink as bad.

Jennifer: 26:12

And I think that the, I don't know anything about reptiles, but when I went to the reptile show, they were explaining that the fur of the mice, the rat has, or the snake has to regurgitate it. Mm-hmm.

Carey: 26:23

It can't

Jennifer: 26:24

digest it, but it can digest all of the quail.

Carey: 26:27

They can digest all the quail. Yeah.

Jennifer: 26:29

And so the movement in the reptile world is back to. Birds. And so I did not start freezing quail. Like I didn't wake up one morning and go, Hey, I am gonna do frozens today. It was more or less, Hey, I need a, an outlet for these males that I'm getting from the auto sexing cage. What can I do with them? And the reptile people filled that need. They don't care what color they are. All right. Hope that was helpful to somebody. If you have any questions, let us know.

Carey: 27:05

Yep. Be sure to check us out on our wells website, poultry nerds podcast.com. Send us an email if you got any questions info@poultrynerdspodcast.com or find one of us on social. Tell us hello. Would love to hear. You know, if you learn something from the show, we would love to hear about that. Until next time.