Ways to increase the fertility of meat quails

The work was carried out in LLC "Genofond" of the Moscow region. The initial material of the work performed was the quail of the Radonezh breed. The bred breed is characterized by high meat productivity, however, its reproductive indicators were significantly inferior to quails of the egg and meat-egg directions of productivity, the fertilization of eggs is at the level of 75-80%, the output of young animals was 60-65%, respectively. Experiments to study the sexual behavior of birds were carried out at the beginning (10 weeks), middle (25 weeks) and end of the breeding season (35 weeks). The observation was carried out three days in a row during the entire daylight hours. In the experiment, attempts to mate initiated by a male (group 1) or a female (group 2) were recorded. In parallel with the observations of the sexual behavior of quails, the time of laying eggs and the distribution of mating attempts initiated by males and females during daylight hours were recorded. Based on observations of the sexual behavior of birds, the main causes of low fertilization of eggs are identified and ways to increase it are outlined by selecting males and females when completing a breeding herd.It was found that when completing a breeding herd of quails, it is necessary to take into account the height of the quail and quail, measurements are carried out by measuring the length of the legs from the heel to the sacro-lumbar articulation and subsequently to the tip of the beak, and males are selected to females, according to the total measurement, which should be greater than or at the height of the female, this method is obtained patent No. 2750115 dated 06/22/2021 When group maintenance should also take into account the timing of planting quails to quails. It is recommended to plant females in a group of males after two days of their joint maintenance in a cage. Such a method of selecting and planting quails when completing a breeding herd provides a reliable increase in the fertilization of eggs and, accordingly, the withdrawal of quail