Manchurian Gold Coturnix Quail
The other golden Coturnix — richer, more uniform wheat-gold than the Italian, built on the same Yellow gene with the same lethal-cross rule. Often sold as a meat-selected line.
What they look like
Manchurians run a deeper, more even wheat-to-honey gold than Italians, with less contrast in the flecking. Males show the plain warm breast, hens the speckled one. Side by side with Italians the difference is real but subtle — line selection matters as much as the label.
How the genetics work
Same Yellow (Y) mutation as the Italian, so the same math applies: no living bird is homozygous, gold × gold loses a quarter of the hatch in the shell and throws some brown chicks, and gold × Pharaoh is the loss-free pairing. Manchurian and Italian labels mostly reflect different selection histories on the same gene.
Sexing Manchurian Golds
Feather-sexable at ~3 weeks — plain male breast vs speckled hen breast, same as Pharaoh and Italian.
Eggs, size & production
Many Manchurian lines in the US descend from meat-program stock and carry good size — 10–13 oz is common in well-bred birds. Lay rates match other Coturnix.
Who this variety is for
Keepers who want gold birds with meat-line size, and anyone who likes a uniform-colored covey that still feather-sexes.
Before you buy
Ask whether the line traces to meat-selected stock or is just 'gold-colored' — the label alone doesn't guarantee size. Weigh-at-8-weeks numbers beat adjectives.
Keep or breed Manchurian Gold?
Show off your birds and compare notes in the free Quail Keeper Community — keepers post their coveys, hatch results, and honest line reviews. Joining also unlocks the Quail Keeper Max app free.
Planning a Manchurian Gold breeding project?
Quail Keeper Max has a built-in color genetics calculator — pick two parents and see what the hatch should throw — plus pedigree tracking, breeding pair records, and hatch-rate stats so you can actually see which pairings work. It's the tool this guide's genetics notes come from.
Try the genetics calculator free →Free plan included · No credit card required
Related varieties
A note from one keeper to another: variety names in Coturnix are not tightly standardized — different breeders' lines under the same name can differ in shade, size, and how crosses behave, and several newer varieties are still being mapped by the breeding community. Treat this guide as a working keeper's reference, buy from breeders who know their lines' genetics, and trust real hatch results over any label.