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Eowyn, front view
Eowyn, back and wing patternEowyn, second view
Range 3 · Exhibited at the Boulder County Fair

Eowyn

The heaviest bird in the group at 269 g, and the honest puzzle of the flock. She is solid chestnut with a small patch of white under the chin and no white anywhere else, not on the breast, not on the wingtips. That is the classic white bib, which breeders have not settled: some treat it as tuxedo, others as an ordinary expression of extended brown. We sell her as a bib bird and let the buyer decide.

White bib, and why we are not simply calling it tuxedoShe has a small patch of white under the chin. There is no white on her breast and none on her wingtips, which is where tuxedo white normally sits. White under the chin has its own name in the hobby, white bib, and its status is unresolved. Some breeders treat it as a mutation in its own right; others think it is an ordinary expression of extended brown, which every Range bird carries by definition. It has not been studied scientifically and there is no test for it.

The practical difference matters if you are buying for color. If the white is tuxedo, it should show up in the chicks. If it is an expression of extended brown, breeding for it may get you nothing. We are not going to sell her as a tuxedo bird on the strength of a chin patch. She is listed as white bib, and if tuxedo chicks are what you are after, buy from a bird with white on the breast.
Not at the fair this yearShe was missing feathers on the top of her head in the week before the show. Condition counts under the standard, so there was no sense entering her and she stayed home. It is cosmetic and it grows back; it has nothing to do with what she carries or what she throws. Her eggs and her chicks are still available to order.
VarietyRange (jumbo line)
Pen IDRange 3
SexFemale (vent-checked, not feather-sexed)
TuxedoWhite bib only
FeeNo
Weight269 g (9.5 oz)
Boulder County Fair 2026Not entered. Missing head feathers that week, which counts against a bird on condition.
TemperamentHandled daily since hatch; calm in the hand
Feed100% certified organic, whole life (organic starter, then organic grower)
Raised byColin, 4-H poultry project, Lyons, Colorado

Every quail here has eaten 100% certified organic feed for its entire life. Organic chick starter from the day it hatched, then an organic grower ration. No conventional feed, ever.

Order eggs or chicks How these genes work

How Eowyn weighs up

269 g · 9.5 oz

Weighed 3 Aug 2026

This bird269 g
Published mean, large-sized strain, adult female 225.8 g
Published mean, normal-sized strain, adult female 145.0 g

That puts her about 19% above the published mean for a large-sized strain, and well clear of a normal-sized one. One honest caveat: that study weighed its birds at 16 weeks, and strain, age, feed and season all move the number. Treat this as a real measurement of one bird, not a guarantee about her offspring.

Haqani MI, Kawamura K, Takenouchi A, Kabir MH, Nakamura Y, Ishikawa A, Tsudzuki M. A growth performance and nonlinear growth curve functions of large- and normal-sized Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica). The Journal of Poultry Science 2021;58(2):88–96. Read the source

What Eowyn would bring to a breeding pen

Eowyn weighed 269 g on 3 Aug 2026, which is about 19% above the published mean for an adult female of a large-sized strain. That is a measurement of one bird on one day, not a promise about her offspring.

She brings a small white bib under the chin and no other white. Worth knowing before you bid: tuxedo is probably, but not provably, the published white-spotting locus, and Fee has no published gene at all. Both are breeder conventions. We can tell you what this bird looks like and what its parents looked like; we cannot quote you inheritance ratios, and anyone who does is going beyond the evidence.

Handled almost every day since hatch by Colin and his sisters, so she sits calmly in the hand and does not flare or scramble when picked up. Temperament is worth asking about and worth watching, but it is a product of how a bird is raised as much as of its breeding, so treat it as a fact about this bird rather than a promise about its chicks.

Eowyn was sexed by vent examination, not by plumage. Range is built on extended brown, which overwrites the wild-type breast pattern, so Range birds, tuxedo or not, cannot be feather-sexed. White on the chest here means tuxedo and nothing else.

She was not in the poultry sale this year. Her hatching eggs and chicks are available to order.

What we have not measured: we do not keep individual laying records, fertility rates or hatch rates on these birds. If we quoted you a number for any of those, we would be guessing, so we don't. Ask us at the pen and we will tell you exactly what we have seen and what we haven't.