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Samwise, front viewSamwise, back and wing pattern
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Range 8 · Exhibited at the Boulder County Fair

Samwise

The far end of the tuxedo range: white over most of the body with color held to the cap and wings. Set him beside Aragorn, who carries the same trait as a small bib, and you can see how widely the amount of white varies between birds that are both simply called tuxedo.

Not at the fair this yearHe is staying home this year rather than being shown, and he is not in the poultry sale. The photographs here are from earlier in the summer. Hatching eggs and chicks from his pen are still available to order.
VarietyRange (jumbo line)
Pen IDRange 8
SexMale (vent-checked, not feather-sexed)
TuxedoYes
FeeNo
Weight179 g (6.3 oz)
TemperamentHandled daily since hatch; calm in the hand
Raised byColin, 4-H poultry project, Lyons, Colorado
Order eggs or chicks How these genes work

How Samwise weighs up

179 g · 6.3 oz

Weighed 3 Aug 2026

This bird179 g
Published mean, large-sized strain, adult male 188.0 g
Published mean, normal-sized strain, adult male 121.1 g

That puts him about 5% below 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 his 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 Samwise would bring to a breeding pen

Samwise weighed 179 g on 3 Aug 2026, which is about 5% below the published mean for an adult male of a large-sized strain. That is a measurement of one bird on one day, not a promise about his offspring.

He brings white tuxedo marking. 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 he 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.

Samwise 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.

He is not in the poultry sale this year. Hatching eggs and chicks from his pen 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.