Broody button quail! Yay!!!!

Oh my goodness! Your birds are adorable! Those sweet little babies running around with their momma. How big do you let the babies get before you seperate them?

Your roo with the tux is beautiful. I would love to have one that color. And the blue face is one of my favorite. I have a blue face and love the color. He's very aggressive tho. Everytime I reach in their home to change their water or fees them, he attacks me. He watches for me to stick my hand in and he immediately starts jumping up and biting me. I wear an oven mitt now when I reach in. Any idea why he's that way?

Thank you so much for sharing your photos with me. I'm looking very forward to observing Sascia being a mother.

I let the chicks stay with the parents till I can just barely tell chicks and parents apart, which is about 6 weeks. I can still tell the males from dad by then, but the females start to become a problem - sometimes I need to hold them in my hand to tell them from the mothers, they are still a bit smaller but not always so much that I can tell without holding them. It's not like they actually need to be there for 6 weeks though. By 3-4 weeks they are too big to sit below their parents, but they do the cutest group sleeping thing, they all sit in a circle with their heads facing out ^^
To me, it sounds like your blue face might have had too much human contact when he was little - he might not be considering you a predator as much as an invader trying to take his territory. Don't know if that's how it works with quail, but I've read a lot about hand raised parrots becoming aggressive when they mature, because they have a messed up relationship with humans. With the parrots, it's recommended to remove them from their cage and take them to a 'neutral' area for training, but I'm not sure that would work so well with a button ^^

This is my first experience with any kind of bird, other than my chickens. But this is my first year with them as well.

Fred, my aggressive too, is the first quail I hatched. Fred's father attacked his female companion to the point that we had to put her down. I came home one day and there was blood everywhere and she was in a lot of distress from her injuries. It broke my heart. Fred is their offspring. Do you think it could be some kind of aggresive gene? Is that ridiculous? I almost never handle the birds since they don't enjoy being held. Whatever it is, I wish I knew how to get back on his good side.

Of course it's possible that he inherited a gene that causes a high production of some hormone or some other abnormality that causes his behavior.. But when you say he is the first you hatched, does that mean he was a part of your first hatch or really THE first bird? Possibly the only one in your first hatch? Personally, I have next to no experience with incubated chicks, but I have read about someone experiencing that the chick that hatches first imprints on the first large thing it sees, being its owner and keeps calling for the owner even when other chicks have hatched and it is warm, comfortable and well fed. I guess he could have imprinted on you without being handled.

He and his mate both hatched at the same time. They have been together ever since. He really doesn't call out much. Almost never. I have another male that calls out all the time. He about drives me crazy. Fred has seemed to have gotten more aggresive since Ethel started laying eggs. They are 8 weeks old so shes only been laying for 6 days. He's really gotten worse since then. Used to when I would reach in, they would just go to the furthest corner from me until I was finished feeding and watering. I also give them meal worms every morning. I hand them thru the cage to him so he can offer them to Ethel.
The next pair I hatched are just approaching 6 weeks of age. They have different parents than Fred and Ethel so I'll observe his behavior.
I try to be as gentle and calm as I can be with him but he's just mean. I know they are little birds but he's got a bite!