Female coturnix making strange call?

Hello all,

I am a newbie to the quail deal. Originally got a male and 3 female standard coturnix a few months ago so my 2 year old daughter could have some pets and an appreciation for where food comes from. Well, I think I found my new hobby. Love these little dudes. Currently testing a DIY incubator. Wife is not exactly enthused about the whole thing.

Recently introduced a few new members to the coop; 2 Texas A&M, 2 Goldens(?), and a Pharaoh Jumbo.

My original male (the tiniest quail in the coop) has been picking on the Texas A&M (unsure of their sex still) which I am chalking up to racism. Lets see if a few nights in solitary confinement calms him down.

Anyways, one of my females keeps making this long, dropping call. Very different from the cricket sound they normally make. Egg laying is still great so don't think its egg bound. The coop seems a bit more excited what with the tiny male picking on the white ones. She only makes this call when activity on the cage is relatively low. Any tips on if this call means anything? Wanna make sure they're all happy.

Some of mine make the "egg time" screech - it's almost like a bat hehe! Usually starts with a "screeeeeeeeech eech eeech eeeech eeeeeeech....." and gets softer as they go on

Oh also instead of taking the offending quail completely away, it's usually best to partition them so they can still react to each other but not get hurt - usually they get used to each other and you can put them back together and the problem *usually* disappears - could take an hour, a few days or longer than a week.

Maybe partition the white ones? That way the male still has his girls because he's going to fret nonstop otherwise which might make him come back with a vengeance hehe xD

The coturnix quail are pretty racist to other types quail. My males have attacked my T&M's badly so I had to separate them fast so that they didn't kill them.

Thanks! Yeah, I think I need to build a little addition to the coop in order to split up the trouble makers. Any excuse to bust out the tools.

It looks like the Jumbo female is getting on the little ********'s case whenever he picks on the A&M's.

Not sure why, but it censored a rather innocuous word. I swear I wasn't cursing!

Hehehe!! It's great that you're exposing your daughter to these great birds. Hopefully she will grow up choosing humane food options! Hopefully you have some calm ones she can pet