2 Week Old King/Button Quail Mating!?

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MageofMist

MageofMist

Crowing
5 Years
Dec 9, 2016
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I have a batch of 4 King/Button quail chicks, and they are only 2 weeks old, so they are still little babies, and yet I heard an odd sound from the brooder. It sounded a LOT like the mating squeaks they do when, well, mating. I missed what was going on, so I started watching the little brooder to see just what was happening. Turns out, the second-born quail, the white/silver, is possibly a male as it tried mounting the first-born quail, Little Bee, who from the feathers is believed to be female. No idea if that means the white/silver one is male or if it is just a dominance thing, but my last batch of quail didn't do that and they were all males.



They are the two at the front with the most feathers. I know they reach maturity in around 6 to 9 week of age, so this is EXTREMELY confusing to me!

 
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No idea what is up with my post, but this is what I put:
"I have a batch of 4 King/Button quail chicks, and they are only 2 weeks old, so they are still little babies, and yet I heard an odd sound from the brooder. It sounded a LOT like the mating squeaks they do when, well, mating. I missed what was going on, so I started watching the little brooder to see just what was happening. Turns out, the second-born quail, the white/silver, is possibly a male as it tried mounting the first-born quail, Little Bee, who from the feathers is believed to be female. No idea if that means the white/silver one is male or if it is just a dominance thing, but my last batch of quail didn't do that and they were all males.


They are the two at the front with the most feathers. I know they reach maturity in around 6 to 9 week of age, so this is EXTREMELY confusing to me!"
 
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That does sound very strange, being so young. I'd guess it's just a dominance thing, but I assume it could be a young male that's maturing very early. I wouldn't worry too much about it though.
 
DK newbie said:
That does sound very strange, being so young. I'd guess it's just a dominance thing, but I assume it could be a young male that's maturing very early. I wouldn't worry too much about it though.
Click to expand...
Little Bee and the yellow one have been crowing, so it could just be one or the other matured earlier. I was afraid I'd need to separate the quail so Little Bee wouldn't start trying to lay eggs.
 
I've never heard of one that young laying eggs, so I strongly doubt that's going to happen. Separation might keep a button from laying, but only because it's stressed, and that's unhealthy as well so I'd just leave her where she is.
 
DK newbie said:
I've never heard of one that young laying eggs, so I strongly doubt that's going to happen. Separation might keep a button from laying, but only because it's stressed, and that's unhealthy as well so I'd just leave her where she is.
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I am leaving them together as I don't want to stress them out. I'd only separate them if there was a danger or if one ended up getting injured.
 
MageofMist said:
No idea what is up with my post, but this is what I put: "I have a batch of 4 King/Button quail chicks, and they are only 2 weeks old, so they are still little babies, and yet I heard an odd sound from the brooder. It sounded a LOT like the mating squeaks they do when, well, mating. I missed what was going on, so I started watching the little brooder to see just what was happening. Turns out, the second-born quail, the white/silver, is possibly a male as it tried mounting the first-born quail, Little Bee, who from the feathers is believed to be female. No idea if that means the white/silver one is male or if it is just a dominance thing, but my last batch of quail didn't do that and they were all males. They are the two at the front with the most feathers. I know they reach maturity in around 6 to 9 week of age, so this is EXTREMELY confusing to me!"
Click to expand...
Ugh, they're freakin' cute!!!
1f60d.png
 
MageofMist said:
I have a batch of 4 King/Button quail chicks, and they are only 2 weeks old, so they are still little babies, and yet I heard an odd sound from the brooder. It sounded a LOT like the mating squeaks they do when, well, mating. I missed what was going on, so I started watching the little brooder to see just what was happening. Turns out, the second-born quail, the white/silver, is possibly a male as it tried mounting the first-born quail, Little Bee, who from the feathers is believed to be female. No idea if that means the white/silver one is male or if it is just a dominance thing, but my last batch of quail didn't do that and they were all males.



They are the two at the front with the most feathers. I know they reach maturity in around 6 to 9 week of age, so this is EXTREMELY confusing to me!
Click to expand...
Sounds like practice mounting to me assuming you know there that age my babies practice too it happened about 3-4 weeks old but they probably did it more it's the same reason a yearling colt will mount the mares In a herd after watching there father mount them and why human babies will sit on each other and so on
 

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