KGQuail24
Chirping
- Jun 6, 2021
- 47
- 18
- 69
We are new to quail keeping and have a small flock of 6 Coturnix hens; 3 are brown/pharaoh and 3 are golden/Italian. We got them at 4 weeks of age and now they are 8 weeks old. All has been going pretty perfectly until 2 major changes happened yesterday - nervous activity from the birds overall, particularly sudden onset bullying by one of the goldens against the other 2 goldens, AND the very first 2 eggs were laid.
Allow me to add some background details:
-they are kept in a coop which is attached to 2 ground runs. Everything is totally secure from predators with hardware cloth on all sides, and the entire setup is within a fully-fenced garden and right next to our house. They have 2 large dust baths in their raised wire-floor coop with constant access to a high-quality Mazuri game bird layer feed (they have over 20% protein and 2.5% calcium, plus access to free-choice crushed shell), and water with some ACV.
-they are all speckle-chested and I have vent-sexed to be sure there are no secret roosters.
- there are approx. 14 sq ft of space for the 6 birds. The run is planted with large hostas for cover and shade, and the dirt is raked at least twice a week and topped with a fresh sprinkle of pine shavings to keep it hygienic and dry. They are treated to Timothy hay and meal worms to encourage foraging and entertainment. Basically, I'm trying to do everything right to meet their needs and keep them happy.
SO, that's why I'm so confused and disappointed to find one of the birds suddenly chasing 2 of her sisters around almost constantly. One of the flock mates she is targeting had some blood on her beak and a spot of missing feathers on her forehead yesterday. After discovering that, I put the mean bird in one half of the run with her own food/water and everyone else in the other half (there is a door of hardware cloth between the 2 halves) for 24 hours as a sort of time-out. The victim seemed to heal and basically the other 5 seemed calm and normal with the bully bird separated. As soon as I opened the hatch to put them together again, the chasing started up again. It's fine for a while, but every 10 minutes or so the offending bird will relentlessly chase the other 2 targets around the run, causing everyone to flutter, to jump up, and even start panting for a while until they've gotten away and calmed down.
Today I only got 1 egg, compared with 2 the first day. I can't help but feeling that the stress level being raised is keeping the others from starting laying. I'm quite certain that the bird who is being mean has not laid an egg yet. Could she just be nervous or uncomfortable, dealing with the hormone change that comes with the onset of laying?
Has anyone else noticed birds freaking out or bullying right when they start to lay? Or is some amount of chasing and pecking-order normal? Is there hope that the meanie just needs to lay an egg and then she'll calm down and go back to getting along? Do I have any other options to stop the bullying or am I going to need to send her to "freezer camp"?
Allow me to add some background details:
-they are kept in a coop which is attached to 2 ground runs. Everything is totally secure from predators with hardware cloth on all sides, and the entire setup is within a fully-fenced garden and right next to our house. They have 2 large dust baths in their raised wire-floor coop with constant access to a high-quality Mazuri game bird layer feed (they have over 20% protein and 2.5% calcium, plus access to free-choice crushed shell), and water with some ACV.
-they are all speckle-chested and I have vent-sexed to be sure there are no secret roosters.
- there are approx. 14 sq ft of space for the 6 birds. The run is planted with large hostas for cover and shade, and the dirt is raked at least twice a week and topped with a fresh sprinkle of pine shavings to keep it hygienic and dry. They are treated to Timothy hay and meal worms to encourage foraging and entertainment. Basically, I'm trying to do everything right to meet their needs and keep them happy.
SO, that's why I'm so confused and disappointed to find one of the birds suddenly chasing 2 of her sisters around almost constantly. One of the flock mates she is targeting had some blood on her beak and a spot of missing feathers on her forehead yesterday. After discovering that, I put the mean bird in one half of the run with her own food/water and everyone else in the other half (there is a door of hardware cloth between the 2 halves) for 24 hours as a sort of time-out. The victim seemed to heal and basically the other 5 seemed calm and normal with the bully bird separated. As soon as I opened the hatch to put them together again, the chasing started up again. It's fine for a while, but every 10 minutes or so the offending bird will relentlessly chase the other 2 targets around the run, causing everyone to flutter, to jump up, and even start panting for a while until they've gotten away and calmed down.
Today I only got 1 egg, compared with 2 the first day. I can't help but feeling that the stress level being raised is keeping the others from starting laying. I'm quite certain that the bird who is being mean has not laid an egg yet. Could she just be nervous or uncomfortable, dealing with the hormone change that comes with the onset of laying?
Has anyone else noticed birds freaking out or bullying right when they start to lay? Or is some amount of chasing and pecking-order normal? Is there hope that the meanie just needs to lay an egg and then she'll calm down and go back to getting along? Do I have any other options to stop the bullying or am I going to need to send her to "freezer camp"?