Covey Chronicles

[scyllarus]

I realized I haven't really updated on a couple of things, so noting them now:

We gave my MIL a small flock of five - a roo and four hens. They've warmed up to her and now approach her for treats - interesting because I chose birds that I didn't want for breeding, which is to say she got all the birds who were avoidant of me and would not take treats from my hands. I think they were perhaps a touch more flighty than the others? Not enough that there was fighting in the cage, but enough that in a slightly more stressful situation (such as when they're swarming my hands for treats) they're a bit more fearful.

We currently have a covey of 2 roos and 13 hens.
Roos: Tidbit (grau fee?), Tiramisu (sparkly egyptian?)
Hens: Pudding (scarlet tux), Mousse (scarlet tux celadon), Cookie (sparkly?) Flan (blue dilute?), Brownie (brown), Blondie (manchurian/italian), Butterscotch (manchurian/italian), Dixie (dilute?), Sugar (English white on pharoah?), Vanilla Bean (English white on extended brown? Celadon?), Lil Debbie (rosetta tux?), Choco (scarlet? Celadon?), Cinnamon (red range?)

Aaaand...30x 2 week old chicks, 1x 1 week old chick. Most were from Thieving Otter Farm stock. I know for sure that the younger chick is one of ours, probably bred from Mousse. 26 are outside in the auxiliary cage, 5 are inside still - the tiny baby and a few friends to keep it company. Once they're older, I'll be separating the males and females, integrating some into the main cage, and giving away birds that don't meet my desired breeding traits to some friends who have asked for quail.

 

[scyllarus]

I've been re-reading Shadrach's articles about roosters and it's been making me think about my quail roos. I know my covey isn't kept in a perfectly natural environment, but I've definitely noticed some interesting behaviors from my roos.

I've written a post talking about my theories, but I'll restate them here:

Coturnix quail don't really seem as dependent on their roos as chickens do. At the very least, most quail keepers will tell you that you don't need or want a roo unless you need fertile eggs. In contrast, there's plenty of debate amongst chicken keepers as to whether it's more or less beneficial to keep a roo, whether for protection, fertilization, or healthy social behavior in the flock.

I believe that quail roosters do most of the things that chicken roosters do. I also believe that quail roosters have been bred to be aggressive breeders, which makes many of them poor at social skills in the covey. Settle in and I'll explain why:

Much of the literature of Coturnix quail species, including our domesticated Japanese quail, states that these birds tend to pair up for breeding or even year-round. However, most keepers will tell you to keep a minimum of 4-7 hens per roo, and I believe that that's due to human influence. It's simply not very economical to feed two birds for one egg - and since humans handle much of the 'protection' part of things, and don't really care about the social behavior, we have bred quail roos that prefer to mate with more hens.

In regards to breeding behaviors, I've seen two strategies in my covey. The first is aggression, and it's pretty much what it sounds like - chasing, pecking, and intimidating a hen into squatting (or doing a bit of quail rodeo by holding onto a hen with his beak and being dragged along). I think this is very common in large-scale hatchery stock because the other strategy - 'romancing' the hens - is less successful in stressful environments. A romantic roo will tidbit, check on nesting sites, and protect his hens from other roos. The last thing is independent of strategy, and it's the roo's mating technique - a good roo will be able to hop on and off in a few seconds with minimal distress to the hen.

Some of my roos for example:
Sugar - An English white who I had kept out of his original group because he seemed to be the calmest and most submissive. Turned out to be a massively aggressive bastard and scalped multiple birds, both roos and hens. He was more like a tiny bull mastiff than a quail and would latch onto (and subsequently rip out feathers and even skin) any hen he bred with, which was extremely distressing for them.
Jason - A red range who I kept for his celadon genes. Very submissive and didn't really employ any strategy for breeding hens - didn't attend to them, didn't chase them, bred with them pretty rarely. When he did breed, he seemed to have an acceptable technique.
Tiramisu - An Egyptian sparkly who had been bound for the freezer but ended up staying because he's an acceptable roo. He tidbits for the ladies and checks the nesting site, but he's somewhat aggressive during stressful moments (ie, when I refill food he's pecking at the hens). It's still unclear to me why he does this, however, it's not because he's trying to eat first (there's often open spots to feed from and he intentionally wades into the ruckus), trying to force other hens so his favorites (unclear who these would be) can feed first, or just because he doesn't like the ruckus. He's a bit rougher about mating and is more inclined to mate.
Tidbit - A Grau fee that's my personal favorite, he's been inquisitive, bold, and gentle since he feathered in. He tidbits until he's certain that the hens are eating before he eats anything, he checks nesting sites - I've even seen him bring dried mealworms to a hen sitting in the nesting area on occasion, and he pecks the crap out of Tiramisu if a hen cries out during a breeding attempt. He does breed with the hens regularly but not as frequently as Tiramisu, and I've noticed a couple of the older, more dominant hens (one of which viciously attacked Sugar until we took him out of the enclosure) seem to favor Tidbit's mating attempts. He's not as successful at mating as he tends to give up if he doesn't get it right on the first try.

I will admit that most of the hens don't really seem to notice or care about the roos aside from breeding, but there are definitely subtle preferences as to which roos they squat for.

We'll be moving within 6 months and I plan to build (with Husband's help) an aviary for our birds. It'll be interesting to see if any of our hens go broody, and if they do, whether our roos will do anything with the chicks.

 

[scyllarus]

...And then I proceeded to not write about one of the reasons I think quail roos have a social role. Goodness.

It's mostly the fact that quail hens sing an egg song after laying an egg. Thinking about it, I can't imagine a single good reason for a quail hen to advertise that she's laid an egg unless she's expecting someone to respond. After all - everything loves to eat quail, so why let a predator know where she and her egg are?

That being said, my hens sing despite having two roos in the cage with them. We have a lot of hiding spots/breaks in the line of sight for the birds, but even so it's still only about 24 sq ft. Going by Shadrach's article, I can't imagine that my quail are attempting to call a roo over to escort them - I don't even know where they would escort them since it's an enclosed space.

Theorizing what egg song is for:
A distress/pain cry - Possible, the "pew-pew-pew" part sounds rather like the cry chicks will make when distressed. But I think it's a rather bad strategy as, well, predators. One could argue that humans bred quail that sing egg songs, but there's no evidence for this - it's the roo's call that was specially bred for in Japan prior to World War...two, I think. It's also a point to note that they don't sing *while* laying, only afterwards.

Letting the other hens know - Why?? Another hen isn't going to do anything but lay another egg in the nest, which is only helpful for predators. Broody quail hens, from what other keepers have noted in their broodies, get very defensive of their nest and will attack other hens, so there's no point in letting another hen know you laid an egg. They do not brood communally (well, they'll often sit on a communal nest) so....why?

Letting a roo know - This is my best guess. I think hens may let their roo know when/where there's an egg for multiple reasons - to let the roo know where they are, to signal how likely they are to have a full nest and thus brood the eggs and chicks, possibly even to be escorted somewhere? I think it's less likely that quail hens are asking to be escorted - the species more naturally pairs up rather than creates large harems, so there's not a bunch of hens waiting for their roo to return with the laying hen. It may help a hen and roo bond, as a roo that knows his hen is laying is a roo that is more invested in the relationship.