How do you house your extra coturnix roosters?

[Sill]

How do you house your extra coturnix roosters? While quail are not as loud as chickens the roos can get obnoxious with their crowing depending on a number of factors. The extra roos that do not have a covey, or are housed near or with other bachelors seem to crow constantly.

Short of sending them to freezer camp there has to be a good way to keep them happy so they are not crowing their little heads off...or is there?

 

[James the Bald]

freezer camp. Unless somebody has marketed a muzzle for quail, that's the only option.
James

 

[OzarkCountryGirl]

I keep my bachelors in an extra large rabbit cage in the barn. I often take the entire cage out and set it up underneath the shade trees during the day, but on the days they stay in the barn, I have the door and window shutters open so they still get access to quite a bit of sunlight (but it's set up so they can get in the shade when they want). At night I shut them up in the barn, closing the door/windows as they can get loud enough to disturb one's sleep.

I prefer to have them fresh rather than frozen, especially since it doesn't take much to keep them. Plus, if something happens to one of my breeding males, I still have a nice selection to choose from.

I'm getting ready to put in a 2' x 8' long elevated run for them, just to give them a bit more room.

 

[COsteveo]

The largest of them go out with the laying hens. I give them a few days to settle down but if they don't, I replace with a backup from the brooder in the garage. Once I have large, quiet roos outside, the rest go to Freezer Camp.

My last group started crowing at 29 days old. I thought it was just one being noisy as heck, but all 6 were caught in the act by the end of the week. Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Kenmore we go...

 

[OzarkCountryGirl]

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Kenmore we go...

 

[Sill]

I wish I had more space, or a barn. Unfortunately I'm an urban "farmer" with limited space. I just processed 18 extra males. They were delicious! I invited some family members for the quail feast. Yum! All the live males are now in groups with 5-6 hens. The quiet is blissful! I was going to try housing a couple of the extra males by themselves as backups but once I started processing I just did the entire lot.