My bobwhite covey & the coturnix quail with an identity crisis

[KatDar]

I have a similar situation going on with my quail! I have a flock of about 20 coturnix and one bobwhite hen named Karen that lives with them. She used to live with my other bobwhites but she was constantly picked on by them. After getting pretty beat up by my male bobwhite I had to move her with my coturnix and they all get along much better. It's funny though, because she sort of displays coturnix behavior as well! Unlike my other bobwhites, Karen is much more tolerant of being touched or held and she is not as skittish as them either. Could just be a coincidence though.

We raised bobwhite and coturnix chicks together as well. Those coturnix copied the bobwhite and were smarter and developed more quickly than any other coturnix chicks we had raised. Eventually we had to separate them when the coturnix matured and the males started fighting and mounting everyone. After that experience we had a couple of different coturnix hens who hatched out their own chicks and that was just the best experience-- the mother hen took excellent care of those babies. Again the coturnix males matured and started fighting and even mounting their mother so we had to separate.