Quail breeding - and fighting? Do they create bonded pairs?

[lehouseofdog]

Are they fighting? Male inexperienced? Or bonded pair killing off the competition?

I hatched a bunch of eggs, ended up giving most away and kept 3. They are 5 weeks old, a grayish Tuxedo, a really light red/silver feathered male (he has light pinkish red and gray feathers on his back) and a white (their came from a pen mixed with pharoh, cinnamon, silver and white so they are all mixy). They are in a 3*2 foot cage which I thought was plenty of space. Yesterday the white was bleeding heavily when I checked on them. I removed her.

what do I do? I know that the reddish/silver one is a male because he has crowed, has a pink breast and had foam when I vented. The other two have no foam. Is venting accurate at 5 weeks?

Is this a case of the tuxedo and the male forming a bond and killing the competition? I don't know who did it. Someone on my facebook page suggested that the two left in the cage are a bonded pair and will kill another unpaired female. Is that true? I've never heard of that.

She's better today. I put some Blue Kote on it and put her in solitary. It was on both sides of her head. She's a skittish one, turns herself into a prickly artichoke when I approach her. She seems fine with being alone.

What do I do? Is this the work of the young male? If so, isn't he really too young to be this rough? will he learn or does he need to be culled?

These are coturnix (not button)

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Depends on the species but to the best of my knowledge, they need to be in pairs.

 

[Sill]

Some roos will foam at 5 weeks, others may not. You have either one roo and two hens, or worse, two roos and one poor hen. The ratio should be one roo and 4-7 hens or the hens will be over bred and stressed. You see the result. Do not put her back with a roo unless you get at least three more hens or this will happen again.

Coturnix don't form pair bonds but do bond with their covey. I've found they do best raised together and kept together for life. Less stress on all of them that way.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Quail aren't monogamous. It doesn't matter if your roo/hen ratio is 1/1, 1/2, 1/5 or whatever.
What you have is an aggression issue. It should be easy to tell which one did it; the one with the bloody beak is the guilty party. In my experience it's always the bigger, more aggressive females that damage the other birds. I frequently watch my quail to observe their behavior so that I can cull the troublemakers.
I raise large amounts of birds in close quarters and can't afford any damaged birds, so I'm quick with the cull and it pays off in the end.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Gambrel's, King and sometimes button quail are monogamous.

 

[Sill]

Quail aren't monogamous. It doesn't matter if your roo/hen ratio is 1/1, 1/2, 1/5 or whatever.
What you have is an aggression issue. It should be easy to tell which one did it; the one with the bloody beak is the guilty party. In my experience it's always the bigger, more aggressive females that damage the other birds. I frequently watch my quail to observe their behavior so that I can cull the troublemakers.
I raise large amounts of birds in close quarters and can't afford any damaged birds, so I'm quick with the cull and it pays off in the end.

I've not had problems with hens being the aggressors, only the roos. You are right to cull them quick. I wonder if you can identify the bloodlines of the aggressive hens and cull that line so you don't have to deal with culling them early? I usually have less than 50 quail so I cull hard and anything that looks remotely aggressive gets freezer camp, regardless of other attributes.

Gambrel's, King and sometimes button quail are monogamous.

Yeah pretty much everything except coturnix. Well, and buttons are heading in the direction of the coturnix. Sadly I fear it will be even rarer for us to see broody buttons, parent-reared chicks etc.

 

[lehouseofdog]

Holy ****, Artichoke is a boy! He crowed and I vented and ****, there's foam! That's a new development. I guess Cinnaroo figured it out before I did. Well, he's not going back now. Well F! I was so sure that one was a girl! So skittish and hunkered down all the time. Tonight was his first crow - it was a pretty sad attempt but I'm sure that's what it was supposed to be.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

[ QUOTE I've not had problems with hens being the aggressors, only the roos. ...........

I've been culling this flock hard for 6 generations and have a more mellow bird now but the occasional hen has a blowup for no good reason. When they walk around all puffed up like a little turkey with neck outstretched, head low, chattering & grunting and beating up everybody maybe it's because they went broody.

 

[eHuman]

The five week mark seems to be the magic age when the aggression and hormones kick in. I have 2 in isolation for agression @ 5 1/2 weeks old and a third that was just successfully reintroduced to rhe bachelor pad today. On a possitive note, I have 10 hens from the same hatch and I got my first egg yesterday and two today. My 5 year old son dropped the first egg when I let him hold it. "Awe I'm sorry dad I think I broke it (yes) but I opened it for you, you can cook it." I made sre that he didn't feel bad about it.

 

[lehouseofdog]

So If I didn't want to get rid of Artichoke, I could make a bachelor pen and keep a few males? I thought the males would fight regardless? I have another white male that's about 2 weeks old and I'm pretty sure that's a boy. That's the one that hatched despite a power outage and loss of temp for about 10 hours (he was the only one). So far, I actually think I have ALL boys except for one female. So I should cull some. I would really like to get some other females but people around here are selling eggs or straight run chicks, nothing sexed.