What went wrong? Quail murders

[Skankiewicz]

I am in Houston and our heat was near your level all summer and I didn't lose one bird so I am really curious to see your cages.

What are you feeding them?

The water dishes are the damn tripod thingies and they would lose a leg, get knocked over, and no more water. Instant death for the birds. This is why we moved them all to this run configuration instead of individual cages. They eat high protein organic quail food from Imagine Farms with egg shells and oyster mixed in and they get handfuls of dried worms every morning and night.

For us, putting them together, adding a fan, putting out wadeing dishes with ice, and icing their water+electrolytes helped SO much. But it was a lot of trial and error up to that point.

 

[2-acre-zoo]

Hi quail friends!

We have been having a tough time with our quail here in Phoenix recently.

First was the heat 110+ for 2 months decimated our little flock and replacement babies- we lost probably 15 birds total.

Now that is cooler we got the incubator out and hatched 9 eggs! One chick died from something genetic but the others thrived until feathered out.

We followed the advice of "slightly rednecked" on YouTube and put them out at 2.5-3 weeks old so our older ones Ida,Bob,and Kevin wouldn't see them as a threat. And at first it was fine. We put them in the coop at night to protect from supposed predators.

The first night went fine. The second evening I came out to find the oldest chick dead in the external bird cage Ida likes to lay eggs in and Kevin being all territorial about it. So we butchered Kevin and rearranged the aviary.

We put everyone back in the coop thinking the aggressive Kevin was gone- they should be fine.The second night of this we woke to 3 of them killed in the coop. The next day one went just missing.

Now we are down to 3, 2 males and a female.That night we put just the babies in the coop and left the adults out. A night went by then we found one of the males dead in the coop. So we gave up on locking anyone in anything. This morning the female was dead outside the coop.

All of the injuries endured were head injuries with eyes removed. Only a few had evisceration wounds. I assumed this was concurrent with quail vs quail wounds.

Now our questions:
1. Is releasing feathered out 2.5-3 week old quails the problem?
2. Is there a better way to integrate them?
3. Is another predator part of this or did we just have an aggressive hatch?
4. We have 2 incubators ready to hatch out soon. Should we just butcher this lot and start over before putting the new babies in?

Thanks for the advice!
The Kankiewicz Family

We have up on cooping them at night

I'm so sorry for laughing but the way you wrote that was like a comedy horror movie! And the matter of fact way you dealt with Kevin, but then the murders kept happening.... I would really like another episode of this show but obviously I hope your luck changes and they stop getting murdered. Also RIP Kevin, the misunderstood quail

 

[Kiki]

The water dishes are the damn tripod thingies and they would lose a leg, get knocked over, and no more water. Instant death for the birds. This is why we moved them all to this run configuration instead of individual cages. They eat high protein organic quail food from Imagine Farms with egg shells and oyster mixed in and they get handfuls of dried worms every morning and night.

For us, putting them together, adding a fan, putting out wadeing dishes with ice, and icing their water+electrolytes helped SO much. But it was a lot of trial and error up to that point.

Ah so they died from not having water...not so much just because of the heat. Got it.

Please be careful feeding mealworms daily...
They are high in fat and that will cause problems sooner rather than later.

 

[Kiki]

I have plans to build a complete aviary/greenhouse around this whole thing. But this is where it is now.

Sorry I didn't have any pics of the other birds, they went out with the trash bin on Thursday.

If it is rats, how do I fortify what I have and build better for the future? Chicken wire on the bottom of the coop to start?

Lastly, why are the big ones doing fine? Is it because they can fly away better?

Thank you

Very well could be rats.
You'd need to COVER EVERYTHING with 1/2 inch hardware cloth.

 

[Skankiewicz]

Ah so they died from not having water...not so much just because of the heat. Got it.

Please be careful feeding mealworms daily...
They are high in fat and that will cause problems sooner rather than later.

They are black soldier fly larve. Same thing?

 

[Kiki]

They are black soldier fly large. Same thing?

Yeah.

 

[Skankiewicz]

Very well could be rats.
You'd need to COVER EVERYTHING with 1/2 inch hardware cloth.

Okay! I'll start with the coop because I can do that today. When I build the aviary I'll cover the bottom from end to end, but there's a raised garden bed in there too. Will they get up under that?! Should I dig down around it and put a trench with wire around it? And is that needed for around the outside of the structure....like for coyote proofing a coop?

 

[Kiki]

They are black soldier fly large. Same thing?

I just licked on a random brand name product.
https://grubterra.com/products/grub...RqEujdhDruC5ko62nLx8TOOAv_ac00ZRoC4tEQAvD_BwE


I wouldn't feed my birds these:

 

[Skankiewicz]

Yeah.

Okay how much is too much? Or just not every day?

 

[Kiki]

Okay! I'll start with the coop because I can do that today. When I build the aviary I'll cover the bottom from end to end, but there's a raised garden bed in there too. Will they get up under that?! Should I dig down around it and put a trench with wire around it? And is that needed for around the outside of the structure....like for coyote proofing a coop?

The walls or what ever you call that around the area you have the little rabbit hutch in....those need to be rat proofed...with 1/2 inch hardware cloth.