Recent content by chellejay
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dominant old roo and eggs not fertilized
Hi all, I have 9 quail of various ages. There's 1 male and female that are a year old, but the dominant roo is 3 years old as are his preferred hens. It appears that the young roo is not mating with any of the hens. And the old roo sticks with his old girls who are his favourites. If I was to... -
How to choose which males to keep / re-home?
that's great advice. Thanks! I've never seen them 'tidbit'ing but will keep an eye out. I removed three males late this arvo, so will spend some time watching them tomorrow to see how they behave. All the quail are fairly happy to be handled, so that's not a deciding factor. And I love their... -
How to choose which males to keep / re-home?
Hi all, I have 6 hens and 5 male quail. They are now a couple of months old, and I really need to reduce the number of males. But I am not sure how to judge which roos will be the 'best' with the hens. One of the smaller roos, who crows more than the others, is really starting to chase a couple... -
10 weeks, not laying, advice on lighting
Not possible to run electricity unfortunately. I think I'll ask around about the solar path lights and see if anyone local can suggest something decent, and if that fails I'll give the LED candles a go with the re-chargeable batteries. All the LED rope lights with timers look a lot more... -
10 weeks, not laying, advice on lighting
Hi all, My coturnix are approaching 10 weeks old and have not started laying. Coming into winter, we have only 10 hours of daylight here at the moment. Plus, their enclosure is in a shaded area, so they are probably only getting 9 hours max of light. I'm looking at the LED candles with timers... -
Sexing 4 week quail (with photos)
I looked at the vent sexing, and had a sticky beak under their tails, but I've got no clue! I'll leave that to the experts (or until I am more familiar with them). We put them in their enclosure, and the silver quail crowed for the first time! Darn it! Fingers crossed the two rosettas are both... -
Sexing 4 week quail (with photos)
Looking at the sticky here on colour variations, I can see now that mine are Rosettas. Thanks for that. I think I just assumed that Tibetan was more likely. I've spent so much time just watching them, and I've only seen the two biggest ones crow (mine make a great big rumbling noise!). Even the... -
Sexing 4 week quail (with photos)
We're getting ready to put our 4 week old quail outside into their enclosure. It measures 2m x 5m, so I feel comfortable putting all of them in there (we have 11) but I figured now is a good time to sort out the roos from the hens and work out exactly what we are going to do with the extra boys... -
Pecking prob. Help.
Just commenting here about my problem with the low-protein feed causing feather pecking in case that's what's troubling your pecker, too... Might be worth checking out the protein level in their feed. -
New to quails (and this forum). Help with chick feather loss.
Just an update with thanks. The quails are all looking great! Within a few days of me changing feed, adding scrambled egg and a few mealworms every few days, the feather pecking has stopped and they are now fully covered with new feather growth. I was worried that the habit of pecking might set... -
Baby quail questions!!
I found that my newly hatched chicks liked the shiny reflection on the marbles that I had in a small lid of water. I put the marbles in to stop them from falling in, but it had the added side benefit of being all shiny and appealing to peck at so they figured out how to drink on their own. I... -
New to quails (and this forum). Help with chick feather loss.
I gave them a tray filled with dirt, and a scattered some straw around their box, and they went crazy in the dirt! I've seen chooks dustbath plenty of times, but I've never seen quail! They were hilarious. I gave them scrambled eggs at the same time and they were far more interested in the dirt... -
New to quails (and this forum). Help with chick feather loss.
Scrambled eggs I can do immediately, so I'll do that now. I'll have to get mealworms in town as well as the starter feed so it looks like I'll have to brave the weather and head in. Many thanks for the help and ideas.