11 week old Male Coturnix quail won’t stop trying to mate with all the hens constantly .

[New2quaill]

Hello all,

So I hatched three quail , two male one hen. So I bought two 8week old hens, putt my third in , so far, minor pecking but hutch is but enough they spread out when need be . About a week, and no injuries .

Now when I added one of the males., within 5 seconds he was trying to mate with everyone . And the two new hens wanted nothing to do with him, won’t let mate and he gets tossed off but just kept constantly trying not stopping . Now he was so crazy about it even the most relaxed hens starting getting annoyed with each other . So I separated him from them and they calmed down. I wanted like 30
Min no change lol. I could try with the other male , but before that, wondering if this is normal behavior or? Any advice on the males would be great.
I thought hens would eventually let him mate . But Also didn’t want him hanging feathers off the hens back when he gets tossed to much, two of them are same size as him at least and when they stand up, he falls off .
Sorry about the essay! Thanks

 

[Aquira]

Some males are little horn dogs and will constantly mate with females (this is usually why it's recommended to give 4-5 females per male) while other males are gentlemen.

 

[FloorCandy]

When you add a male into females he will jump on them all to mate like crazy at first, with his young age, he may be overly enthusiastic for a while still. I just had a situation where I had to split some hens, add new ladies and a new roo etc. I put the new younger ladies with my older more experienced male and 2 older ladies, the new boy got 4 older ladies. One lady didn’t take to the new boy well. The first night I was watching and spraying her with vinegar water, but before bed, she was still attacking him every so often, so I put her in a cage by herself for the night and took up watching and spraying again the next day. Normally at that point, I would cull her, but I lost my flock to a predator and had very few left so I didn’t have the luxury of just tossing in a new girl. Eventually she let him hide behind the nest hut without being attacked and I would lay cover fire for him to eat and drink a few times per day. After maybe 4-5 days she finally let him live normally. However, the eggs from the last boy were almost all infertile, and I’m wondering if she kept him from mating her and the rest of the hens. The older roo is unharmed, I never suspected any issues. Today is 2 weeks he’s been separated with the nice girls and young ones, I’ll be collecting to check his fertility. If you have a hen who is causing trouble, she may prevent your roo from mating and cause long term fertility issues with the eggs. Believe me, the first new Tibetan tux hen I get, my nasty girl is going in the freezer.

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

When you add a male into females he will jump on them all to mate like crazy at first, with his young age, he may be overly enthusiastic for a while still. I just had a situation where I had to split some hens, add new ladies and a new roo etc. I put the new younger ladies with my older more experienced male and 2 older ladies, the new boy got 4 older ladies. One lady didn’t take to the new boy well. The first night I was watching and spraying her with vinegar water, but before bed, she was still attacking him every so often, so I put her in a cage by herself for the night and took up watching and spraying again the next day. Normally at that point, I would cull her, but I lost my flock to a predator and had very few left so I didn’t have the luxury of just tossing in a new girl. Eventually she let him hide behind the nest hut without being attacked and I would lay cover fire for him to eat and drink a few times per day. After maybe 4-5 days she finally let him live normally. However, the eggs from the last boy were almost all infertile, and I’m wondering if she kept him from mating her and the rest of the hens. The older roo is unharmed, I never suspected any issues. Today is 2 weeks he’s been separated with the nice girls and young ones, I’ll be collecting to check his fertility. If you have a hen who is causing trouble, she may prevent your roo from mating and cause long term fertility issues with the eggs. Believe me, the first new Tibetan tux hen I get, my nasty girl is going in the freezer.

If there's a lesson for the ladies in here -- I don't want to know it.

(but yeah -- I get it. I had one like that. She finally found a roo she will tolerate so we're good for now.)

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

Hello all,

So I hatched three quail , two male one hen. So I bought two 8week old hens, putt my third in , so far, minor pecking but hutch is but enough they spread out when need be . About a week, and no injuries .

Now when I added one of the males., within 5 seconds he was trying to mate with everyone . And the two new hens wanted nothing to do with him, won’t let mate and he gets tossed off but just kept constantly trying not stopping . Now he was so crazy about it even the most relaxed hens starting getting annoyed with each other . So I separated him from them and they calmed down. I wanted like 30
Min no change lol. I could try with the other male , but before that, wondering if this is normal behavior or? Any advice on the males would be great.
I thought hens would eventually let him mate . But Also didn’t want him hanging feathers off the hens back when he gets tossed to much, two of them are same size as him at least and when they stand up, he falls off .
Sorry about the essay! Thanks

Are they in separate pens or are the two males together? If they are in the same cage, they may compete for the girls and for dominance. Sometimes that even happens if they can see or hear each other.

 

[Annabellarose]

Welcome to quail! LOL

 

[Matzo]

I had hatched out close to two dozen chicks. As they matured, one was nutso about mating and crowing. He would do his little crow non stop all night long. Then eventually others matured. Some were quite docile and I thought even hens as the other roos jumped them a lot. As they matured even more, they each started their little gargle crow. I had to separate them from the hens and leave the hens with only the roos I wanted to breed. I have one cage of what I call "the mean girls". They started attacking the other hens and I had to remove them as they were plucked nearly bald on their entire backs in a matter of an hour. They would not tolerate any roo at all. They are just meaner than snot. After a few nights of the roos being in the same cage {I had to take out the one that matured first and put him in a cage with a few hens}. At any rate, they had a non stop three day crowing contest. Needless to say, they are all in the freezer now. Which brings me to my point. The super aggressive one {who the mean girls didn't like AT ALL} had a huge pair of gonads. The two that were very timid and matured slowest each had only one very small gonad. So I think that may have a lot to do with how they act with the other birds, regardless if they are roos or hens.