A&Ms have gone nuts!!!!

[sniper338]

They all lived in their 1:4 ratios fine for a while now breeding.... now my roos stated tearing up the hens.. i separeded them.. then several of the hens lost their marbles now and started tearing each other up... they all go for each others eyes and ear area... had lots of blood lately... none died tho... what the heck is the problem???!! Ill note too all of my browns are in cages obove them... no problems at all.....

 

[CityFarmer202]

Do you have just 1 roo and 4 hens together or do you have a bunch of chickens in a 1:4 ratio?? I've found that if i'm not separating a certain of breed for a week or so to get certain eggs, a ratio of 1:10 works good in my layer coop. anything under 10 and the roos start fighting more and mating with the girls so much its like their trying to prove that they can mate with the most girls.

Good Luck!!!

 

[sniper338]

Um i thought i posted in the quail section... sorry if i didnt... no not chickens.... quail... 1:4 ratio... its not just the males... its females fighting too... makes me think they are stressed about something...

not sure if they stress if they need to molt but still have enough light where it dont shut done to molt... they are separated tho. I trimmed beaks... if they dont cut it out though im going to have to cut debeak and cauterize em. I dont have unlimited space for them... space hasnt been an issue until recently i guess... id rather have these breeders where they cant hurt each other anyways.. hate to have to cauterize beaks, but they may leave me no choice here soon..

 

[CityFarmer202]

Oh sorry I don't know much about quail, but for them, that seems a good ratio. From what i do know of quail, people keep them is really small spaces and they do fine. That would be sad to have to cauterize the beaks, but better than them killing each other
Best of luck

 

[Sill]

One thing I've noticed with my jumbos is any white birds get picked on more. Maybe the colored feathers on the white birds invite pecking? Once there is blood all bets are off and it can escalate quickly. Females becoming testy in addition to the roos being bullys may have some external cause, unless it's genetic.

You didn't say how old your quail are or how long they have been set up they way they were when the fighting began. Also what are you feeding? What protein content? What size are your cages? Do you have any hiding places for birds to get away from visual sight of others? Just trying to find more info as to why this is happening to you.

 

[dc3085]

How long have you had them under lighting without allowing a molt?

 

[sniper338]

How long have you had them under lighting without allowing a molt?

not real long. They were born march 1st

 

[dc3085]

Definitely not that then, they only need to molt once a year.

 

[GAQuail]

I have had a similar problem with my Texas A&M's. I was running a 1:6 ratio. I didn't have a problem until after they were one year old and mostly it's been aggressive hens beating up the other hens and even sometimes blooding the Roo's. I think there is validity to the white bird and blood scenario. I started culling the aggressive hens but within a short time another hen would become just as aggressive. Finally the ones I had left were almost 2 years old and their egg production became inconsistent and fertility was under 50%. I culled the remainder of the flock a few days ago. I'm going to try Jumbo Browns early this fall and see how they do. My Texas A&M's were from James Marie Farms stock. They did really well the first year.

 

[sniper338]

Yeah that must be it.... my browns are calm as can be and i have no problems with them... its just the white birds... i put them all together in a brooder for more space and watched them for a while... they chilled out a bit but a few hens were still going nuts chasing and pecking... so i just culled em to the freezer.... its just my hens though.... my a&m roos are fine... just hens gone wild...