AAAARRRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[CoyoteMagic]

My year old quail have been doing great. That is until this morning. My husband was out giving them a treat, millet, when he noticed one if the 5 was hurt. Not only was she hurt, she was dead. Someone or something had removed all the skins off the back of her head and neck.

Looking around, I found another female who had the back of her head injured. Just then, the male we saved from being beat up by the rest of the males last year, jumps on her, does his "thing" and grabs her by the back of the head.

He's the one that's injured her and killed the other one.

I grab the injured hen and put her in the empty rabbit hutch. By this time the bully is after the hen who hasn't been hurt yet. I snag his sorry but up and toss him out into the yard. (Where is my cat when I need her!!

) I'm leaving his sorry butt out there. He survives, he survives. I'm so

I got the remaining 2 hens and roo into the rabbit hutch where they will stay until I can get their "tractor finished.

AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!!!

 

[ugly ducky]

I'd say you have too many roos for only three hens. I keep 2 roos per 7 or 8 hens, and they have never drawn blood, but some of the hens are almost bald. When you have 2 roos, they compete for the hens, and with only 3 hens, the hens are getting over-bred. Now that you're down to 2 hens, I'd definitely only have one roo in there. But don't blame the other little guy...he was only doing his thing, although if I had a male who was injuring hens, he'd go too.
Don't worry too much on the injured hen. She should heal up, but you may want to put her by herself or remove the roo till she does. Otherwise the remaining roo may tear her head up worse. Watch the other hen's head too...if it starts getting injured, get the roo out. If they're pets, and you're not concerned about fertile eggs, removing the boys would be the way to go.

 

[monarc23]

it's really not the roos fault, having that many roos to that few hens is sort of asking for trouble. Iim sure you didn't know but now you do and you can fix the issue!

Even with the right amount of roos per hens you can have problems but more than likely it's because theres way too many roos per hens.


Ratio that is best is atleast 2-3 hens PER roo, but if you have more than one roo to a pen, theni t's best to have 5 hens per roo...or atleast 4-5. ONE roo can sucessfully fertilize and keep fertile five hens. They breed like chickens so they need a good bit of girlies

 

[CoyoteMagic]

What gets me is, they have been fine up until today.

They have been laying since Easter and we've had no problems. I've notice that roo #2 has feathers missing too.

Live and learn

 

[NancyDz]

Mine were together for 11 weeks, then one day two weeks ago my one rooster scalped my other roo. So I split the cage in half, one roo has 3 hens, the other has 4. Everyone is much calmer. My scalped roo is fine, after a couple days of rehab by himself, he was put back and started mating again in about 1 minute!

He's bald but is healing up so quick. He's my skinhead roo!

One of my hens with the other roo was hurt, I put her with the other roo now and everything is fine, she was scared in the other pen. Sometimes you just have to find the right mix.

Good luck! Sorry bout your hen

Nancy

 

[randyandmegs]

Have you tried trimming the beaks of your birds yet? Mating season has started and the beaks could be much sharper than theywere before and that could be why this has just started. Toe nail clippers work great and all you all doing is just cutting back a little bit to make the beak blunt. They dont do near as much damage to the hens then. But I agree with the ratio. I have mine at 3 hens to one roo and my fertility is around 94% the last 3 years.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

I couldn't imagine trying to trim the beaks of my chickens let alone the teeny tiny beaks of quail.

My girl who is injuired is doing much better today. Even laid an egg. I've applied antibiotic ointment to the back of her head and neck. It's not red and raw looking like yesterday.