Adding new quail from different flock/source safely

[speng5]

My flock of 10 coturnix quail are currently just over a year old. I am thinking of adding to my flock maybe another 7-8 birds. The source I am getting them from, their birds are 6 weeks old.

I am thinking of putting an inpenetrable yet transparent type divider in the pen for a while, either plexiglass or hardware cloth or something like that, so they can see each other for a while but not get to each other.

Is there a better way to do this? How long should they be kept separate? I am just wondering the safest way to do this.

Thanks!

 

[Nabiki]

The clear divider should work. Another way would be to take all of the the birds out, completely clean and rearrange their pen, then put all of the birds in at night so they all wake up in an environment that is "new" to all of them.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Also make sure you have plenty of space, hiding spots, abundant access to feed and water, and a good male to female ratio so they have less reason to fight. Also watch for any overly aggressive birds in the new batch, I tried introducing a five week old bird to the established pen and it was attacking everybody, he went in the cull pen!