Aghh now my males are getting bloody!!

[crimsonmama]

So frustrating! First my female gets hurt by the male who has six females all to himself. She's separated and recovering well but is very skittish!
Now in my bachelor pad of males (5 males) one got bloodied on his head and is now separated to heal. Two i managed to get new homes for so that left two males who always got on great but now i just got home and one of those is bloody too!
It's insane!! I really can't keep the males all in separate pens! I thought with no females they would be ok together! And it's really hard to find people to want them (not surprising now!) I can't cull them myself (although i have nothing against people who can and do!)
And the stupid crazy thing is when separated they call for each other!!!
I really don't know what to do! I have a large aviary (contains my male and females) a smaller aviary i was planning on keeping just two or three males and a budgie cage that I have as a reserve for the injured. Currently housing my injured female. I also have to females awaiting buyers. So with the first injured male that's five separate quail pens/aviary/cage. And now another for the new injured? If it was temporary that's fine but I'm guessing this issue only gets worse once an injured one is separated as i cant see them going back without issue!

Now i see why males are so unwanted and it's such a shame as i didn't want to be a person to hatch some eggs and only care about the females. I really wanted to give some boys a home too! But if they can't live together i just cant keep them! But nobody is going to buy beaten bloodied ones!!!

 

[PD-Riverman]

So frustrating! First my female gets hurt by the male who has six females all to himself. She's separated and recovering well but is very skittish!
Now in my bachelor pad of males (5 males) one got bloodied on his head and is now separated to heal. Two i managed to get new homes for so that left two males who always got on great but now i just got home and one of those is bloody too!
It's insane!! I really can't keep the males all in separate pens! I thought with no females they would be ok together! And it's really hard to find people to want them (not surprising now!) I can't cull them myself (although i have nothing against people who can and do!)
And the stupid crazy thing is when separated they call for each other!!!
I really don't know what to do! I have a large aviary (contains my male and females) a smaller aviary i was planning on keeping just two or three males and a budgie cage that I have as a reserve for the injured. Currently housing my injured female. I also have to females awaiting buyers. So with the first injured male that's five separate quail pens/aviary/cage. And now another for the new injured? If it was temporary that's fine but I'm guessing this issue only gets worse once an injured one is separated as i cant see them going back without issue!

Now i see why males are so unwanted and it's such a shame as i didn't want to be a person to hatch some eggs and only care about the females. I really wanted to give some boys a home too! But if they can't live together i just cant keep them! But nobody is going to buy beaten bloodied ones!!!

Where are you located----I would take every male you and all your neighbors have----100's if I can get them. They were selling at the Auction Saturday evening from $10 to $16 each. I have seen regular roosters go for $22, special roosters(Lavender orpingtons and similiar for up to $30. Check to see if you got a Chicken Auction within driving distance.

Penned up roosters when they get close to adults----can fight to their death. Some breeds are more relaxed. I have kept adult roosters in medium size dog kennels for a couple months without any problem(waiting to take them to the Auction)---just a piece of tin over the top. Try to offer them for free( Tractor supply bulletin board, craigslist, Face Book chicken sites, etc. If you just want to get rid of them.

 

[crimsonmama]

I am in the UK. There's not any places near me like that. I have placed ads but there is very limited interest in males compared to females.

My second aviary i have made a partition so i have two of the males we wanted to keep together but separated. So it's only the other injured male i got to worry about now. He's in a crate box so not a permanent solution but ok whilst he heals. Then i guess i will have to hope someone will take him.

 

[rita2paul]

so sorry to hear all your problems, i am worried that i am also going to get this problem when mine gets older.
i would offer them for free in trade it or friday ad and see if anyone will take them, someone might want to add new stock to their own flock.
good luck.

 

[PD-Riverman]

I am in the UK. There's not any places near me like that. I have placed ads but there is very limited interest in males compared to females.

My second aviary i have made a partition so i have two of the males we wanted to keep together but separated. So it's only the other injured male i got to worry about now. He's in a crate box so not a permanent solution but ok whilst he heals. Then i guess i will have to hope someone will take him.

Yea you are a little to far for me to drive over and pick them up----LOL, my thoughts are dog food as soon as you can tell they are a cockerel----sounds bad to some I guess, but having to deal with them for a long time is much stress on you.

I was just thinking---in the 1 1/2 years I was really hatching----I hatched over 6200 chicks----probably 3100 were cockerels/roosters----that's a lot of roosters----Glad they sell here. I know some that only hatch sex-links and the just hatched cockerel go to the hogs----or cats, or?? I am not sure I would do that but I can sell everyone I raise.

 

[gpop1]

i presume we are talking about button quail

You can keep male button quail together with out to much of a problem that are either brooded together or slowly introduced together. As long as they can not hear a female they shouldn't fight simply because they are males. Now the down side to this is that quail will pick on the weak. Doesn't matter what sex when they sense a bird is weak they will pick on it to the point that they can kill it.
Ive breed hundreds of buttons till adulthood and ive probably had 5 killed from in fighting. One of the reasons is that I batch breed so each batch is breed and sold as a group. If I bring in fresh blood then they are caged with in the aviary for a week until no one is paying them any attention then released in a large group to reduce any one from being targeted or i buy hatching eggs and run a batch with the new ones at the same time.
I don't bother dividing them by sex unless im asked to and normally the person buying is interested in a group of males only so they don't have to deal with the eggs.
The males do pluck the females necks but in a large group with plenty of obstacles the males tend to give up before any real harm is done and switch to a different hen until they gets tired and quit.

My suggestion to you is to find budgie breeders or forums for aviary's and try to sell the quail there as that would be your best market. In very small groups you may experience more problems as there's less to do so they may harass the smallest weakest one. Once that one is removed they will just focus on the next smallest and so on. Consider removing a aggressor instead of a victim and see if that corrects the problem. The theory being that if the aggressor injuries another then that one becomes a target so by removing the aggressive one it stops the cycle.

The only problem i have is chicks that are naturally brooded do not survive unless they are removed as soon as they hatch which i think comes back to any sign of weakness gets attacked.