Bought Bobwhites Today!

[StewedMammal]

Today I bought my first breeder northern bobwhite quail! I bought 20 (9 boys, 11 girls) and have them situated in their breeding pens now. I have 5 trios, 1 pair, 2 extra males (one with a crossed beak) and one other male that flew off into the woods, and now I can't seem to find where he went.

 

[Ntsees]

If the male didn't go far, it'll come back if the others rally call for it (assuming it didn't get taken out by a predator).

 

[StewedMammal]

I know he is still out there, but he may not be able to find the others until tomorrow because the wind isn't allowing noise to travel very far right now.

 

[dt1958]

Today I bought my first breeder northern bobwhite quail! I bought 20 (9 boys, 11 girls) and have them situated in their breeding pens now. I have 5 trios, 1 pair, 2 extra males (one with a crossed beak) and one other male that flew off into the woods, and now I can't seem to find where he went.

From my experience with Bobwhite quail & what iv'e learned from others here on this site is that they mate 1 on 1 for life, keeping them in trios there might eventually be an aggression problem, they seem to get along a lot better when kept in pairs 1 male to 1 female.

 

[StewedMammal]

From my experience with Bobwhite quail & what iv'e learned from others here on this site is that they mate 1 on 1 for life, keeping them in trios there might eventually be an aggression problem, they seem to get along a lot better when kept in pairs 1 male to 1 female.

Ok, do you think I could keep 2 pairs in a breeding cage? Or may it be better to have one male for 3 females instead of 2? I see a lot of breeders who use battery breeding pens (what I'm using) have 1 male to 3 females in a breeding cage and have good fertility.

 

[StewedMammal]

Ok, do you think I could keep 2 pairs in a breeding cage? Or may it be better to have one male for 3 females instead of 2? I see a lot of breeders who use battery breeding pens (what I'm using) have 1 male to 3 females in a breeding cage and have good fertility.

So I did switch them around. Now it is 3 breeding quads, 2 pairs (in separate sections form each other), and 2 extra males. If you counted them, yes its only 18 now because the one with the crossed beak shot off into the woods during this (which I don't really mind because it wasn't like he was going to be a breeder). I went on youtube and blared a bobwhite comeback call off the porch to see if either would respond. Surely enough both were responding, and a few minutes of calling, one flew right by the pens across the lawn, so I got on my stuff, ran outside and made him fly. He almost ran into the pens but instead he flew into the side of the house, but I couldn't catch him and he went back into the woods... oh and that one was the one I lost yesterday, not the cross-beak. One of my turkeys (who somehow got out of her pen) was freaking out because I guess she was the one who made him fly because she was all puffed up and looking at the spot where he came from. Silly turkey.