It's hard to know what goes on inside these little birds heads. I posted this 8 years ago, let me tell you what transpired over the years.
This particular bird, who I had named Simon, was quite an intelligent bird who must have retained that "wild" gene because I believe his need for freedom caused him to be so aggressive with the females. I kept him within sight of the hens because complete isolation seemed to cruel. As with your boy, I felt sorry for Simon, but I had no other solution at the time.
However about a year later, at his age of 2, I had a lone female that needed a mate. I set them up each in their own cages within the aviary, side by side and left them this way for about 2 months. At first the hen was scared of Simon and he continued with his evil eye toward this hen. But eventually she must have gotten lonely because she began court him a bit from the other side of the cage. I let this go on for another month, (I let each of these birds out alone in a smaller aviary several times a week so they weren't stuck in small cages all this time), and then decided it was time to SEE if it was possible that this crazy male could actually have a normal relationship with a hen!! LOL Long story short, it worked! He was SO gentle with her, she was the boss and Simon was in love!!
Unfortunately being that she was 2 years older than him, she passed away a couple of years later leaving Simon all alone again. He mourned for 4 weeks, hiding under the brush pile, not uttering a word, not coming out for food, I was sure he was going to die under there. LOL But he came out of it one day, meaner than ever!! OMG, if he were a chicken rooster, he would have flogged me to death! Simon was horrible, flying up into my face, attacking my pant legs in the aviary, rushing me when ever he had the chance. LOL He was a very strong willed bird and would have made a wonderful wild bird, passing on wonderful genes of power.
Well, over the years, all my quail passed on, one by one. I had decided not to continue with quail and focus on chickens. Simon ended up being the sole survivor! And wouldn't you know, he got super friendly in the end, he was sitting on my lap, following me around like a drooling puppy looking for goodies, calling for me, coming when called, just sweet! He finally passed away in the fall of 2017, he was 7 years, 5 months and 11 days old. Hatched him myself. Sad day.
Good luck with your quail!
