Can I keep two males with 6 females?

[yallapilko]

HI, Can you please advise me? I have was wondering if I can put two male coturnix with 6 females? Will they fight each other, or will they have enough females each? Also, can I put a standard size male coturnix in with some jumbo coturnix? The jumbo ladies are really huge and I'm afraid for my boy! Any ideas please? Much appreciated.

 

[stephstuckman]

I had two roosters in with 9 hens and they did great. My other pen has one rooster with 7 hens, he was mean to the other male that was in with them so I had to separate them. He is a feisty rooster and needs at least 7 hens with him or he bugs them too much too. I think it depends on the individual birds. I am planning on only keeping one rooster in each pen, I just can't decide what color I want to keep yet. I have large birds mixed with smaller ones and don't have a problem. I tried putting a white one in with my reds and Browns but they all went after her. I added another red right after I took the white one back out and they didn't bother it at all. The ones that grew up together are fine with mixed colores but my first group pecks at different colored birds...funny little things. I think it depends on their personality some what with what you want to do with them. I am still new to quail but those are my experiences so far.

 

[Invision]

I wouldn't, 1 to 4+.

 

[simply blessed]

I would up the female percentage if I were you or keep a close eye on them. I was misinformed in the past when I kept them and lost a hen to exhaustion! Not sure if that's the norm or not, but my rooster (not to be too crude about it) had college male stamina, wouldn't even leave gals alone at night!

 

[familyfarm1]

That is not enough hens for two roosters. There should be at least 6 hens per rooster or the hens will be beat up by the roosters and the roosters will beat each other up. I had two roosters for 10 hens and everything was not good. I wouldn't do it just to be safe.

 

[dc3085]

Most hobbyists will not have or build cages large enough to have two roosters get along for life. Double the required space and add extra hens if you plan to try anway

 

[yallapilko]

Thanks everyone. I'll just keep one of my males for the 6 girls. Any opinions on putting the standard size coturnix with the jumbo? Also ChickenObsessed what would you consider doubling the size of space? I currently work on 1.5ft squared per bird. What do you work on? Thanks again everyone!

 

[familyfarm1]

I think the roosters size doesn't matter, because I had a small bantam rooster and regular sized hens and he still ruled the coop.

 

[yallapilko]

I'll give it a go and keep a careful eye on him. Thanks for your answers everyone. As usual, people on this forum are so generous with their help and infomation. Thanks again!

 

[dc3085]

"Jumbos" were created by patiently crossing coturnix, breeding specifically for size for many generations. As recently as 1960 the average coturnix was 6 ounces. So the size will decrease when you fold in the smaller genes but it's nothing that hasn't been done a zillion times cause that what people had on hand. It's also why you can't rely on the genetic traits a birds has when you buy coturnix from hobby breeders. There are some exceptions to what can become jumbo, certain lines of bird cannot be increased in size, like the english white, which will be a 6-7 ounce bird no matter how many 16 oz jumbos you cross in.