Cooing

[FeelFree]

So my male quail have started cooing. One of them coos all the time. Not that it bothered me but I'm sure my neighbors didnt like it.

I would have wanted to wait a little longer, but silence taste to good.

 

[dc3085]

WHen you have extra males if you put them all together and out of sight of the hens they'll be much quieter. They vocalize to impress the ladies, so when you have multiple boys in one cage with hens the peeing contest won't stop and it will probably interfere with someones sleep.

 

[FeelFree]

When they started cooing I pulled all the males but the noisiest one in hopes he would be busy with the females and quiet down. After more than a day and no change we isolated him. Still no change in the amount of cooing. Finally I just put them all 4 together to see which one I was going to keep. I really wanted to keep the one making all the noise, that amount of cooing was a bit far. So now there is one and he seems to be much quieter and happy to be with the girls. Either way it made for a lovely dinner with pees, carrots, onion, and rice.

 

[dc3085]

Usually it is one excessive bird that causes them all to coo. Sounds like the culprit here is the one you like. Bummer. Usually removing the one who incites the crowing will substantially quiet the group down.

 

[SliderShooter]

Turn off the lights and keep them in the dark. That will stop the crowing and also the breeding. You have to take the good with the bad.

 

[FeelFree]

Turn off the lights and keep them in the dark. That will stop the crowing and also the breeding. You have to take the good with the bad.

Turning the lights off would keep the females from laying eggs (which I want more than the meat from the birds). And the one that always cooed would start about 5 am everyday. I'll try putting a cover over the cage to keep it dark all the time after the males are separated.

I am going to take all the advise I have gotten to heart and use as much as I can the next time.. Thanks everyone for the help.