Coturnix Quail Male/Female Ratio?

[coturnixquails]

I currently have ten, 5-week old, coturnix quail living together in an enclosure. I got them when they were too young to be sexed, so of course I have too many males! I have 4 males and 6 females. I would like to keep two of my males, so the male to female ratio would be 1:3. Or alternatively I could get rid of 3 males and then the ratio would be 1:6. All the quail I have are from the same hatch and have grown up together. So should I try out 1:3? or stick with 1:6?

Also, when should I separate the extra males from the group? I will probably process them and eat them, because nobody wants male quail I would like to keep the extra males with the group as long as possible, but certainly want to take them out before any fighting will occur. They are around 5-weeks old now.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Habibs Hens]

you could try 1:3 ratio (2:6) see how it goes


your males if you want to keep them then you could make them a bachelor pad completely away from the hens no seeing touching or hearing and they should be ok living together

remove males now 5 weeks is about a good time

 

[TwoCrows]

Welcome to BYC and the quail forums!

The ratio of females to males should be a bit higher. 1 male to 4 to 7 females. Any less and the males will mate the females to death. Any higher and the fertility goes down.

Do not keep males together that have harems. You can keep males together amongst themselves as long as they do not see any females. You can also keep females together in this manner as well.

 

[coturnixquails]

Great, thank you everyone I am removing three males tomorrow and will keep them separate until they big enough to eat!

 

[Stellar]

The ideal ratio is 1:4 but some birds do well in trios and pairs.

 

[danielatc81]

The timing of this could not have been better. My "Cots" are almost 5 weeks and I'm fairly certain I have 8F and 6M. I plan to have a 1:4 ratio until I can hatch more. Per welcomed responses, I will separate my smaller males (not breeding) from the other 10 until they fight or are large enough to dispatch.

Again, thanks for the post and useful responses.

 

[Stellar]

If you want a larger pen, how about go for 8F AND 2 M. that way you have less pens to worry about.

 

[City Chicken]

So we have three extra males.... And have then together, now they are raping each other. It's not right!

The top male ended up being the most handsome, not the biggest and so now he has 6 hens alone. The hens were loosing feathers on the tops of their heads from too many males. Poor things.