Female to Male ratio for Bob whites

[Woodey2]

I have two groups of bob whites.
Group 1 has 3 females and 2 males.
Group 2 has 4 females and 3 males.
I read that they pair up.

Questions:
How do I know who is paired up with who?
Do I pull out one female in each group?

Or leave them be someone will get lucky and have two females...

 

[Fishkeeper]

They pick their own mates. You should be able to figure it out by watching, mostly because the dominant pair will likely attack and try to drive away the rest. Separate each individual pair out away from each other or one of them is going to get killed.

 

[Woodey2]

I bet that is why one of them sits in a different corner than the other 4 do.

Well I guess now I need to figure out what I'm going to do with the two extra females. I may try to keep them because I am hatching out a few more quail.

 

[Fishkeeper]

Absolutely keep them if you're hatching more. If you wind up with extras, you could look around to see if anyone in your area needs them for pairs, or just process them.

Make sure you get separate pens set up for all the individual pairs. Bobwhite pairs need to be kept separately during the breeding season, they can only live as a group in the off season. You may want to band each pair, once you've separated them and are sure they're getting along, so you know who to separate out of the group next year.

 

[Woodey2]

Will the males try to mate with the lone female?

Once I put pairs together I can just keep them that way. Each pair in a cage?

 

[Woodey2]

or do I put them back together later this year?