Fighting Quail

[Latigo]

I'm new to this Quail thing. This sight is the best for information, so please bear with me.

I had 9 Texas A+M approx. 8 weeks old in 1 cage. I had One I knew was a male because of his crowing, so I marked him with food dye as suggested here. 2 days later I had 5 Quail in this group bloodied up badly on their heads and around their eyes. I tried vent sexing the Quail and removed the mean one and four others I thought were male to a different cage. I left one male in with three females.

This male was still fighting with the others so I culled him. Since he has gone I haven't had any trouble in the 2 cages. Except no eggs at 8 weeks.

Today I went out and one of my Jumbos which is approx. 6 weeks old started developing the same behavior. Removed 2 males from his cage and left in 2 females. I know roosters can be rough on hens, but this guy looked more like he was attacking them instead of trying to breed. The females were trying to get away but he was grabbing them by the head and they looked to be Hyperventilating. So I removed the females and put them in another cage with 2 males and 3 other females and all is well at the moment.

Is this normal behavior for a male? Or should this one join the other in the freezer? Am I doing something wrong?

 

[saddina]

It sounds like you have too many males for the number of females. you'll want 4 girls per boy, otherwise the girls will get too much attention, and males housed together may fight (or really overbreed the girls as a bid for domiance).

In the bachelor pad... I think I remember reading that they can get along, untill the see a female (like teen boys, soon as a girl walks past the testerone makes them stupid).

Note, still on first cup of coffee, I may not make sence.

 

[Latigo]

Thank you for the help, saddina

 

[Trish up North]

I had this very same issue with my one single male, no matter how many females I had him with. He was young though, and after keeping them separate in cages side by side for a few more weeks, he finally calmed down enough to actually live with the girls after he matured some. Now he only gets a little rough with them when I approach the cages and jumps on them as if to say, "they're mine!". They all have little bald spots on their heads, but he doesn't chase them down, beat them up and rape them like he did before. I think the comparison to teenage boys was a good one. Not that teenage boys do a lot of raping...oh, never mind....

 

[Karen323]

We have two boys and three girls. One boy is so dominating that the other male is scared! I think the bossy boy likes one of the girls a lot but not the others so much. Hoping for eggs in a week or so.