So, we were trying to increase our roo/hen ratio, and I kept underestimating our success and potential for bad luck...we had a huge hatch rate (15 out of 17) and a just bizarrely high number of roosters (only one hen is confirmed...we have only one bird we're not sure of... so 12 confirmed roosters out of the 15 birds.)
I am trying not to be a baby about the roosters. I understand how nature is red in tooth and claw. We managed to cull 10 of them that were fairly nondescript...but the last two I'd prefer to re-home. They are both the progeny of my favorite manchurian panda hen. I was so certain they were going to be hens, because both were lovely and round...so I started to socialize them and name them and got attached...
Pictured is Scarlett (obviously now Mr. Scarlett) who is lovely except to other quails at the moment. He is a chatty little bird, even more than his mother. Yesterday, he hopped onto my hand when I went to pick him up as though he was a parrot. He likes to watch what's going on out the window and quietly comment on it (yesterday he saw the mail carrier come to the door and said "peep?" quietly) He peeps quietly a lot, but also does the contented "plock plock plock plock" noise when you give him treats. He's a good flier...so you will either need to clip him or make sure you secure the room. Would love to find him a home and some hens he can pass off his handsome and amicable genes to.
His brother Eddie Paco isn't pictured but is almost identical, just a shade lighter. He was the victim of a near-scalping by our other roos; my fault, he was starting to get aggressive with the hens so I put him in the grow-out pen too close to adulthood. The entire flock of roos who up to that point had gotten along fine just descended on him in moments. We found him hiding behind the water feeder and he began a lonely existence in my son's room because we had nowhere else to put him. He's son's GF's favorite, so somewhat socialized.
If anyone is interested, they're very good breeding stock. Hate to cull such lovely birds!
I am trying not to be a baby about the roosters. I understand how nature is red in tooth and claw. We managed to cull 10 of them that were fairly nondescript...but the last two I'd prefer to re-home. They are both the progeny of my favorite manchurian panda hen. I was so certain they were going to be hens, because both were lovely and round...so I started to socialize them and name them and got attached...
Pictured is Scarlett (obviously now Mr. Scarlett) who is lovely except to other quails at the moment. He is a chatty little bird, even more than his mother. Yesterday, he hopped onto my hand when I went to pick him up as though he was a parrot. He likes to watch what's going on out the window and quietly comment on it (yesterday he saw the mail carrier come to the door and said "peep?" quietly) He peeps quietly a lot, but also does the contented "plock plock plock plock" noise when you give him treats. He's a good flier...so you will either need to clip him or make sure you secure the room. Would love to find him a home and some hens he can pass off his handsome and amicable genes to.
His brother Eddie Paco isn't pictured but is almost identical, just a shade lighter. He was the victim of a near-scalping by our other roos; my fault, he was starting to get aggressive with the hens so I put him in the grow-out pen too close to adulthood. The entire flock of roos who up to that point had gotten along fine just descended on him in moments. We found him hiding behind the water feeder and he began a lonely existence in my son's room because we had nowhere else to put him. He's son's GF's favorite, so somewhat socialized.
If anyone is interested, they're very good breeding stock. Hate to cull such lovely birds!
