help! 33/34 day old males fighting

[yallapilko]

Hi,
I hatched my first brood of 18 chicks 33/34 days ago and (probably mistakenly) put the males all together a week ago.
Two dominant males have started to fight badly. So, I've now mixed the group back up together again. But, I'm guessing in a less than a week, I will have a number of sexually mature males in the same pen, along with the females.
So, what do I do? As I'm sure they will fight. I've got 2 or 3 that crow LOUDLY! And the rest are physically smaller and less mature (they hatched a day later), who they pick on.
I would like to keep 2/3 for breeders, the ladies for eggs, and cull the rest for meat.
But how do I keep all the males alive til then?

 

[red golden]

you could split the group up or put the ones getting picked on by themselves.

 

[Kylesquails]

Pick what roo or roos you want to keep and put the others in a bachelor(fatting up) pen

 

[yallapilko]

I had been trying to do a batchelor pen, but the problem is that when all the males are together they are fighting..... two birds were getting at one today... not nice!

 

[MrNappy]

How long do you wanna keep em for? (How many months?)

Cut their beaks (Clip, in the business people cut em 1/3 rd of the way up, 1/3 is a bit much do like 2/3 but you could also do 1/3)

They would bleed a bit (from experience, but they sometimes won't, also use the other part of the nail clipper, the gritty part a little), just wash it, don't fret.

Maybe, you would want to clip their wings, (I dunno why), your call.

 

[yallapilko]

I'm planning on keeping 2 or 3 for breeding and eat the rest!
I've tried beak trimming in the past (as far up as the vein, so it doesn't bleed) but found that within days, they have trimmed it right back into a neat point and it was all a waste of time.
I've reduced the lighting over night and found that helped (they are in my office, which had 4 light bulbs going), so I reduced it down to one bulb and they seem a little more settled.

 

[MrNappy]

Oh ok, James Marie Farms did an experiment (did i spell it right?), he/she concluded that more light equaled fatter quails.

Oh, oh, also if the light is too bright they get cheesed off, red light makes em calmer too.

 

[chrishel]

This sounds funny, but I put a rubber ball in the pen. I figure they can roll it around. They mostly ignore it, but it does get in the way and slow attacks down. I also have a little shelter for the weaker birds to get some rest. It's like an egg crate that I lean against one wall. The birds can hide under it and I've even found some climb up it to get away from aggressive birds. Some people have hung CDs for the birds to knock around.

Another option is to isolate the aggressive birds from the others in an isolation cage. If you take the two aggressive ones out together, then let the others settle, sometimes putting them back a could of days later might "reset" the territoriality of the birds.

 

[yallapilko]

Thanks Mr Nappy and Chrishel.
In goes the rubber ball for them to play football!
Unfortunately, I'm personally not happy with red light, it makes me feel ill, so that's out for me.
They have calmed down since I reduced the strength of light and also, reduced the temperature, preparing them for the outdoor pen.