Help Please

[Sapphire22]

Right about 3 months ago I purchased 12 young quail 10 Hens and 2 cocks, in the first week I lost one after it started walking backward, I realized it had banged its head and this had injured her so we had to cull her. Next, over a few weeks we had a couple stolen! ( actually came in to the garden and opened the pen and removed first a male then came back a bit later and took a female!) we made the pen more secure and everything was going well and eggs started to arrive. then another female was found dead one morning there appeared to be nothing wrong with her although the male had removed most of her feathers! then about 3 weeks ago another female was found again no sign of injury but she was a bit thin and no neck feathers. this left me with 6 females and 1 male ( Brian) I have been getting 6 eggs every day without fail since. However today, I found Brian dead I feel gutted again no sign of injury. So in 3 months, I have lost 50% of my birds. I don't know what to do for the best now. .....

Why are they dying?
Am I doing something wrong?
Do I need another Male?
Can I put new birds in with an established group?
or am I better keeping them as pets or is this normal with Coturnix quail?
All advice will be welcome.
I am in the south of England,

 

[RosieR]

With pray animals they try very hard to cover up any kind of illness, often you don’t know anything is wrong until it’s too late. Maybe someone has a guess as to why they are dying.
If your enclosure is large enough you could get new birds and introduce them. I usually rearrange my cage so the current birds will be less territorial.
You only need Roos if you want fertile eggs. If you only want hens for eating eggs then Roos are not necessary. Usually one hen tries to take the role and attempts to crow and so on, and gets more bossy lol.

 

[cosmosue]

Someone stole them? Did you see anyone? I only ask because if you had big snakes there that are able to swallow them whole you would think they disappear when in fact a snake is swallowing it and leaving - I know it sucks I had a snake try that here but he didn’t manage so I found my rooster dead covered in snot, all wet looking.

But do you have snakes that big in England I’ve no clue?

What about foxes? I don’t have foxes but it seems like foxes are normal in England. Dunno what kind of pen you have and how foxes could get in though.

Recently similar thing happened to my friend here with one of her small Silkie hens and her neck had no feathers, we had ruled out everything except hawks and owls and maybe foxes, since her birds are outside and not enclosed at the time it happened.

So I have no clue just asking some questions.

 

[Sapphire22]

Someone stole them? Did you see anyone? I only ask because if you had big snakes there that are able to swallow them whole you would think they disappear when in fact a snake is swallowing it and leaving - I know it sucks I had a snake try that here but he didn’t manage so I found my rooster dead covered in snot, all wet looking.

But do you have snakes that big in England I’ve no clue?

What about foxes? I don’t have foxes but it seems like foxes are normal in England. Dunno what kind of pen you have and how foxes could get in though.

Recently similar thing happened to my friend here with one of her small Silkie hens and her neck had no feathers, we had ruled out everything except hawks and owls and maybe foxes, since her birds are outside and not enclosed at the time it happened.

So I have no clue just asking some questions.

No, we don't have snakes as such in the UK only grass snakes and adders which are not very big, and couldn't eat a bird whole... also the kind thieving git shut the doors the wrong way around and came back exactly the same time the following week! Since CCTV been set up we have had no problem. don't think snakes or foxes can recognize CCTV lol.

have just ordered an incubator and am going to try and hatch today's 6 eggs (it arrives tomorrow) and see if I can continue Brians bloodline as he was such a character.

Have removed everything from the run and gave it a huge clean, and replaced all the flooring going to freeze a bottle of water and put that in there for tomorrow to keep the remaining 6 cool and keep my fingers crossed.

 

[cosmosue]

Wow no I didn’t think you had snakes like that but thought I would ask.

The nerve of some people!!! Stealing your quail!!! Wow! Man that is so stupid! Such a jerk! I’m so sorry!!!

We also set up a camera after a dog attack and the dog came back because the neighbor kept letting him out ALL night and I got him on video and sued the guy and won especially since I had the camera.

 

[Sapphire22]

Wow no I didn’t think you had snakes like that but thought I would ask.

The nerve of some people!!! Stealing your quail!!! Wow! Man that is so stupid! Such a jerk! I’m so sorry!!!

We also set up a camera after a dog attack and the dog came back because the neighbor kept letting him out ALL night and I got him on video and sued the guy and won especially since I had the camera.

Cameras are the way forward! setting one up on my new incubator so also good for great stuff.

 

[Danny C.]

How high is the top of pen/coop? I had one fly up probably hawk near by and think broke it’s neck. If high enough to gain momentum then that could be it.
Sorry for losses.

 

[cosmosue]

Cameras are the way forward! setting one up on my new incubator so also good for great stuff.

You know what I was just looking for a decent webcam for inside for the brooder and or incubator to broadcast live to my fb friends and YouTube lol I found a list of the ten best 2018 webcams and like the first one is only $50!

I have a nest cam for outdoors and one for indoors but those are private viewing so I thought it would be cool to have something set up for public viewing because holding my phone and going on fb live is fun but gets annoying LOL