How old to vent sex?

[scyllarus]

I have what is possibly the most non-issue problem: my quail, aside from one confirmed male, are either all female or having a very prolonged childhood. There's very little aggression (aside from one incident where a quail got stuck under a plank and scalped by the rest of the covey - it's recovering well) and no male behaviors except from the one confirmed male. The oldest of the quail are over 12 weeks old, the youngest are probably around 6-7 weeks. No crowing, no chasing/breeding, nothing (again, except for our confirmed boy). I have looked at so many bird butts and no obvious bulge/foam except for...you get it.

I'm in Florida and our days are still at least 12 hours long. One or two of the hens started laying last week, but as far as I know, no one else has. They're eating 1/2 Purina Starter 30% and 1/2 NatureWise Gamebird Maintenance 20% feed. They started getting fermented feed last week as a supplement, and they get crushed oyster shell in a separate dish.

It's not a big issue, but I'm fretting over having to separate out the males before we start seeing aggression, and I apparently can't figure out how to vent sex because no one has a boy butt.

Edit: pictures are a couple of weeks old, but should give an idea of the setup.

 

[Patiocoturnix]

I have what is possibly the most non-issue problem: my quail, aside from one confirmed male, are either all female or having a very prolonged childhood. There's very little aggression (aside from one incident where a quail got stuck under a plank and scalped by the rest of the covey - it's recovering well) and no male behaviors except from the one confirmed male. The oldest of the quail are over 12 weeks old, the youngest are probably around 6-7 weeks. No crowing, no chasing/breeding, nothing (again, except for our confirmed boy). I have looked at so many bird butts and no obvious bulge/foam except for...you get it.

I'm in Florida and our days are still at least 12 hours long. One or two of the hens started laying last week, but as far as I know, no one else has. They're eating 1/2 Purina Starter 30% and 1/2 NatureWise Gamebird Maintenance 20% feed. They started getting fermented feed last week as a supplement, and they get crushed oyster shell in a separate dish.

It's not a big issue, but I'm fretting over having to separate out the males before we start seeing aggression, and I apparently can't figure out how to vent sex because no one has a boy butt.

I usually wait untill 8-10 weeks I also live in Florida and the last couple of months it has taken a couple extra weeks for them to show foam or lay eggs.

 

[scyllarus]

I usually wait untill 8-10 weeks I also live in Florida and the last couple of months it has taken a couple extra weeks for them to show foam or lay eggs.

That's actually pretty reassuring. It seems like most quail keepers start getting sex-specific behaviors by now, and I wasn't sure if the seasonal winter rule applied to the subtropics.

 

[Patiocoturnix]

That's actually pretty reassuring. It seems like most quail keepers start getting sex-specific behaviors by now, and I wasn't sure if the seasonal winter rule applied to the subtropics.

Yep it does I have been getting lower egg production as well

 

[scyllarus]

As an update, we have more crowing this morning. Looks like they finally decided to hit puberty!