How to separate quail

[Jaesthetic]

Hello! I bought some coturnix eggs off of ebay, made a homemade incubator, and hatched my first quail recently. I ended up with 4 chicks who are now around 3 weeks old and have their feathers mostly in. I'm keeping them indoors in a 2x3 ft plastic storage bin which they seem to be happy with. All four are different colors and only one is a sex-linked color (looks like an Italian or Manchurian Gold). That one seems like a male, and I have been having trouble vent-sexing the others because they screech and struggle so much when I hold them, but from what I could tell, at least 1 more is a male. At best right now, it is seeming like there are at least 2 males, but there is a strong possibility 1 or both of the last 2 are also males.
Though this is a bummer because I did want eggs, I partially wanted quail as pets anyways so I was planning on keeping them anyway. That being said, once I more definitely figure out the sexes of the birds, how should I separate them? I have another plastic bin that I can make into an enclosure. Even if the other 2 are females, would it be too hard on them to have a male in there as well and put the remaining male in the separate bin alone or should I just separate all males from females? If it's 3 males to 1 female, is there any way 1 male and 1 female in one container and the other 2 in a separate bin would work? And if there are 4 males, is it okay to keep all 4 together or better to split 2 and 2?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

 

[jaymean]

Hello! I bought some coturnix eggs off of ebay, made a homemade incubator, and hatched my first quail recently. I ended up with 4 chicks who are now around 3 weeks old and have their feathers mostly in. I'm keeping them indoors in a 2x3 ft plastic storage bin which they seem to be happy with. All four are different colors and only one is a sex-linked color (looks like an Italian or Manchurian Gold). That one seems like a male, and I have been having trouble vent-sexing the others because they screech and struggle so much when I hold them, but from what I could tell, at least 1 more is a male. At best right now, it is seeming like there are at least 2 males, but there is a strong possibility 1 or both of the last 2 are also males.
Though this is a bummer because I did want eggs, I partially wanted quail as pets anyways so I was planning on keeping them anyway. That being said, once I more definitely figure out the sexes of the birds, how should I separate them? I have another plastic bin that I can make into an enclosure. Even if the other 2 are females, would it be too hard on them to have a male in there as well and put the remaining male in the separate bin alone or should I just separate all males from females? If it's 3 males to 1 female, is there any way 1 male and 1 female in one container and the other 2 in a separate bin would work? And if there are 4 males, is it okay to keep all 4 together or better to split 2 and 2?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

I ended up having to put 1 male and 1 female together (the other female died). The male won't leave the female alone. A lot of her feathers are missing as a result of him constantly trying to mate with her. I tried to introduce another female into the group, but they weren't having it. The female actually cries for the male when they are apart.

I'm not sure how you would split them up, but I found that the 1:1 ratio is hard on the female.

 

[Erkenstein]

1:4 is the minimum you should go. Unless you can buy adult quail and know what you are getting, one way to get to a good ratio is to start with a dozen chicks, raise them until you know how many of each gender you have, and get rid of the extra males. That usually means learning how to process as most people don't want any males either.

Males can live together, and some people report that a rooster pad works out as long as there aren't any females nearby. However, they usually mate each other and may fight, and they crow a lot. Also, that probably works best when you separate them before they reach sexual maturity.

This morning at 5:30 I woke to the sound of my 17 roos crowing in the tractor; this weekend things will get a lot quieter out there.

 

[jaymean]

1:4 is the minimum you should go. Unless you can buy adult quail and know what you are getting, one way to get to a good ratio is to start with a dozen chicks, raise them until you know how many of each gender you have, and get rid of the extra males. That usually means learning how to process as most people don't want any males either.

Males can live together, and some people report that a rooster pad works out as long as there aren't any females nearby. However, they usually mate each other and may fight, and they crow a lot. Also, that probably works best when you separate them before they reach sexual maturity.

This morning at 5:30 I woke to the sound of my 17 roos crowing in the tractor; this weekend things will get a lot quieter out there.

This is great information. I was under the impression that I couldn't keep males together.

 

[Quaillvr]

I ended up having to put 1 male and 1 female together (the other female died). The male won't leave the female alone. A lot of her feathers are missing as a result of him constantly trying to mate with her. I tried to introduce another female into the group, but they weren't having it. The female actually cries for the male when they are apart.

I'm not sure how you would split them up, but I found that the 1:1 ratio is hard on the female.

A male literally killed the female when I ended up with a one on one ratio.

 

[lomine]

Vent sexing doesn't really work until they are sexually mature. Only then do the males start producing the 'foam' that tells you if it's male of female. I'd say it's usually around 6 weeks.

If you want to keep males together they need to be completely separated from the females, meaning they can't see or hear them. I also wouldn't do 1:1. It works with other breeds but not Cots. The female wouldn't get any peace. With so much stress she likely wouldn't lay and as mentioned above could die. Maybe you can check around for grown out quail and get a few more females if needed.

 

[jaymean]

A male literally killed the female when I ended up with a one on one ratio.

I should consider myself lucky. My male is significantly smaller than my female.
I initially thought the male was a female, and then he surprised me.