Injured Quail

[Slilly16]

Hi All,

It’s my first time raising quail, and first time posting on BYC. Looking for some advice as I have discovered two injured females in the past 2 days.

As a bit of background, I hatched 2 groups of quail during lockdown. The first group consisted of 3 males, so once they were fully grown & living outside I purchased 8 females from a local breeder to live with them.
My second hatch was a month or so after the first and consisted of 4 females and 1 male.

In my garden I have built a run which has a dividing wall, so for a few weeks I had my first hatch on one side of the pen with the 8 new females (11 total) and the second hatch (5 total) on the other side.

I lifted the divide at the end of June and so all 16 quail have been happily living together for the past month and a half and the females have all been laying. There has been a few bald heads and a bit of jostling between the males, but never any blood shed.

Last night I found a female at the back of the pen hiding with a considerable injury to her neck. She has been plucked to the skin and there was a lot of blood. I removed her and have been keeping her safe inside.
This afternoon I then found a second female with similar, but much less severe injuries.

Both females are now inside, but I do not know which quail attacked them. Of the 4 males, 2 from the first hatch are quite agressive & the 1 from the second is very loud and aggressive.
What are my options?

I am thinking either:
- Cull 1 or more of the males (if so, which?)
- Divide the pen again to either the orignal groups (so hatch 1 + the 8 females I bought and then hatch 2 on the other side) or split them to balance out the females
- do nothing and see if I can witness another fight

I will attach some photos to the bottom of my post, thanks in advance for any advice

Also, of the females which were attacked, one was from the second hatch and one was from the groups of 8 which I bought.

 

[orloffer]

How many males and how many females do you have? I would probably watch them for a bit to try and figure out which ones are the most aggressive, then remove those first, with the ultimate goal of having only one or *maybe* two males on each side of the divider. The males do not understand the concept of sharing hens, or "these are yours and these are mine."

 

[orloffer]

Re-reading your post, I see that you have 4 males. Again, I would probably want only one or two (if they get along okay / if you keep the divider in place).

 

[Nabiki]

The baldness on the head looks like normal breeding baldness. The wound on the neck might be something else. Quail on quail aggression is usually aimed at the head and eyes. Neck injuries are less common.

Is there a chance that she got injured another way? I can't see in the picture, but do you have 1/2" hardware clothe in addition to the chicken wire? I'm thinking that a small predator may have gotten in.

Your setup is beautiful, by the way.

 

[Slilly16]

The baldness on the head looks like normal breeding baldness. The wound on the neck might be something else. Quail on quail aggression is usually aimed at the head and eyes. Neck injuries are less common.

Is there a chance that she got injured another way? I can't see in the picture, but do you have 1/2" hardware clothe in addition to the chicken wire? I'm thinking that a small predator may have gotten in.

Your setup is beautiful, by the way.

The wire is only 1” & I had been planning to cover it in 1/2” at some point to make it more secure.
I live in the uk if that helps re possible predators, is this something perhaps rats might do?
For both quail they have been attacked from the side and back of the neck & it’s down to the bare skin with lots of blood.
Will check the pen to see if it looks like anything got in

I was hoping that with enough space & plants to hide in that 4 males to 12 females would be ok, and as it has been fine for nearly 2 months it’s strange to suddenly happen now...

 

[Nabiki]

Your pen does look big enough for multiple males, and you mentioned that they'd been getting along. That's another reason I'm thinking that it might be something else. A rat, maybe?

 

[Slilly16]

Your pen does look big enough for multiple males, and you mentioned that they'd been getting along. That's another reason I'm thinking that it might be something else. A rat, maybe?

So I’ve checked and there’s no sign that anything might have got in at all.
One other thought we have had, one of the females recently has been piling up eggs in a nest & when my housemate tried to collect eggs from that area the other day the quail was trying to peck her hand. Is it possible that a female may be trying to protect her nest?
This is a close up of the injury:

 

[FloorCandy]

The baldness on the head looks like normal breeding baldness. The wound on the neck might be something else. Quail on quail aggression is usually aimed at the head and eyes. Neck injuries are less common.

Is there a chance that she got injured another way? I can't see in the picture, but do you have 1/2" hardware clothe in addition to the chicken wire? I'm thinking that a small predator may have gotten in.

Your setup is beautiful, by the way.

I was thinking the same thing, perhaps she was next to the wire and something outside grabbed her thru the wire, maybe a rat or other small predator, I’m not sure what you have in your area.

 

[FloorCandy]

So I’ve checked and there’s no sign that anything might have got in at all.
One other thought we have had, one of the females recently has been piling up eggs in a nest & when my housemate tried to collect eggs from that area the other day the quail was trying to peck her hand. Is it possible that a female may be trying to protect her nest?
This is a close up of the injury:

The behavior I’ve seen of nest guarding would be one is sitting and another approaches and the broody will chase it away. To get injuries that severe, the second bird would have to choose not to run away and you would probably have 2 birds with large injuries at the same time, not spread apart. I think you are looking for an outside source (predator).

 

[FloorCandy]

Looking at the injuries I wonder if a stray or neighboring cat is trying to grab them thru the wire. I have cinder blocks around my pen so they can lay against the sides and the stray cats can’t try to grab them at night thru the wire, I’ve been growing plants in the cinderblock holes to provide shade and general aesthetic improvement. Maybe set up a motion camera to see what’s happening.