introducing a new quail to my 5 other quails

[debbie2604]

Hi
I bought 5 female quails( at the same time) for my son one is 7 months the other 4 are 4 months

Unfortunately we incubated 12 eggs and after the incubation period had lapsed we thought that we were not successful however left the incubator on for an extra couple of days
In the meantime we bought theses other quails as he was devastaded they hadnt hatched
They settled in nicely to there new surroundings
To our surprise 2 of our eggs hatched the following day
One has survived and is doing very well and is ready to go outside, but am I able to put here with my other quails??

Can anyone give me some advice please

thanks

 

[TwoCrows]

You can put the adult quail outside immediately. However the baby quail need to be "brooded" under a heat lamp for the next 6 weeks. Keep them in a plastic storage bin with no lid, or even a card board box. You can use a piece of screen for the top, but do not cover it with towels or anything that will stop air and heat exchange.

Start them out at 95 degrees and lower the temp by 5 degrees each week for 6 weeks. Use a very shallow waterer like a chick waterer or even the lid of a jelly jar with small pebbles in it for water as quail babies drown very easily. You can also put stones in a regular water font to keep them from falling in. Do this for the first week or two.

Use paper towels for several days on the floor and sprinkle feed all around the feeder on the floor so they know where the food is. You can remove the paper towels after a few days or when ever they figure out where the food comes from.

Feed them gamebird starter or turkey starter...something with 24% to 28% protein in it.

At 6 weeks old, they can go outside.

Oh..and welcome to BYC and the quail forums!

 

[TwoCrows]

As far as mixing adult quail...keep the new ones separate from the original flock with wire or a another pen. Make sure everybody sees everybody, but can not touch. Leave them separated by wire for a few weeks to several weeks so they get used to each other. After this long introduction, mixing them shouldn't be a huge deal, since they already recognize each other. There may be some pecking order squabbles at first, but there should not be any big brawls.

Watch them carefully the first day and thru the first week. If there is big fighting, intervene immediately before any blood shed. You may need to continue to separate any aggressive quail until they all get worked into the flock. However, they may all work well immediately.

If these are Coturnix quail, make sure to keep the male to female ratio correct....one male to 5 - 7 females. Do not mix too males together during breeding season.