Introducing chicks to adults??

[crimsonmama]

I've got so many introductions to be made but I'm not sure how easy it will be or best idea of how to go about it?

Firstly I have my week old chicks. I'll call them batch 1. They were hatched in an incubater. Then I have daddy quail who was removed from mummy quail as she is brooding batch 2 and didn't want him around.

So.... Can daddy move in with batch 1 chicks at any stage? At mo I have him in a separate cage right next to them and he has made a funny grunting noise at them and tried to peck through the bars. The chicks were scared of him at first but now que up to look at him and one even tried pecking back at him! Long term plan is to keep three females from batch 1 to live with him and mummy quail. So mummy quail also needs introducing to batch 1 chicks one day.
Next is getting mummy and daddy quail back together once she has finished hatching and raising her own chicks (batch 2). As they used to be together before will she take him back once her brooding instinct is finished?

And lastly there are chicks batch 1 to meet chicks batch 2. I don't plan on keeping any batch 2 chicks as they will be sons and daughters of mummy and daddy quail so close related. Batch 1 are from online eggs so I want to keep some females for daddy and some males separate from them as group of three males. The rest I will sell. But until then will need to separate male chicks from female chicks ... Therefore will chicks from batch 1 mix with chicks from batch 2?? Batch 1 chicks will be two weeks older.

 

[JaeG]

Your female should remember the male once her protective instincts have subsided. I've always found that my quail remember each other no matter how long they've been apart. They seem to have very good memories.

A two week age gap is huge in quail growth terms so I would recommend you keep the two age groups separate. Boys can start being pains from 4 weeks old. Once batch 1 are 6 weeks and batch 2 are 4 weeks you could split them into a boys cage and a girls cage. I wouldn't introduce a mature male to a group of babies as he may attack them or try to mate them (male quail aren't fussy) and hurt them.

In the bird world father to daughter or mother to son matings aren't a problem, unless the parents are closely related, and even then you are unlikely to have problems until further down the track. I just wanted to say that as you may get lots of boys in batch 1 and have to keep some girls from batch 2. We hatched 11 chicks and 9 turned out to be boys! So unfair as I bought those eggs for genetic diversity, rather than hatching more of my own!

Or if you like your chances of a good crop of girls from batch 1 can you sell the chicks from batch 2 as unsexed chicks and free up some space that way? Or were you planning on inviting them for dinner?