Introducing Juvenile quail

[mtburt]

Hi All,

I have a question about introducing juvenile quail into a new group. I have two batches of quail, my first batch consists of 7 new quail who are now 5 weeks old, and as far as I can tell, they're 4 males and 3 females. The second go set is 12 quail, nearly 4 weeks old, and what seems to be 8 females and 4 males. All the birds are now outside in a two-tier stacked hutch, with each age housed together.

I think the older cohort is starting to reach maturity and I've noticed the females are getting some minor injuries and are secluding themselves, which I suspect is because of the unfavorable male to female ratio. I was wondering if it would be a problem to move a few of the bigger females from the younger group into the older group? I don't want to introduce any more conflict than necessary, but I've read 1 male to 3-4 females is ideal. Can I just move 2-3 females, or is there a process I should go through?

I plan to reduce the group to 2 males and 8 females eventually but I would like to wait until they mature a bit more to figure out which are the best layers (no eggs yet) and/or are the largest.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Quailobsessed]

If the older ones are already mating, it may not be a good idea to introduce the 4 week olds yet, because they're still a little young.

 

[mtburt]

Got it, that makes sense, I'll wait until they all reach maturity before I mix and match.

Thanks!