Introducing young quail to older breeders

[jlramey1]

I bought 6 jumbo brown breeders from a great hatchery up north( I live in ga) no problems theirs I want to add some of my newly hatched chicks back to the breeders pen to replace a roo that flew away and a hen that was killed by a rat snake ( I can't find any info on it other than Roos fight a lot and hens peck for the pecking order.
I'm on my third set of 24 in my incubator so far not too bad !
I'm only incubating my larger eggs ( 14-17grams ) I'm hoping to breed a larger jumbo that lays larger eggs- I've heard big egg big bird so far it's proved true I set a few " control" eggs 12-13g to test my theory !
I only feed purina gamebird startena and layena with a few yard clippings as a treat!
I get 3 eggs a day rain or shine (since January )

 

[jlramey1]

Any tips or advice on adding new breeders to a cage of older breeders? ( to keep them from fighting or killing one another) cage size is 3x4x2 planning on putting three trios as a covey breeding pen

 

[dc3085]

Keep them in separate cages right next to each other for a couple weeks. Then mix them all together in a new cage none have ever been in. After a couple days you can put them back in whatever pen you like. . The new birds need to be at least 8 weeks old when you do this. More than one rooster per cage will make hens less productive because of the stress it causes. I wouldnt ever recommend doing it.

 

[jlramey1]

Thank you