Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) the monster bird

[Mrs. Light Sussex]

I've been raising a "small" flock of Japanese quail for over a year now.
They have plenty of space, as well as ample access to water and feed.
And yet hey are the most vicious dumbest birds on the planet.
Until they reach maturity they are calm and quite, but once they reach maturity, their raging hormones turn them to vicious beasts.
They peck each others eyes out, scalp each other, sometimes resulting in death.

In the forth generation I hatched, two of the quail that hatched where white, both of them female, the poor creatures where pecked to death.

Both the males and females are vicious, inflicting injuries on each other.
The females do not let the males mount them, which results in nasty injuries.

And yet several days ago I set several dozen eggs in my Rcom incubator.
I think there might be something wrong with me.

Do all quail behave this way? Is this typical mating behavior?

 

[nuthatched]

How many hens to cockbirds? Sometimes if the hens don't like the cocktail, they won't accept him

 

[Mrs. Light Sussex]

How many hens to cockbirds? Sometimes if the hens don't like the cocktail, they won't accept him

Frankly, I don't even know.
I began with 7 females and 3 males. I'm not sure about the current ratio.

 

[Ravenlover]

Plus space requirements can make them insane

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

Yup. That's quail. You have to cull the extra roos because if you don't kill them they will kill each other. Also, you will never have enough cages since they are so picky about housemates.

You probably are a little crazy to keep incubating. Pokemon might be a better hobby if you need to be surprised by eggs hatching.

 

[Nabiki]

Sounds like you had too many males, for one. How much space do they have?

 

[Mrs. Light Sussex]

Sounds like you had too many males, for one. How much space do they have?

I'll check the ratio tomorrow. What is the recommended ratio 1-4 ?

 

[RosemaryDuck]

I've been raising a "small" flock of Japanese quail for over a year now.
They have plenty of space, as well as ample access to water and feed.
And yet hey are the most vicious dumbest birds on the planet.
Until they reach maturity they are calm and quite, but once they reach maturity, their raging hormones turn them to vicious beasts.
They peck each others eyes out, scalp each other, sometimes resulting in death.

In the forth generation I hatched, two of the quail that hatched where white, both of them female, the poor creatures where pecked to death.

Both the males and females are vicious, inflicting injuries on each other.
The females do not let the males mount them, which results in nasty injuries.

And yet several days ago I set several dozen eggs in my Rcom incubator.
I think there might be something wrong with me.

Do all quail behave this way? Is this typical mating behavior?

100% I've had the same exact problems. I raised a flock years ago, and I ended up selling them in the end because of this. If they don't like something about another bird in the flock they just go from 0 to 100 and kill it. It isn't like chickens or other birds where they peck here and there. They will chase the victim relentlessly until it's dead or horribly wounded. I had a massive pen for them, everything set up perfect and I still had a few that did it. I had 1 male to 4 females. It was 9 times out of 10 the females doing the attacking.

 

[ChassiNoir]

This. I’ve been interested in pursuing quail in the future. This has been very helpful...and a bit intriguing and a bit terrifying to be honest. Always good to be prepared!

 

[KingD]

I've been raising a "small" flock of Japanese quail for over a year now.
They have plenty of space, as well as ample access to water and feed.
And yet hey are the most vicious dumbest birds on the planet.
Until they reach maturity they are calm and quite, but once they reach maturity, their raging hormones turn them to vicious beasts.
They peck each others eyes out, scalp each other, sometimes resulting in death.

In the forth generation I hatched, two of the quail that hatched where white, both of them female, the poor creatures where pecked to death.

Both the males and females are vicious, inflicting injuries on each other.
The females do not let the males mount them, which results in nasty injuries.

And yet several days ago I set several dozen eggs in my Rcom incubator.
I think there might be something wrong with me.

Do all quail behave this way? Is this typical mating behavior?

Possibly your influence on them. maybe
No in all seriousness, probably too many males together