killer quail?

[thequietman]

I have two cages of quail. One has 7 females and 3 males, the other has 7 females and 2 males (had three, but one escaped and likely fed the hawks that nest behind our house).

In one pen, I have a couple birds missing feathers on their heads (the worst off is a male). I haven't figured out which one is the problem bird, so I haven't culled it yet. In the other cage, I didn't seem to have much of an aggression issue (no balding birds). Today however, my daughter went out and saw a bloody bird in the second pen. Not just a little blood either. It looked like its neck was almost ripped out. The poor thing bled all over the back side of the cage. My wife put in in a cage all by itself until I got home. It was alive, but not looking good. The skin on its neck was opened up, and it had clearly lost a lot of blood already. I put it out of its misery.

Anyone see anything like this before? The pen has 1/2" hardware cloth all around, and I haven't seen any sign of predators. I don't think a predator did it, but I also can't imagine one of the other quail doing it either.

 

[Quail Jailer]

Too many roosters, you only need one for 7 hens.





Edit to add, too many roos cause all kinds of problems, overbreeding, stresses hens, stressed hens will fight, stressed hens dont lay. more than one roo causes competition and fighting among the males.

Its just a bad all around situation.

Trust me on this, cut back to one roo and seven hens, it will be quailtopia.

 

[Sill]

x2

 

[Brohnson]

x3