male or female

[rita2paul]

hello when will i be able to see if they are male or female, they are 5 weeks on Saturday and i know they should start showing but at the moment nothing, i am getting worried, it's now getting close and trouble is on it's way if i can't find out.
will they show something at 5 weeks or will i have to wait until they are 6 weeks old.

 

[sammijane]

First, what color are your birds? I am assuming coturnix/Japanese?
Some colors can be sexed by difference in feather pattern between male and female. Other colors can only be vent/foam sexed, or wait for egg/crow.
If they aren't getting enough light, that can delay crowing/foam/eggs, and make it harder to sex. At 5 weeks, I would not worry though.

On colors that can be feather sexed, the males will have a rusty or orange colored breast, kind of like the American robin. The hens will have a clearly spotted breast.

For colors not Sexable by feathers, in breeding age/condition males, there will be what looks like a boil or swelling on his underside near his vent. Breeding age/condition hens do not have this.

 

[rita2paul]

thank you for your advice.
i suppose i will have to wait a little longer, i have a white which crows so i know what that one is.
i have a mix of colours.

do you know if i could keep two males with 8 girls. or will they fight.

 

[JaeG]

If you can remove the one that is crowing as then the next most dominant male should step up and start declaring his territory. Also, if they aren't getting enough daylight hours they won't mature as fast so maybe extend their light hours to hurry them along.

Unless you have a large cage with many hiding spots (like a planted aviary) you could get away with two males with a group of females, but otherwise you will need to split them into two separate groups

 

[rita2paul]

If you can remove the one that is crowing as then the next most dominant male should step up and start declaring his territory. Also, if they aren't getting enough daylight hours they won't mature as fast so maybe extend their light hours to hurry them along.

Unless you have a large cage with many hiding spots (like a planted aviary) you could get away with two males with a group of females, but otherwise you will need to split them into two separate groups

thank you for your reply, i would like to take the white one out but i don't want to put him on his own also i was hoping to put all the boys together at the same time as i am worried that if they go in the separate run at different times that they will pick on the new one.

i have a 5 foot cage with two levels, with lots of cover and 4 different boxes, hay, sand and leaves, tunnels and conifers branches.
3 food stations and 2 places for drinking. will that be ok for two boys and 6 to 8 girls.

 

[JaeG]

thank you for your reply, i would like to take the white one out but i don't want to put him on his own also i was hoping to put all the boys together at the same time as i am worried that if they go in the separate run at different times that they will pick on the new one.

i have a 5 foot cage with two levels, with lots of cover and 4 different boxes, hay, sand and leaves, tunnels and conifers branches.
3 food stations and 2 places for drinking. will that be ok for two boys and 6 to 8 girls.

I have found they have good memories, remembering hatch mates no matter how long they've been apart. All you can do is try a group of girls with two boys, but if the girls seem nervous or stressed I'd remove one boy. Just have a plan B in case it all goes pear shaped.

 

[sammijane]

thank you for your advice.
i suppose i will have to wait a little longer, i have a white which crows so i know what that one is.
i have a mix of colours.

do you know if i could keep two males with 8 girls. or will they fight.

You can definitely keep two males with 8 females. That is actually a very common form of breeding here in the US. As long as there are 4-5 hens for each male, you usually don't have problems with multiple males in a cage.
Your cage size is more than enough room for ten birds. You could probably put 20 in there with no problem, if you wanted to. Once they get to 6 or 7 weeks, the males should be crowing pretty well, if they are getting 14-16 hours of light a day. Then you can pull out several males at a time. The ones you take out may even crow and cause ones in the cage to crow back. I have played a recording of a crow and gotten males to crow back to it, sometimes (depends on the bird).

 

[rita2paul]

You can definitely keep two males with 8 females. That is actually a very common form of breeding here in the US. As long as there are 4-5 hens for each male, you usually don't have problems with multiple males in a cage.
Your cage size is more than enough room for ten birds. You could probably put 20 in there with no problem, if you wanted to. Once they get to 6 or 7 weeks, the males should be crowing pretty well, if they are getting 14-16 hours of light a day. Then you can pull out several males at a time. The ones you take out may even crow and cause ones in the cage to crow back. I have played a recording of a crow and gotten males to crow back to it, sometimes (depends on the bird).

that's good news as i think two of my males one is silver and the other is Tibetan and i would like to use them as my main breeding colour.
i have separated 3 which i think is males into another run.