MF ratios and what are my options?

[Florence NightingQuail]

Ok, thanks everyone for your cautionary tales - I am officially on guard and have put notice out on BST for a couple of extra hens. I guess I’m just going to have to be prepared for all possibilities as of now! Seems the transition from cute little things to rapey chasey scalping beasts happens so fast, where did the time go...

 

[nao57]

I currently have 9 hens and 3 Roos. Since I broke it down to this amount, (they were born 10 Roos and 9 hens) I’ve been concerned for 1 roo. My alpha Tiger millionaire and his second Aragorn have an area split worked out, and they get along fine. Aragorn is very submissive. Then there’s Red, he’s lovely, but he crows incessantly and roughly plays rapey chasey too often. I’ve had the bucket out to cull him 3 times, and he got a reprieve, like sudden thunder storm, or family emergency.

the males don’t bother Red, but I’ve seen him punk out at them, like run up to Tiger, kick up and jump, then run for his life, he doesn’t even hit Tiger, and Tiger doesn’t even chase him.

However, the hens HATE Red. If he gets one, 2 or more other hens run over and pull him off, he’s missing a lot of feathers in the side neck areas. They don’t really hurt him, no pecking no cuts. So I just keep letting him stay, I keep telling him his days are numbered.

I took him out to the breeder with some gals, I wanted his clutch first in case I have to cull him. When I prepared to put him back, he and Aragorn threatened each other thru the wire at first, but by the next day they were ignoring each other, I put him and his gals back in, and it returned to biz as usual. I removed Tiger Millionaire to the breeder with some girls, and Aragorn became alpha, and Reds life didn’t change. I put Tiger back, return to original behaviors.

the best advice is, give them lots of hides and space, get more hens ASAP, and just be prepared to cull. Don’t assume not crowing means submission, Tiger Millionaire does not crow and Aragorn crows maybe twice a week. They’re happy so they don’t complain.

You named a rooster Aragorn?

LOL. That's so awesome!

 

[FloorCandy]

You named a rooster Aragorn?

LOL. That's so awesome!

He’s actually really interesting, he rarely crows, all 3 of my Roos only crow a two note call, not 3, Aragorn crowed first, and I assume the others just copied what he did. He is also Rosetta colored, but has wild markings. I’m glad we kept him.

All of our animals are named after games and tv/ movies. We had an English bulldog named Thrall haha. I think maybe we were watching LOTR at the time and I thought, hmm I’ll name the little dark one Aragorn. One of our Frenchies is named Peppa Pig

 

[Florence NightingQuail]

Yeah, I gotta agree - your names kickass. Mine include Michael Caine, Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus, Meryl Streep and Crips. (Crips is the one who hurt his foot and we were sure he’d be crippled forever - but now you can barely even see the scar!)

 

[Florence NightingQuail]

BTW, I was so worried about my quaviary turning into a slaughterhouse after last night’s chats that I came home from my nightshift, slept fitfully for 2hrs, and then got up and started in on the issue. No luck on getting extra hens, so have built a divider and upgraded to wide ramps up to the roofs of both nesting boxes that create extra hidey holes underneath. This has made their palace extra spacious and given more areas for quails to escape to if needed. My submissive roo is looking incredibly rusty on his chest all of a sudden - I think the craziness is coming...

 

[Quailobsessed]

Oh lordy, I knew I was going to have to cross the bridge between culling being theoretical and real at some point, I just thought it’d be a couple of months off at least.... but nobody likes excessive rapey chasey! At what age does the sex crazed beast mode start? I might pop over to the Australia thread and see if anybody has a couple of spare hens going; I’ve been looking in my general area but nobody seems to keep quail anywhere near me!

Where in Australia are you?

 

[Florence NightingQuail]

In Sydney - Northern Beaches

 

[Florence NightingQuail]

I just witnessed James Bond (the alpha tuxedo) fully getting one away with Marilyn Monroe (the blonde alpha hen). He’s been chasey chasey for a couple of days, but this is the first one I’ve seen him manage to actually catch. (He followed it up with a victory crow, too) Funny thing is, he’s the smallest quail in the coop! Kinda gotta admire his get up’n’go for such a little guy... Marilyn seems unperturbed by the violation.

 

[Quailobsessed]

In Sydney - Northern Beaches

I'm in Western Sydney.

 

[Florence NightingQuail]

Wow, so I’m learning a LOT on this quail keeping journey! Despite endless measures to prevent problems, ultimately the ratio generally quoted here was completely correct. I now have just one male to my six females. One male got pecked to death, one male I despatched, and another (surprise) male I despatched this morning. I’m much better about the culling now, I know it’s quick and painless compared to them being pecked to death by their mates, anyway. And they look lean and lovely like they’ll cook up nicely! Is there anything I should look out for in my cleaned and dressed quail, that might mark it as not ok to eat meat?? Like, are there any obvious signs of parasites or anything that I should look out for? They had no signs of illness while they were alive and the meat LOOKS clean?