Mixing new hens with my Coturnix Roos

[NY Coturnix]

I have several extra roos and was able to locate 6 4 week hens on Craig's list. I kept the chicks in the house the last 2 nights and would like to add them to my outdoor pen's tonight. The pen's are 3x3 on 1/2 inch wire. Basically 2 3 x 10 hutches separated into 6 pens. I have one pen with 2 roo and 6 hens that is very peaceful and then I've spread my extra quail into the other 5 pen's with 1 pen having one male and the others having 2. Otherwise it was non stop fighting. I've heard where introducing younger quail works when the younger quail haven't hit sexual maturity but I'm new and I'm nervous adding the chicks with my 9 week male. Not sure if I should add with 1 male or 2. Should I wait until the hens are 6 weeks? My plan is to put them in with 1 and then yank him out the second he gets to aggressive. I'm assuming there my be a little chasing but I don't want him attaching the young hens.

 

[Pandaisy]

My roo grew up with his hens and he only mated with the mature ones. He ignored the rest. They started mating when they were about 5 weeks old, before even laying eggs. If he is a good rooster, he should leave them alone. But hormones can be a nasty thing ... I would try it and see how he behaves, if he gets too aggressive, separate them.

 

[muddy75]

yes watch the male very closely especially with 4 week olds. I integrate new birds at 3-4 weeks in an aviary setting but there usually 1 or more that get “bullied” by the adult males

 

[NY Coturnix]

Didn't go well. I took the roo out of the pen, it was his, and put him in a box for about half an hour while I cleaned it out. Changed the food and water containers, put new sandbox in. Tried to make it like it was a different pen. I then added the young hens. it was their first time on wire but I put some plywood and a large sandbox so they aren't on wire if they don't want to be. I let them get acclimated for a few mins. I first tried my calmest extra male. Within 20 seconds he was on top of one of the females and I had to yank him out with a beak full of feathers. I the tried the male that had been in the box. Same reaction.

The males are now in a pen with each other awaiting processing, told my wife i'd try Craigs list first. Wondering if adding males that have been penned with other males was a bad idea?

 

[muddy75]

Didn't go well. I took the roo out of the pen, it was his, and put him in a box for about half an hour while I cleaned it out. Changed the food and water containers, put new sandbox in. Tried to make it like it was a different pen. I then added the young hens. it was their first time on wire but I put some plywood and a large sandbox so they aren't on wire if they don't want to be. I let them get acclimated for a few mins. I first tried my calmest extra male. Within 20 seconds he was on top of one of the females and I had to yank him out with a beak full of feathers. I the tried the male that had been in the box. Same reaction.

The males are now in a pen with each other awaiting processing, told my wife i'd try Craigs list first. Wondering if adding males that have been penned with other males was a bad idea?

it was simply age difference.....they reacted like normal mature males......you can try re-introducing male once hens reach 6-8 weeks and make sure they have somewhere to hide/get away from the male.

 

[Fenrisulfr]

Aspecially if males were kept a while alone, they will "rape" fresh females like insane, as far as I experienced.

Best results to socialize new birds to an older flock is to place them in sight and hear reach for 7 to 10 days before putting them together.
And of course they should be mature (6 weeks at least).

 

[Pandaisy]

Where the hens lying down for him or did he just grab them where they stood? Yanking a rooster of a hen while he is holding on to her neck will cause loss of feathers.
Don't give up! Placing them side by side where they can see each other is a great idea. Choose a rooster who is relatively calm. It is normal that they get a bit too exited when first being introduced to the hens, because of the build up hormones.

 

[NY Coturnix]

Where the hens lying down for him or did he just grab them where they stood? Yanking a rooster of a hen while he is holding on to her neck will cause loss of feathers.
Don't give up! Placing them side by side where they can see each other is a great idea. Choose a rooster who is relatively calm. It is normal that they get a bit too exited when first being introduced to the hens, because of the build up hormones.

They were laying down and it looked like more of an attack than mating. It was similar to what the males are doing to each other in the other pen. I'll try again in a couple weeks. I can't split the pen with wire so they can see each other but still be separate. That's a good idea.

Thanks everyone

 

[Fenrisulfr]

Young roos are a bit awkward and if you keep roos together (especially the ones, which just gain maturity) they also mate males.
This often leads to real fighting.

But maybe what you saw was mating.

This is not a video from me, just as example.

 

[Fenrisulfr]

P.S.: especially in the middle of the video, where the hen don't want to mate, it easily looks like fighting.