Mixing quail hatches?

[Heather J]

Okay, I've learned by experience that you NEVER mix different age groups when they are babies, the young ones always end up dead. But I now have two females that are nearly six weeks and I'd like to add them in with my older four coturnix.

I think I read somewhere that I'll end up with dead birds that way, but I can't remember. Is it safe to mix (one male, and three female in the older group who've been laying since Christmas) with the two younger girls?

 

[shelleyd2008]

It might be okay, you just need to watch them when you put them together. I have found that if you move them all to a new pen when you are adding new ones, it usually throws them off enough to divert any major fights. It really just depends on the temperament of your birds. I had no trouble putting my lone male in with a group of 7 younger girls (wonder why

) He is still calling cause the girls are a bit too young for him yet, but he gets along just fine with them. You'll just have to watch them and see how they do. If you have a cage that is small enough to put inside the other one you could try that at first. Keep the new ones in the cage, inside the other quails' pen for a few days so they can get used to each other. Good luck

 

[Heather J]

Thanks! I was hoping to move them all into a new pen in the next week or so. Now I just have to squeeze in time to get the door put on it!

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

I've mixed them when they were adults and had no problems with the girls. If you add new males, expect some issues but they do get over it.

 

[monarc23]

Like shelley and lilralphieroosmama said mixing really isnt a problem too much just watch and they'll normally show their true colors for eachother right as soon as they hit the wire. So if you see fighting may be best to separate if theres none of that then you're on for a good start.

I mix birds all the time you should see my brooders.

 

[Akane]

Mixing them before they hit 8weeks is much much easier than mixing adults. The coturnix are easier than the buttons. With buttons I almost have to mix the age groups before they start laying or some refuse to get along with any button that wasn't in their pen before they reached maturity. I am always mixing different ages of chicks from buttons to coturnix to bantam and standard chickens and sometimes I mix quail and chicken chicks.

I've never had an incident with chicks. The only problem I had was a really rowdy batch of bantam chicks that were stressing out some younger standard chicks and I had to wait another 5 days for the standards to get bigger before mixing them. With adults I usually have to keep them divided with wire for sometimes several weeks before I can put them together. Like I said coturnix are much easier than buttons though and I haven't had them injure each other yet while I've had several adult buttons nearly kill each other.

 

[Heather J]

Thanks everyone! The younger two are females so hopefully moving them in with the change of home should make things reasonably easy.

Akane, I put new chicks in with quail that are a week or more old too and never have troubles in the brooder. I lost some when they weren't old enough yet, but by a week they seem fine. I've never raised buttons, they sure are cute!

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

I just combined two cages of 13 each into one big one on Monday and didn't have any problems at all. I think mixing them when they are younger and at different stages can be bad, especially around 4-5 weeks and hitting puberty. That's when the males can be really nasty. After that they settle down.

 

[wilds of pa]

I can tell you this, when hatching Butler bobwhites and white bobwhites the butlers tend to go after the whites even as hatch mates.. so in a few days we end up putting them in there own brooders,

however as adults, i have white males in with Butler females and they love each other. however only in pairs does it seem to work for me anyways..

Charlie