mountain quail

[shlomi]

I have a group of 16 Mountain Quail. Not sure about each one's sex. They are all in one cage.
Is it recomended to let them be that way or to seperate them to pairs?
Is there a sure way to recognize the sex?
Thanks.

 

[londonbridges]

keep them in acolony, if you want,idont know your male /female ratio but 1male to 3 or 4 females is what you want to narrow your colony down to.hopefully you have 12 hens and 4males. in breeding season watch for fighting and toe picking. the best way to tell a male from a female is the brown color on back of the neck on a hen runs up the back of her neck to the back of her head ,a malestarts up but breaks up and is more blue

 

[BobwhiteQuailLover]

The hens will have more brown on the back of her neck, and males will have all blue (maybe a LITTLE brown) on the back of their necks.

I usually like to keep mine from 2 males to 4 hens.

 

[shlomi]

What if the ratio between males and females is negative and there are more males is it may harm fertility because of fighting between males

 

[BobwhiteQuailLover]

You would DEFINATLY want more hens than males! They are territorial during breeding season

 

[shlomi]

Do males can attack each other?

 

[BobwhiteQuailLover]

They can and will, I believe they are teretorial.

 

[lanimilbus]

I'm raising Mountain Quail for the first time as well and was also wondering about this. I have six birds, 3 male and 3 female and they're all in an outdoor aviary together. I got them at 6 months old last October and they're just under 1 year old now. So far they've all done perfectly fine and I've never seen any hints of aggression between any of them but I'm concerned that will change once breeding season begins (which I'm assuming will be soon). The aviary is 12 feet long x 6 feet high x 4.5 feet wide and attaches to an indoor shelter which is 6 feet long x 3 feet high x 2 feet wide and they have a small fir tree in the pen as well as some high branches set up for them to perch on, but I don't know if that will be enough space/hiding places for them or not. Should I plan on separating them soon or should they be alright as is? I'd hate to have them kill each other but I also don't really have any other place to put them if I was going to separate them so I'm not sure what to do.

 

[BobwhiteQuailLover]

I have mine w/2 males with 4 hens, and I haven't seen very much aggression either..
Send me a PM, and we can talk

 

[Valley quail breeder]

Was curious about your aviary set up Lanimibus and Shlomi. I hear there bad about flying up & breaking there necks. Can you post pics of your set ups, Thanks.