Must I cull? (Graphic sorry)

[sajimnkim]

OK, so now 2 days in a row 2 of the boys have had the back of their head stripped and opened up. This one was all the way across! I now only have 7 males in the cage, and 3 in what is turning out to be the infirmary. 1 was what I thought was the mean one is still isolated. 1 had his neck cut, I think he may have somehow fallen on the j-feeder, maybe out of the sandbox I put on for dust bath time. I applied neosporin to both birds. They are 8 weeks old tomorrow, and some of the hens are already laying.

Could it already be time to start the breeder crew, cull the meat birds, and move on? I thought 10 weeks was the typical mark for this?

As you can see the only mods I made to Terry's cage design, was to make them shorter. They are still 2 X 3 feet.

Help! If they keep trying to kill each other, soon they will succeed.

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

View attachment 2332406OK, so now 2 days in a row 2 of the boys have had the back of their head stripped and opened up. This one was all the way across! I now only have 7 males in the cage, and 3 in what is turning out to be the infirmary. 1 was what I thought was the mean one is still isolated. 1 had his neck cut, I think he may have somehow fallen on the j-feeder, maybe out of the sandbox I put on for dust bath time. I applied neosporin to both birds. They are 8 weeks old tomorrow, and some of the hens are already laying.

Could it already be time to start the breeder crew, cull the meat birds, and move on? I thought 10 weeks was the typical mark for this?

As you can see the only mods I made to Terry's cage design, was to make them shorter. They are still 2 X 3 feet.

Help! If they keep trying to kill each other, soon they will succeed.

I dont know much about quail. Only wound care since I keep chickens. I would think if this much trouble is happening itd be best to thin out your males. Wait until you get a quail keeper to get back to you though. How is the one's eye?

 

[sajimnkim]

No eyes

I dont know much about quail. Only wound care since I keep chickens. I would think if this much trouble is happening itd be best to thin out your males. Wait until you get a quail keeper to get back to you though. How is the one's eye?

No eyes were damaged in the damage of my quail....fortunately. It's all the back of heads....which makes me think that they are trying to mount. I dunno. First time with quail.

 

[Nabiki]

View attachment 2332406OK, so now 2 days in a row 2 of the boys have had the back of their head stripped and opened up. This one was all the way across! I now only have 7 males in the cage, and 3 in what is turning out to be the infirmary. 1 was what I thought was the mean one is still isolated. 1 had his neck cut, I think he may have somehow fallen on the j-feeder, maybe out of the sandbox I put on for dust bath time. I applied neosporin to both birds. They are 8 weeks old tomorrow, and some of the hens are already laying.

Could it already be time to start the breeder crew, cull the meat birds, and move on? I thought 10 weeks was the typical mark for this?

As you can see the only mods I made to Terry's cage design, was to make them shorter. They are still 2 X 3 feet.

Help! If they keep trying to kill each other, soon they will succeed.

That should heal just fine. You say that you have 7 males in one cage, and that is a lot! It's not surprising that you're getting these kinds of injuries. When I get to this point is when I cull them all.

 

[sajimnkim]

That should heal just fine. You say that you have 7 males in one cage, and that is a lot! It's not surprising that you're getting these kinds of injuries. When I get to this point is when I cull them all.

So I guess my grow out pen should be bigger? I can learn how to clean them tomorrow if I need to.... ;-)

 

[MDBird]

I think if they are fighting that bad you're gonna wanna cull sooner then later. If you're going to breed maybe try to figure out which ones are the least aggressive and keep them. I'm just starting with quail myself though so take for what its worth lol

 

[Teneniel]

I’m still new as well, but 8 weeks is what I understood to be sexual maturity for Coturnix. I did my male thinning at 7 weeks and just put them all in a stockpot for dumplings. I had 8 culls and it was enough for a very large meal for the four of us.

 

[MDBird]

I’m still new as well, but 8 weeks is what I understood to be sexual maturity for Coturnix. I did my male thinning at 7 weeks and just put them all in a stockpot for dumplings. I had 8 culls and it was enough for a very large meal for the four of us.

Are you saying you made quail dumplings? Can you link a recipe that sounds delicious.

 

[sajimnkim]

Holy cow. I just went out to put them to bed and decided to separate out the males in to the other cage, and when I looked back at the first cage one male was trying to mount another one! He was one of the bigger ones, so I grabbed him and put him in with the girls, just so he wouldn't kill another male. I grabbed out the next biggest one and put him in with the girls as well. Almost immediately they got to work! So 2 males in with 13 hens. Was going to separate them out into layers and breeders, but that will have to wait until after work tomorrow too. All this seemed to come about suddenly, as I had a 10- week schedule in my mind.....

Tomorrow, I'll get all the males and put them in the brooder and see who really is the biggest. Then it looks like it's culling day 2 weeks before I thought it would be. It's OK. Today we tried the eggs for the first time too, so maybe tomorrow will be BBQ quail for dinner!

 

[CHlCKEN]

Really cheesed off. My six week olds were squabling a bit this morning, so I put a known rooster, Oreo, into the coop with the two layers.

The young birds settled down. The two hens were a bit iffy with Oreo. I assumed theyd settle down too. This was a mistake.

Came back to find him in this state. View attachment 2327593

Pretty sure he's lost an eye but don't want to go poking about. Is there any hope for this boy? We like him.

Dear god, I’m so sorry you found him like this. I knew silkie a rooster who came from a Feed Store situation, where he was in the overcrowded straight run bin. His eye was picked out and a friend of mine decided to save him. They nurses him back to health and he loved to the age of 9 I believe. He was the sweetest rooster I ever knew and I was very sad to find out when he passed away. His name was Becky (previously thought to be a hen) and he didn’t let an injury stop him! I think you should have hope for this bird, I have seen them live through the impossible. If you have an avian vet near you (or maybe any vet could help) please take him there if you want to save him, they can properly clean the wound and do surgery if required, plus send you home with meds, pain killer, and things he needs to live. If this is not an option, clean the wound and treat it. Then I will leave it up to you to cull or not. I believe that this bird will survive, as Becky did, and come out without a scratch- but only time will tell. Watch it and everything, but I don’t believe this bird should be culled