New to quail.

[wcuatt]

I am very new to quail. My family and I raise and show chickens but our son has a poultry intolerance, and can no longer eat chicken or turkey. So quail it is. I have noticed "scalping" on two birds I bought 3 hens and a roo for eggs and breeding and 7 for meat. I have a large hutch they are all in. Could it be too cramped in said hutch? It is 42.5 long and 18in deep I put pine branchs in to hide they have plenty of food and water as well

 

[DK newbie]

One square foot per bird is recommended. But when you say they are all in the hutch, does that mean you keep your breeders and the meat birds together? Do you know the sex of the meat birds? In general, keeping more than one male in an enclosure that has females is going to give trouble. And 3 hens for a roo might be too little. If there are any females among your meat birds, I might pick one or two of them and have them join the breeding group. And I'd definitely separate the two groups - perhaps just slaughter the meat birds, assuming they've reached 8 weeks of age?
All the above is assuming the birds are coturnix quail, which I just noticed you didn't actually say.

 

[wcuatt]

Yes they are coturnix. And meat and breeders are in the same hutch. So I should take the meat birds out all together they are ready now was told give them another week to bulk them up but it sounds like now is going to be the time. Praying they made it thru the night. Thank you