"Popular" female coturnix getting all the boys' attention - what do I do?

[sphanges]

Hi all,

In one of my pens I run two males with several females. No problems ever between the two males as they have space and are gentle boys. Most of their females are white (as are they) and they've been running with as few as 6 females to 2 males with no problems at all. There is one italian girl who is in there mostly because she was settled into the group and likes to be with her sisters.

Previously these females ran with another white male and I had great fertility from all the birds.

Since the males were swapped over, they have obviously been paying attention ONLY to the italian girl as 100% of two of the other girls' eggs were infertile at lockdown and more than 50% of the third white girl who had previously given me 100% fertile. I have noticed they focus on the italian exclusively and ignore the others. She was always a popular girl with the other males she's been with too.

Anyone had this before, where one bird was favoured to the exclusion of all the others? Should I take her out of the group so they will stop ignoring the white birds, or keep the group of females together and change the males? The first male did a fantastic job but he is currently being used in another group with really good results. I could split the group up and juggle cages a bit to make two small groups instead of one big one, but again the italian might hog all the attention.

Any advice welcomed!

B

 

[James the Bald]

The only thing I would suggest is to switch the males. All but 2 of my quail are 2 week old chicks, so I haven't experienced this yet. My Quail are Texas A&M's at that, so I better keep an eye on any Italians they come into contact with.

 

[sphanges]

Thanks. My partner made a few blonde jokes She is a big girl and very fertile so I suspect it's more to do with that than her colour, but it will be interesting to see in future as my other italians get mixed into the breeding pens.

B

 

[KonQuail]

I had the same problem. My italian was like kate upton in a room full of rosie odonells. I took her out and put her with some younger quails to let her recover some feathers. I tied reintroducing her after a week and it seems she was even more popular. within 30 seconds of her being introduced 1 male jumped her. then another male came over and cut in...then the 3rd male came in and all 3 were chasing her. It must be a blonde thing

I took her out again and will probably introduce her again when the rest of my females reach maturity.

 

[sphanges]

That analogy is hilarious

B

 

[QuailRaiser]

just leave it, its natural, you should have them quiet down after a day or two...
hope this helps

 

[SavageChick]

LOL, she's living up to her Italian name...they are an irresistible lot.

 

[sphanges]

It's been over a month and a complete incubation that this has been happening so I don't know if it will resolve itself. I've got another lot of eggs going in the incubator on Weds and I am expecting that some will be infertile because of this problem so I am wanting to switch the cages around just to avoid having so many "ignored" girls.

 

[KonQuail]

Don't lose hope. I only saw my males mounting the italian but after 12 days of incubation all but 1 egg was fertile. I'm crossing my fingers for a good hatch.