Quail behavior- aggressively attacking?

[ADuckingMess]

Hi all!

I was given 7 adult quail, 6 hens and 1 roo. They previously resided in individual 8”x8” cages. Over a few weeks I slowly introduced them to all hanging out in an old 6.5’ x 4’ chicken coop.
They have little nesting boxes, sand boxes, “caves” (enclosed hiding areas ), a variety of fresh food, quail feed, grit, and water. I even left their small cages available if that’s where they felt comfortable.

But, I have problems in quail paradise. All, including the roo, have been savagely pecked and attacked by one another. Each one starts at the saddle and neck, goes down the back, and on the wings. Some are so bad that you can see muscle and bone.

I’ve taken to putting them back into the original small cages and have had vet help for the recovery.

I’ve never had quail, is this typical? Are they all this aggressive?
they were all hatched together this spring, with all but one male culled early as possible.

Please tell me what I am doing wrong, I want them to be happy and healthy and preferably out of the tiny cages.

I’ve added one of the less gruesome pictures for context.

 

[Nabiki]

That does not look like quail on quail violence. Are there rats in there with them?

 

[farmer90]

I agree with Nabiki. Whenever I've had quail pecking injuries, they're on the head, ears or eyes but never like that. Make sure your enclosure is predator proof.

If you have made it predator proof and still think it's quail on quail violence, you should observe their behaviour until you locate the violent one and then separate it.

 

[Fluffy_Butt_Hutt]

If you can, put a camera or your phone set on a timelapse video in there for a whole 24 hrs and go over the footage to see what is happening.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Quail can be jerks, but that isn’t their fighting style, barring mini velociraptors I agree you are looking for rats, a weasel, small mammalian predator, especially if that’s a less gruesome pic and multiple multiple birds are affected. A lethal quail on quail attack is a head pecked to a pulp not the skin ripped off the back. And bullying should be fairly obvious, chasing, hiding, this sort of growling sound, birds taking off in a panic, General disorder and fear in the flock. While the space is nice, your old chicken coop has lots of places for rats to get in.