Quail Have Been Fine Without Separation... Until Now..?

[projectquailmary]

Hi! I have 11 Coturnix quail living together in a 10x6x8 foot coop that I hadn't sexed until yesterday.
They are exactly a year old, I've had them since hatching, and have never had problems living together until now, so I hadn't needed to until now. There are 6 females and 5 males, which I know is not the correct ratio, but they really haven't even displayed any mating behaviours until now.

They have constant access to food/water/shelter so I know it's not that, but yesterday when I went in to check on them a whole bunch of them were missing feathers from their head/necks, none with visible injuries except this roo right here:
(I know it's not a great picture, he was not happy with being photographed)

I don't want to put saline on it because it's so close to his eyes. Is it something that will heal on its own? He's also missing feathers on both sides of his head near his eyes but not on the back of his neck where they usually lose feathers due to mating behaviors. Any advice? I'm not sure if it's the other roos bullying him or not.

I was so concerned with the feather loss in some of my birds that I did determine their genders last night, and I currently have him and one other male, who was getting picked on (extreme feather loss on neck and some on back, no bleeding yet but I'm afraid there might be if he continues to get messed with), living with six females in the original coop.

All of my females have lost feathers on their back and necks.

My remaining three males who are perfectly fine (no feather loss at all) are together in a separate, smaller coop.

Is that making the situation worse, or better? What should I do? I only have two coops right now, I do not have a way to isolate a single bird as of yet. I just ordered a third but it won't be here for two weeks.

I used to have the space to separate them, which sucks bc it wasn't needed then, but we had a really really bad hailstorm and it broke my third coop.

Any advice is welcome!

 

[MarlaMac]

Since they are of mating age now, you will need to make adjustments to the correct ratio or your problems will persist. This, unfortunately means all but one of your roos, since the recommended ration is 1 roo to 4-5 hens.

I don't know quail behavior, but a quick search says that housing male quails together is risky b/c of they are highly territorial.

As for the injuries to your roo, you can apply terrimycin or 3x non-pain reliever antibiotic ointment of you can't get the terrimycin.

I hope it all settles down for you and that you can find homes for your boys.