Quail keeping: who needs reality tv or a soap opera?

[Susan Skylark]

Keep quail they said. Nice cute peaceful birds they said. I don’t know who they are but they’ve apparently never had an active breeding flock! I only have 20 breeding birds in a group pen, besides the masked butt pecker life in the breeding pen is pretty chill. My nicest biggest bird pecks everybody else on the rump, most lack tails and have a bald patch just above it, it is not mites and while several birds have molted this spring, it isn’t molting either, just a pushy hen that I’ll have to cull when I get some nice replacements. The only trouble is my 4H kid has a poultry show in a month and while otherwise healthy they look rather pathetic! I solved this by thinking my 6 week old chicks can hang out in the rabbit hutch away from the villain, otherwise we’re stuck with the new hatch that’s not even a week old. You may remember Peaches from a previous color post, he’s one of 6 of those six week old birds. He was getting beat up by a hatchmate who was put in another pen. Then Peaches beat up (very nearly scalped) his brother so that bird went in another pen too. 6 birds, three pens! I need two males and two females, preferably not bald, scalped, or naked! At least it is a podunk show with about a dozen birds total so the competition won’t be too stiff and 4H focuses more on the kid’s knowledge than the bird anyway. Maybe I should just invent a new breed, it works for turkens and sphinx cats, it just isn’t genetic! Bald butt quail, anyone interested?

 

[CascadiaRiver]

This is how I felt with my pigeons! We joked about a reality TV show called "The Pigeon Drama" so much personality and spunk in a one pound flying trash rat! I miss them so much but I don't miss the mess haha

One of my babies when I got him had a bare butt too, just ended up getting picked on in the brooder before I chose him and thankfully no issues (yet). However my old hen decided that if she doesn't want the younger ones near her she gets as tall and vertical as possible and in one swift move, kind of like dunking a basketball she just bonks them directly on top of their head. My old quail would bully & peck sometimes but it's quite a show when she tries to tell them off (they're now separated but side by side for social needs)

 

[Susan Skylark]

My son would love to keep doves or pigeons but I’m not a vertical poop fan! Quail are a nice alternative but apparently have their own social faux pas as well!