Quail Ratio Concerns

[CoCovey]

Hi all,
I’ve had a bit of a situation happen in the last week with my male quail. On Monday I found my dilute tuxedo male dead in the pen . Not only did it mean that I wasn’t able to breed some interesting colours, it mean that my trio of bachelors was down to 2. This evening when I went to check on them, the boys were fighting really rough and they both kept jumping up and hitting the roof (possibly the reason my male died earlier in the week). For the mean time I have separated one male with 2 hens and the other two boys are with the remaining four hens. While it’s not ideal at all I improvised for the minute as I didn’t want any more deaths. I’m just wondering what I should do next. Do I either toughen up and get rid of a male or two OR do I buy some more hens. I am also going away in a weeks time so I’m wondering if it’s fair to introduce new birds at this stage.

 

[Gigachad poultry]

Hi all,
I’ve had a bit of a situation happen in the last week with my male quail. On Monday I found my dilute tuxedo male dead in the pen . Not only did it mean that I wasn’t able to breed some interesting colours, it mean that my trio of bachelors was down to 2. This evening when I went to check on them, the boys were fighting really rough and they both kept jumping up and hitting the roof (possibly the reason my male died earlier in the week). For the mean time I have separated one male with 2 hens and the other two boys are with the remaining four hens. While it’s not ideal at all I improvised for the minute as I didn’t want any more deaths. I’m just wondering what I should do next. Do I either toughen up and get rid of a male or two OR do I buy some more hens. I am also going away in a weeks time so I’m wondering if it’s fair to introduce new birds at this stage.

I'd say sell one not two and once you get back you should buy new hens. That's just an idea

 

[CoCovey]

Thank you! I’ll keep thinking about it. I’ve thought about swapping a rooster and some fertile eggs with a couple of hens from a breeder.

 

[Nabiki]

You want one male to five females in an ideal situation. How you get there depends on how much space you have and how many eggs you want. The more space you have, the less aggression you'll see. Make sure they have hiding places too.

 

[CoCovey]

Thank you for the tips. I’ve kept quail for a couple of years but I haven’t had more than one male until recently

 

[CoCovey]

Ugh. Came out today and my male Italian has been scalped. Not bleeding too badly but it’s making me pretty annoyed. He’s a really nice boy but I’m not entirely sure if I should keep him around. Again if it’s a case of me toughening up and getting rid of him then it might have to happen.

 

[Nabiki]

I would get rid of the bully, personally. I breed for temperament as well as other traits. Aggressive birds get invited to dinner.

 

[PartiPoodles]

Agree with Nabiki’s suggestion also. I’ve culled any males that show continued aggression and continued aggressive pursuit of other quail and haven’t regretted it. My last 3 batches since have had zero aggressors. I know it’s still going to happen as DNA is a roll of the dice. However, we can do our diligence to keep the odds heavy in our favor.

For me what’s worked well so far is I ask myself if what I see in color patterns and ongoing behaviors is what I want to have little copies of in the next generations being hatched?

 

[CoCovey]

Again thank you. I am planning to do the same thing. I’ll get rid of the pharaoh and keep the tux and Italian

 

[PartiPoodles]

Again thank you. I am planning to do the same thing. I’ll get rid of the pharaoh and keep the tux and Italian

Pharaoh should always be the easiest to replace if you choose to later on and you can get some interesting combos from your existing flock lineup if you choose to do your own hatching.