Quail rooster incubating quail chicks.

[IrishNceladon]

Is it normal for a quail rooster ( a tibetan named Juancho) to let a dozen chicks be underneath him. For one of my first quail roosters (a pharoh rooster named stripe) let the chicks underneath of him as well and my hens don't do a good job with incubating chicks. None of hens ever go broody. I incubate the eggs with an incubator. What different about this is he is screeching at the two other quail a hen and rooster when he incubating the chicks I've only heard this type of screeching with hens chasing roosters around wanting to be mated with. I've never heard that type of sound out of a rooster, it's not screaming sound more like aggression and guarding. What I'm asking is, is this normal quail behavior. And these roosters aren't related they came from two different sellers in two different states (hatched from shipping eggs). And Juancho is from my second hatch, he was one of the last chicks to hatched when they did.

 

[Nabiki]

It sounds like he's helping to brood the chicks, not incubate them (I thought you were talking about eggs at first). I have heard stories of males helping brood and protect the chicks, but any kind of parental instinct is rather rare with coturnix, so it's hard to say.