Quail Size differences at almost 2 weeks old

[yolkoroo]

I incubated and hatched 3 chicks...kind of a fail on my part because I had 14 eggs. I decided to pick up some chicks that were born on the same day as mine that were born, all Coturnix Quail Chicks. They are not supposed to be jumbo, but I am seeing a pretty dramatic size difference between mine and the adopted ones. One of mine actually died, and I think it was because it was not getting food. There are more than enough places to eat in the brooder and the size of the brooder is sufficient. I divided the brooder in half when another one of the smaller ones was looking like it was not doing well. The bigger ones started eating less and the smaller ones started eating more. I have 10 and 5 are brown and larger and 5 others all have some yellow coloring and are smaller, so it was worked wonderfully. Now I am wondering if I need to keep them separated or if I totally exaggerate the feeding stations if they might all live in harmony. Looking for some advice. Incidentally, the person I picked up the chicks from said I could switch the larger ones out for smaller ones if the lager ones turned out to be jumbo wilds...but it is a haul to do so and I might rather put them in separate living quarters than make the drive again. Also, the point was to bring them all in together so that they (with the right mix of male/female, which I am uncertain of yet) could all bond. I attached a pic, but not sure you can really see the difference well enough here.

Thoughts?

 

[mdees88]

They don't look too much difference in size to be a big problem and at two weeks their not small enough to get trampled. I would put them together and monitor their behavior. It either works or it doesn't....

 

[FloorCandy]

I can’t view this from my iPhone.

 

[mdees88]

 

[FloorCandy]

They don’t look that mismatched to me, I have chicks that hatched the same day within a couple hours from eggs I ordered online all from the same flock and I see some with a bigger size difference than those 2. It could be genetics, or perhaps the place you got them gives them Nutridrench or some other supplement, and they just took off faster. If few of yours hatched, and some failed to thrive, it could be that the eggs weren’t great. Or maybe some other outside influence like poor incubation temps. Good luck the flock, I’m sure they’ll even out a bit.