Quail variant and sex identification help?

[Sara L]

Yea, sight definitely matters. The sole male and one of the paired ones will fight verbally i.e. loudly call at each other if they can see each other even if they're in different cages.

If they fight to establish a pecking order, does that mean they'll calm down once said order is established?

I've now moved two of my males into my lower cage with the female that was previously there out of sight in my transport cage. My higher cage is right next to the lower one, but because it is higher up and has a rather tall bottom there's no visibility from the lower cage.

Since I've put them together, the two males have scuffled occasionally, but seem to have calmed down considerably already. I'll continue watching them so I can intervene if necessary. There's a little wooden house in that cage that they can escape into/onto if they need to get out of each other's way, too.

Giving both the females to one male isn't optimal, but having to leave one male all by himself wouldn't be great either. Here's hoping this works out.

Once the pecking order is established, they should be ok as long as nothing upsets the pecking order. Unfortunately there's quite few things that could be enough of a change to potentially upset the pecking order. Lack of food or water, introduction or removal of one of the flock, change in amount of light, hormonal changes, etc. Basically they are fine until they aren't. Quail fights can be vicious and bloody. Keep an eye on them and hopefully they will be fine.

Do you mind me asking why you want to keep the extra males rather than rehoming or eating them?

 

[Anorakei]

Do you mind me asking why you want to keep the extra males rather than rehoming or eating them?

I hatched them to be pets that also give me free breakfast every so often. Surprisingly 5 out of 7 eggs (number 8 was damaged in transport) hatched despite it being my first try hatching anything ever. Unfortunately I ended up with 3 males and 2 females rather than the other way around, so now I'm trying to make the best of it.

They all have unique patterns and I'm fairly attached to them, especially since I don't plan on hatching more. I guess eating them exists as a last resort, at which point I'd be far enough into poultry territory to try hatching more females (and butchering any unwanted males) until I get something like 1/3 or 1/4 males to females in each cage.

 

[Anorakei]

Having the two males together didn't work out. They fought frequently even without any females in sight. Back to lone male.

Even after putting him somewhere where he can't see any of the others, the lone male still calls frequently and generally seems unhappy. Maybe once I can move him to a bigger cage that'll improve.

Assuming he's just lonely, getting him a female could work. Do quail farms (like the one I got my eggs from) usually also sell hens?

 

[Sara L]

Having the two males together didn't work out. They fought frequently even without any females in sight. Back to lone male.

Even after putting him somewhere where he can't see any of the others, the lone male still calls frequently and generally seems unhappy. Maybe once I can move him to a bigger cage that'll improve.

Assuming he's just lonely, getting him a female could work. Do quail farms (like the one I got my eggs from) usually also sell hens?

Depends on the farm, you could ask. Or try Craigslist, check out the buy/sell/trade area on BYC, or see if there's a local poultry group on Facebook. Where are you located?

 

[Anorakei]

I live in Switzerland, which makes stuff like this much more difficult because most people on places like BYC are in America. Craigslist is also an American thing.

 

[Misfits Farm 92]

Keep an eye on the health of the females, usually they don't do well in pairs because the males are too rambunctious and demanding. The males can over mate the females and rip out their feathers. Some do ok though, it really depends on the birds.

I actually had a pair that started out as a quad, three hens and a rooster. Found first one and then a second hen injured severely and had to remove to hospital cage. Tried to reintroduce other hens later and figured out it was the hen causing all the problems, she didn't want to share her rooster with anyone. They did fine for months until I had to call them from my breeding program.

I had that exact same thing happen overnight I had a cage of ten quail that was my second ever batch of quail. I have now learned what age to expect to find this so I can have everything ready. I went out side one morning to find 3 severely injured. The 3 healed up just fine I figured out the mean one and separated it. The injured ones have gotten better but it happened again. They pecked up the side of my favorite ones face. I may start butchering the quail that do that.

 

[Urbanduckfarmer]

You can identify the gender as well when the males start to crow, which is a good indication of maturity for the birds. You can gently turn them over, push the tail vent area a bit, and if a white foam substance is produced, you've got a male. If not, female.