Questions about introducing two new birds to my Mountain Quail

[val3442]

I have 5 mountain quail in an outdoor enclosure and in the next few days I'll be getting two new mountain quail to add in with them. My 5 mountains are a year and a half old (hatched May 2010) and the two new ones are 6 months (hatched May 2011). Of my 5 birds, three are male and two are female and the two new birds I'll be adding are both female so there will be a ratio of 3 males to 4 females all told. I only started raising mountains for the first time last year so i'm still a bit of a newbie -- what's the best way to introduce the 2 new quail to the others? should i be worried about them fighting or killing each other? I know mountains are particularly wild and territorial quail so I don't know quite what to expect. I've waited til November to get the new ones so that I can introduce them during their "off season" but I don't know if the age difference will cause problems or if they'll see the new birds as intruders on their established territory or something and attack or kill them as a result.
Could I get some help?

My plan right now is to first keep the two new quail inside an adjacent pen where theyre separated by clear plexiglass and can see and hear each other and hopefully get used to each other and then after 3 or 4 days of keeping them like that I'd put them in together. Might also put down some greens or treats when joining them to distract them a little. Dunno how well this plan will work though so any tips or advice would be great! Finding these birds to begin with was quite a process so I'd hate to lose them by introducing them the wrong way.

 

[bfrancis]

I can't answer your question..never had any experience with Mountains...but you've come to the right place to get all your quail questions answered!

and

!

 

[mhwc56]

I don't know about Mt.Quail BUT standard procedure is to QUARENTINE new birds for 4-6 weeks.

 

[val3442]

Quote:
unfortunately i only have one place to put the new birds (other than in with the other quail) and it's built directly next to the existing pen. i'll be getting these two new quail locally from a reputable seller who was adamant about only selling them to me if they'd be going to a good home with the proper housing and care, so from everything i know it seems that they'll be coming from a very healthy environment.

i know quail are particularly susceptible to disease, but if it makes any difference none of my three different flocks (all housed separately) have ever become infected or shown signs of illness so i would think if there was something potentially infectious around here that one or more of my flocks would have succumbed to it when they were introduced, but i've never had any problems.

 

[val3442]

an update: i got the two new birds last weekend and they've been in an adjacent pen for 6 days now. there's a section of the pen that's plexiglass that the new and old quail can see each other through and the two new birds haven't stopped pacing in front of that plexiglass even once in the past 6 days...it's a fairly big pen but they've spent all their time constantly pacing in front of that window and have worn a very clear path in front of it. meanwhile i've seen my 5 older birds go up on the other side of the glass and try to peck the 2 new birds through it; not in a curious way, but they'll charge and aggressively peck at where the new birds are on the other side. they were doing this a lot more in the first 2 or 3 days then they are now, but they're still occasionally doing it as of today. i'm a bit hesitant to put them in with each other yet since the older birds clearly want to harm them, but it's pretty clear the 2 new birds want to be in there with them and i'm sure the constant pacing isn't good for them either.

would it help to switch pens? put the older birds where the new ones are now and put the 2 new birds inside the older birds' pen? then after a week or so like that, letting the older birds back into their normal pen again with the 2 new ones? i was thinking maybe that way the older quail won't be so aggressive and territorial over their area if they weren't in there for a while and also if the 2 new ones would be in there already.

the other thing i was thinking of was to temporarily put one or two of the older birds in the second pen with the 2 new ones; i don't want to put all 5 in the second pen since it's really too small to house all 7 birds, esp when they seem likely to be aggressive.

any advice? i could use all the help i could get. thanks again!

 

[featherworks]

I introduced 4 new breeder hens to my flock of 8 bobs and 1 red. They all started fighting with the new birds. The breeders were 2 years old and my original covey was only 17 weeks with the excepyion of the red. I don't know how old she is. I was able to catch them and put them in a different pen for a couple of weeks. I got tired of having to deal with two sets of birds, so I put the 4 hens in a small wire dog kennel with food and water. I put the kennel in the big pen with the original 9 and put a scrap of plywood on top to keep the food dry. They all came over to investigate. I kept things like this for 3 days. When I opened the door to the kennel, some of the original bobs went in to see the newbies. They all get along great now. I hope this helps.

Phil

 

[fowlsessed]

I have introduced button quail to each other and had agression problems. What I did was remove the origional birds and put the new ones in the pen and let them get used to it and then put the origional birds back in. maybe I just got lucky but it worked. And i'm not sure how aggresive mountain quail are compared to buttons.