Reintroducing injured quail to flock?

[Tegan]

Ok, so I had two roos in with 9 hens. They got WAY too rough with the girls, and since I decided I didn't really care about raising for meat I culled out the roos yesterday. I had separated out one hen a few days ago, and it looks like I may need to separate out another. The first one I did they tore her neck and shoulder open. I honestly thought I was going to have to cull her out but I gave her a few days and she looks MUCH better. The skin on her neck/shoulder is puckered kinda weird, and I doubt it will ever look normal, but I have no fear in loosing her any more. The other hen has some wounds on her head, but they look like they might be healing up...I'm keeping a close eye on her to make sure the other hens aren't pecking at her head. If they are I'll separate her out as well.

I'm planing on splitting the hens into a group of 4 and 5 to give them more space. My question becomes. When it's time to reintroduce the injured hen to the flock, can I just move 3 to 4 hens in with her or should I shuffle everyone around into a temp cage then split them up? I don't want anyone getting territorial, starting the fighting up again, and wounding each other again. It would be a major pain to have to temp cage them since I really only have the two nice sized pens right now (3x4 feet each). But if you guys think that's the absolute best move then that's what I'll do.

 

[dc3085]

When assimilating birds together or adding to a flock, it works best to add all of the birds together in a cage that is new to them all. This way there are no territorial fights because they don't feel like anyone is an intruder. It also helps to do this at night when the birds can't see well, that is when they are most insecure.