Separating males from females

[Chickety Charcoal]

I have 8 quail and decided to separate the males and females. The males were getting very aggressive and I noticed almost all of the quail having missing feathers on the backs of their necks and one male looks to have a damaged eye (or at least it is closed so I can't tell how bad it is).

I have identified 3 males but I think there is one more. I believe I have 4 females since I have been getting an average of 4 eggs per day. I put the three males into a separate cage that's at least 4-5 sq feet. Is this enough room for them? Do I still need to worry about fighting between them? I have tried to block their view of the females with a piece of wood but the cages are a few feet away so I suppose they can still hear them. Not sure what else to do until I get more cages built to split them up into trios.

 

[dc3085]

Don't put them in trios because they will still end being bred too much. You should give coturnix roosters at least 3 hens but personally I recommend no less than 4 per rooster.

The males may still fight some do some don't you'll just have to see. Most times all males in a cage if they can't see the females will be fine. They are likely going get more noisy and probably start crowing at all hours of the night so beware that...

 

[Chickety Charcoal]

I have noticed more crowing in the separated males, especially from one particular male- the seemingly most dominant one. He was crowing even during twilight which didn't happened before. Interesting. I guess they miss their ladies?

 

[dc3085]

Exactly. I'm serious though put them where can't hear them while you sleep because they will crow at any hour of the night and they usually start in, in the early morning when you would be getting the best sleep.

 

[HowieNZ]

You can of course put the Crower back in with his girls.

 

[Sill]

And the extra males can go to freezer camp. I got a few almost old enough.

 

[Chickety Charcoal]

Yes I will eventually get them all separated into separate cages for breeding and cull the rest. I want to wait till after my next foray into incubation. When those grow enough I will have my groups to go through winter and my freezer donations.