Some quick questions

[threeepeat]

Some quick questions

1. Is it normal for males to try to mount each other in their bachelor pen? I realize now that I should have ideally separated the feather-sexable (and obviously crowing) roos at 3 weeks. I left it late to around 5 weeks so they are very used to having hens around. (I've heard that if you separate the roos earlier, they do better together in their bachelor pen.)

2. Is it true that chicks no longer need a heat source after 3 weeks? Mine are indoors in a temperature-controlled detached building. My chicks are two weeks old now, but I'd like to get rid of the heat lamp light so I can regulate light for my older birds that are about to start laying (hopefully).

Thanks

 

[springvalley123]

I can't speak to 1, but for the chicks, they feather out at various rates. They need a heat source until they're fully feathered--including their head and neck. Especially in the winter. Once they're feathered completely, then you can continue to gradually reduce their heat. Dead of winter is tricky--even a fully feathered adult couldn't go from having heat to nothing overnight. You can find a stretch of several days with milder weather to facilitate weaning off the heat, but I highly doubt 3-week old chicks are ready for that. The baby chicks need gradually less heat, but still definitely need it.

 

[vall]

1. Yes. Only way around this is to keep 12ish hours of light or less.
2. Yes, move it higher every day then remove it when they're near ambient temp for that building. Quail feather out fast, typically I remove the heat completely around 1 week if the room is at 70F/21C.

 

[Nabiki]

Yes, it's normal for the males to mount each other. Their hormones are raging.

I usually have taken my chicks off of heat by three weeks as long as they're still sheltered and the temps aren't dropping below 65-70.

 

[springvalley123]

sorry! i didn't catch they were quail!!

 

[The Birb King]

I would assume it is normal for males to mount each other. Mine do sometimes even though they have females with them!

 

[Whiskybear]

1- yup. Much like our own species, young males seem happy to mount anything they can get to hold still.

2- as to heat, I’ve done a dozen or so hatches and learned that all you read about “reduce the heat by 5° a week…" is a bunch of horse hockey. They get feathered out enough at around a week to 10 days that household temps (circa 70°) are fine. Tricky part is introducing them to colder temps outside. At 3&1/2 wks, they're ok down to 50°F or so, maybe 40°. But temp shock is a thing. You can’t take a bird from a 70° house out to experience a 40° night. The couple broods I had to take out in winter I put in an open top brooder with the heat source at one end; reduced the heat with a dimmer control over 3-4 nights.

good luck!

edit: by "open top" I mean all screen.
2nd edit: Yes. Separate them at 3-4 weeks and the males seem to not go so weird. That’s only from a couple examples in my experience, but it seemed to help.