Temperature for raising quails

[Tiras25]

My parents decided to try quail. Seven hached. Moved to the outside coop after month old.
Now only three left. For some reason they are dying.
Not laying eggls either.

Is it too cold for them in SF ocean beach area. Temps are 50-60F and mostly foggy. However I know quails live in Canada and Siberia in sub-zero temps. Maybe depends on the breed?

Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

 

[DK newbie]

Well.. Button quail can handle freezing temps as long as they are dry and shielded from drafts - and it looks like yours are. However, you shouldn't keep several males together, if there are females around. Looks like the remaining 3 are all males, which might work out - but if there were females around, the males would fight, and this could be to the death. If you didn't see any wounds on the dead birds, their death might have been caused by boinking into the top of their cage (depending on how high that is and what it's made of) while trying to escape either an attacker or a male wanting to breed. They could boink even without being provoked by a cage mate though, so if there is any chance at all that some of the other birds died from boinking, I'd review the cage design to prevent it in the future.

 

[Tiras25]

Thank you! So you think the three that left are all males? Hmm. I know one of them making a sound. The others are not.

No we didn't see any wounds on the dead. Nothing that would show any injuries.

In addition they do not lay eggs.

Thanks again.

 

[Tony K T]

You need to brood them at 95 degrees for the 1st week and drop 5 degrees each week for at least 6 weeks and then they should be fine.I think the drastic temp change may have had something to do with their deaths.I know they are full grown and laying eggs at 6 weeks,but I'm pretty sure you need to climatize them.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[Tiras25]

Thanks bunch Tony. Sounds reasonable.

While we used to have chickens acclimate easily. Quails seems more fragile and need a gradual temperature drops.

Thanks again!!

 

[DK newbie]

Thank you! So you think the three that left are all males? Hmm. I know one of them making a sound. The others are not.

No we didn't see any wounds on the dead. Nothing that would show any injuries.

In addition they do not lay eggs.

Thanks again.

I'm not entirely certain about the dark one in the middle, as the picture can't be enlarged - but the other two clearly have the rust colored vent feathers that only males do, and I think the one in the middle does too.
If the deaths occurred within 2-3 weeks of moving them outside, the temperature change is more likely to be the cause, as Tony suggested. But any later than that and they would have been mature and fighting or over breeding are the likely causes.

 

[Tiras25]

Got it! Now it makes more sense why no eggs

Does that mean these ones were females? We thought more colorful are usually males.

 

[DK newbie]

Those two are males as well. The rust colored feathers on their bellies are not present in females.

 

[Tiras25]

I see. Thank you!!