The start of a new flock

[Dravus]

small update to this thread....made a quick photo of my king quail and they have all mostly grown up....not got the head feathers yet so I don't know genders
but as is normal for quail....they are utterly terrified of me and anything around them that's "new"

today has been a marked improvement though...I had my hand down near them and they only ran off if I went to touch them

 

[DK newbie]

You don't really need head feathers to sex them. In some mutations - and I think you have a few of them - the head feathers are actually utterly useless. In most cases, vent feathers are much better - and they are usually the first sign of the sex, sometimes visible before the birds are 2 weeks old.
On the far right you have an almost certain red breasted hen and another one in the group to the left - roos of that color are much darker. I suspect the one in the middle that's white on the belly is also a hen of that color. You have several that could go either way. Number two from the right seems to be blueface, one of the colors that doesn't get a bib, so you'll have to look for red vent feathers or blue feathers on the sides of that one, to indicate it's male.
The white one is probably going to be a challenge..

With regards to taming, try hand feeding with small seeds. Don't overdo it as seeds are not particularly healthy, but it does get the birds much more trusting.

 

[JaeG]

It's very normal for Button quail to be very flighty. They are much less domesticated than their larger cousins, the Coturnix/Japanese, so much more wild. I've found that once moved out to the aviary they tend to feel more secure with more space to escape to if they feel scared. Most will come up and peck my shoes once they've settled in. I have a big group of young ones out there at the moment. Doesn't make them any easier to catch when I need to though!

 

[Dravus]

small update regarding my King quail

I have found the pure white quail crowing today and a number of them are developing bib feathers which should point them as male as well

 

[Fishkeeper]

You'll want to start sorting out the males. Button quail don't live in flocks, they need to be kept in pairs, one male to one female.

 

[Dravus]

You'll want to start sorting out the males. Button quail don't live in flocks, they need to be kept in pairs, one male to one female.

unfortunately I don't know if the rest of my quail are female or not yet....I only know that 6 of them are male so far