They aren’t babies anymore...

[Ruskin_Roost]

I have a small batchlor pad (3 male's in 6 square feet of space) that get along decently. A few pulled feathers, but no fights and no 'mating' anymore from them.

My “main rooster” Blondie, a silver, is the one who crows the and is non aggressive. A jumbo “The Dude” is becoming more vocal and has displayed aggression with chasing, grunting, and pecking, and just today- a firm bite on a “Wild coturnix”. I think I will remove him, but am unsure if I should single him out or keep another one with him for “company”... Should I let him have a female for “his” mate? I wanted to keep my females together since I don’t have many, it looks like I have 3 or 4. I will know better when I make my second attempt at vent sexing this week
Thank you for letting me know what you do! It is helpful.

 

[Ruskin_Roost]

To remove aggressive roos may not solve the problem, as I experienced.

I had a very calm and silent roo within another loud and aggressive one in a flock with 5 hens.
As soon I removed the aggressive one and the Position as alpha was vacant, the calm one changed to a monster.

Another flock (2.6 roos to hens) the beta roo always moved away from the flock and crowed 24/7 ... as soon I placed him to a flock for himself (1.3) he stepped crowing, satisfied with his new position as alpha.

So you never know. Changing a flock is unpredictable.

This is so helpful. Thank you! I am considering keeping them all together in their current flock of 8 in the outside hutch which is two levels. I think they do not have enough space at the moment, so they are maturing, maybe having more space will make them less territorial. On the whole, they are peaceful and get along. They always still sleep together and do “frog jumps” over weather when they are excited

 

[Ruskin_Roost]

I don't know much about quails, but I do know that some males get along just fine together, (there is usually some occasional small battles for station, than once that is settled all is generally well). For instance, my mother's straight run bantam chickens turned out to be 4 males and 2 females. They got along just fine. A couple fights for who would be dominant occurred at first, but when I got back around to visiting my mother, (only a couple weeks later), they were getting along just fine. It seemed the two top roos had made a leadership pact, (one was techincally leader, the other helped him maintain control and was allowed to attempt mating with hens and would naturally be leader if he died). The leader did end up dying, and as I thought the one had had made the pact with became leader, and he seems to have made a similair deal with another one of the roos. Her last is the smallest, (half the size of the others), and generally submissive. He doesn't crow much, and we've never seen him fight. So that's how it worked out for her.

She did end up getting 6 more hens to prevent the two hens from getting over-mated, though they seemed to have a decent amount of respect for the hens they grew up with and didn't try to mate with them much and romanced them, where-as the new hens they chased around and constantly tried to mate with at first, but they're all integrated now. We've had a long roo who was aggressive as could be, it's all about their personality, and if they've been with eachother since being chicks they fight alot less and get along a lot more. Introducing two strange roos is the thing likely to cause fireworks!

Hmm I am very hopeful this is just growing pains and I can keep them together. Ideally I would have one or two males and the rest females but obviously, this can’t be controlled when hatching and not buying nature birds! Thank you for your advice and for letting me know once a “pecking order” is established things may calm down.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

If he's aggressive, don't give him just one hen. He will hurt her, probably badly after a short while.

I have multiples that do just fine in their own quarters as long as they can see or at least hear other birds. I use cat carriers for ones that like by themselves

My “main rooster” Blondie, a silver, is the one who crows the and is non aggressive. A jumbo “The Dude” is becoming more vocal and has displayed aggression with chasing, grunting, and pecking, and just today- a firm bite on a “Wild coturnix”. I think I will remove him, but am unsure if I should single him out or keep another one with him for “company”... Should I let him have a female for “his” mate? I wanted to keep my females together since I don’t have many, it looks like I have 3 or 4. I will know better when I make my second attempt at vent sexing this week
Thank you for letting me know what you do! It is helpful.

 

[Ruskin_Roost]

If he's aggressive, don't give him just one hen. He will hurt her, probably badly after a short while.

I have multiples that do just fine in their own quarters as long as they can see or at least hear other birds. I use cat carriers for ones that like by themselves

Thank you. Good to know, and I have two cat carriers so I can do this. I am terrified of leaving for work and coming back to a hurt or dead bird.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

My “main rooster” Blondie, a silver, is the one who crows the and is non aggressive. A jumbo “The Dude” is becoming more vocal and has displayed aggression with chasing, grunting, and pecking, and just today- a firm bite on a “Wild coturnix”. I think I will remove him, but am unsure if I should single him out or keep another one with him for “company”... Should I let him have a female for “his” mate? I wanted to keep my females together since I don’t have many, it looks like I have 3 or 4. I will know better when I make my second attempt at vent sexing this week
Thank you for letting me know what you do! It is helpful.

Also be aware that some females will have a super small amount of foam naturally and may show foam if they've been bred with.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Just put a food and water dish and some shavings in the carrier and he'll be set.

 

[Quailobsessed]

Do you think it is a bad idea to seperate them and then reintroduce them?
thank you!

I probably wouldn't separate them and then reintroduce them. They would probably fight if they were reintroduced after not being together for a while.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Don't add another male to the group if there's already a male and hens. Those are his territory now and he won't want to share

 

[birdlover2]

Thank you. Good to know, and I have two cat carriers so I can do this. I am terrified of leaving for work and coming back to a hurt or dead bird.

You may just want to let them be together if nobody's drawing blood. Usually one wins before one dies, and @Quailobsessed has a point. If you want to integrate them you may have to let them fight to establish a pecking order, but if they start SERIOUSLY injuring eachother you should seperate them at least for a while if not for good.