Transporting male Coturnix Quail Together?

[Hrairoo]

Hello! I'm piking up my first quail today, and there are 10 males, 2 females. (they were free, alright?). I Need to rive to the other side of town to get them, and I have 3 cages for quail. Do the males need to be kept separately? For transportation it may be really difficult not to, unless they will fit into a one of those cases of beer that have separators, lol... I plan on culling all but 2 or 3 of the males, as I have 3 cages. 1 cage for the females and 1 male. 2 other cages for the extra males to be housed separately? (I will likely cull one of them too, I plan to hatch out a few...)

SO: Do the males need to be kept separate during a car ride across town and for a few days until they are butchered? The females will be transported in a different box than the males.

 

[Hrairoo]

Anyone??

 

[Tony K T]

They should be fine.They are together now right?
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[DK newbie]

If they are in a dark box, you can most likely transport just about anything together. I certainly wouldn't worry about it. And you could probably keep all males, as long as they are far away from the females. I don't have coturnix, but according to several posts on this forum, they usually don't fight if there are no females near them. Also, one male might over breed 2 females, so you might want to get more females if you want to keep a male with them..

 

[preciouseureka]

I'm relatively new to quail myself, but my experience is that the males aren't fighting if there is nothing to fight over. I also had to travel with the two groups I bought and I quickly discovered that they do not like the car! Mine were so stressed out that they didn't care about who they were in the box with one little bit.

Good Luck!

 

[Hrairoo]

Thank you! The quail I got are 2 years old, many are suffering from health issues.... Most have monstrously long claws and beaks, or theyre missing claws. One's feet are very sad looking, and he doesn't like to walk around much, he's in a cat carrier where he can chill out by himself. One has a blind eye, one of the females has a giant mass around the base of one of her wings, and so the wing is immobile. It also looks like she broke her leg a while ago and it healed poorly. One of the males has eyelids that have grown over his eyes.

I will be butchering all but 1, 2, or 3 males, and 1 or 2 of the females. I am going to see if the lil girl that has a mass around her wing will lay an egg, if she hasn't in a week I will put her down...

 

[DK newbie]

Don't expect quail to lay when you've just moved them. It usually takes around 3 weeks for them to get used to new surroundings and start laying again. That said, if it causes her pain and doesn't seem treatable, putting her down is probably best. But then I wouldn't put the last girl alone with a roo - that will almost certainly cause him to over breed her. Unless you pick the one that can't see her Sounds like some really messed up birds. Glad they got a new home - even if all you do is put them out of their misery.

 

[Hrairoo]

Yea alright! I didn't know it took so long for quail to get back to laying after a move! I know with my chickens it's always been about a week, even with the pecking order being all wonky with a new bird!

One of the males was breeding with them a lot.... So i switched him out for a male that wasn't overly interested. The girl with the mass and old broken leg and permanently closed eye doesn't seem to be in pain, though she does mainly lie down. She really enjoys being on wood shavings instead of wire, that's for sure! The ones that I can keep on shavings are having "dust" baths and burying themselves under the shavings.

Yup, pretty sad to even see these guys to be honest! My heart breaks a little.... One of them can barely walk or stand cause his feet and toes are so mangled... I plan on getting a mini coop for some quail in the future, I don't think these guys would fare well outside for their last few days.