trouble sexing quail?

[TeePants]

Hey all!

So I’ve got one for-sure hen in the hospital pen, and the male I am fairly certain is responsible in a cage by himself awaiting final judgement. However, yesterday I pulled another bird as it was chasing around/harassing one of it’s fellows, and when I vent-checked it I saw foam!

Thing is, I’ve *never* seen this bird crow. NEVER. I put it in the cage with the male (thinking it, too, was male) and within the ten minutes it took for me to change the outside quail’s food/water he’d plucked it bald. I tried putting it in the hospital cage with the other injured female and they were fine yesterday, but this AM I checked on them first thing and it’d picked on her scabs (shoulda seen that coming, and frankly it wasn’t too bad, she’s fine) so now it’s in a pen by itself.

This entire time? Not one crow. But I checked it’s. vent again after it had been in the pen with the definite-female for 12+ hours and there’s still foam around it’s vent. Not a huge amount as compared to the males I’ve seen crow, but I am assuming that 12+ hours after it’s been bred surely the foam would be gone??

I suppose a secret male or two would explain why that one quail kept getting picked on, but this is frustrating, haha. I guess on the upside if it’s a male then I don’t feel so bad processing the other one, as two is at least enough to be a snack for one person.

 

[SpotTheCat]

How old? I find when they are just maturing there can be very little foam. does it have a lump above it’s vent under it’s tail?

 

[vall]

I've had some males (usually smaller ones) that never crowed till they got processed at 7-8 weeks. You should be able to see the bump on the vent by then.

I do like feather sexable colors. Fewer surprises.

 

[TeePants]

The bump is toward the tail, right? I don’t think I saw one, but I can re-check. The eggs I got locally so it was a color variety that unfortunately included non-feather sexable ones. We have for sure 4-5 laying in the pen so I’m more confident about the outside ones, although today they’ve been crowing a lot for some reason out there and there should only be one boy, so I’m getting suspicious.

 

[TeePants]

Ha, it turns out all the dark brown ones (you know, the ones I had to put aside and raise in a seperate pen because they were so small) are finally hitting puberty and are male, including Wrong End. That means there’s only 6 females, I think, which isn’t enough to keep Wrong End. Boooo. He’s too shrimpy to eat too.

 

[FloorCandy]

Ha, it turns out all the dark brown ones (you know, the ones I had to put aside and raise in a seperate pen because they were so small) are finally hitting puberty and are male, including Wrong End. That means there’s only 6 females, I think, which isn’t enough to keep Wrong End. Boooo. He’s too shrimpy to eat too.

Awwwww, but you’re hatching more right?

 

[TeePants]

Awwwww, but you’re hatching more right?

Probably not anytime soon. My allergies unexpectedly ramped up this year, and working outside sucks. I have to get tested for asthma meanwhile, the garden is an embarassing mess. Several spinach and kale plants were sacrificed to the quail because cabbage worms got them.

The tomatoes & strawberries however, are flourishing without me doing anything, which is why they’re some of my favorites to plant.

Weirdly Wrong End and the other surprise male seem to get alone fine, they’re in a pen together because frankly I ran out of pens and I can’t put anyone with the nasty one. They’ve been together all day and neither is worse for the wear. They WERE penmates for their whole lives now, even in isolation, so maybe that’s why.

I’m going to deal with the mean boy tomorrow and decide what to do about my quail oddcouple. I guess if they continue to get along they can maybe stay inside as Back-up Boys in case something happens to the lone male in our pen.

 

[TeePants]

We are in Day 1 of Quailpocalypse (100 degrees in the PNW) and I put out 4 frozen cans/jars/bottles of water and put a fan next to their enclosure.

We reintroduced the little half-bald female because she was crying after being left alone in the office (we ended up processing the two little males, not one day after I said they were fine they started crowing and kicking up an absolute fuss) and she's ok-ish, they definitely are giving her some attitude but I figured putting her out while they were too hot to fuss over it might be the path of least resistance.

I'm not sure if I should pull her out or if that's gonna make it worse at this point. It's going to take a while for her feathers to grow back.