When do quails molt?

[MomFoldingLaundry]

As my favorite girl‘s feathers are a bit ruffled, I’m trying to tell if it’s overbreeding or something else. Do quail molt? And if so, what time of year?

(She’s around 6 months old, FWIW.)

 

[shrimpsilkies]

Do you have a picture of her? If she’s truly molting, there should be feathers everywhere, like a bird exploded!

Quail molt in the fall, or whenever there are less than ~12 hours of light in the day. I have a few that refused to molt and kept laying, and it may also depend on when in the year they were hatched.

 

[MomFoldingLaundry]

It’s just that the feathers on her back are sticking up in weird directions. I guess that’s more overbreeding than what she would look like if she molted.

I guess she is a favorite with the boys. I took out my aggressive boy and thought she would look better right away, but maybe it’ll take a little while for her feathers to lay right again?

 

[RoosterML]

I think mine will molt in the plucker

 

[shrimpsilkies]

It’s just that the feathers on her back are sticking up in weird directions. I guess that’s more overbreeding than what she would look like if she molted.

I guess she is a favorite with the boys. I took out my aggressive boy and thought she would look better right away, but maybe it’ll take a little while for her feathers to lay right again?

Yeah, doesn’t look like molting to me. If the feathers are broken at all she might shed them and grow new ones without molting. Good that you removed the male.

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

Not sure if normal, but my hens got a bit bi***y before molt. Especially this one that just started. Some of her big feathers are now falling out. I reduced their sun hours and it took about a week before they stopped eggs and started molting.

 

[MomFoldingLaundry]

Update on the aggressive male:

I decided to give him one last chance in the big coop. (I tried to give him girls of his own, but he attacked the first one I put in with him.)

Anyway, as soon as he got in the coop, he made an a$$ of himself, chasing everyone around, making my favorite bird hyperventilate.

So I tried something, and took out a different male. In this case, “Tiny,” my oldest.

As soon as Tiny was gone, Mr. Aggressive settled right down. With a 4:1 female to male ratio, he was totally chill.

Tiny, however, wouldnt shut up, so I gave him 2 of my oldest girls, including the one who was getting bullied. So he has 2 of his original 3 girls. And he seems perfectly happy.

Mr. AggressI’ve doesnt seem to know the difference between 3:1 and 4:1 and is fine. At least for now. I really like his coloring, and he’s very big and sturdy, which I want for breeding. So if he gets ornery again, I think I’ll put down the other wild type male I have in his coop. But I don’t think that’ll be necessary. The other wild type male is pretty beta. He lived with Tiny and 4 girls for a month and I didnt even realize he was male.

All’s well that ends well. I know I’m gonna have to put down some males eventually, but today: they live.