Hi My Peeps! 
Well I so appreciated all the help when I hatched my mix of jumbo coturnix quail over 4 weeks ago!! Thank you all!!! Any-coo... we ended up with 41 beautiful healthy quail with at least 14 of those birds being hens. (As some of the breeds are not feather sexable, I will likely wait another week or so to attempt vent sexing.) Back to my situation...I have a large cage with 4 levels that are 4'x2'. We have water and feed on both sides of each level. The entire top level was devoted to my original mix of standard quail-1 roo and 5 hens. I have since added a solid partition on that level and one other level a couple of days ago, modifying their living space to a 2'x2' area and they are adapting and have continued to lay just fine. My thought is to add more dividers to the rest of the cage to create a total of 8 2'x2' areas. The idea is to establish 8 breeding families, each area with 1 roo and 5 hens. It seems it would allow me to moniter who is laying well, which eggs are generally getting fertilized, those kind of things. HOWEVER, I am not sure on the timing of this, do I do it now before they are laying eggs and they are still getting along? Or do I wait until I know which birds to breed when they finally reach full size? Should I remove dividers and let 10 hens and 2 roos coexist? I am a little concerned that it might get loud, but I don't want to stress out my birds or my sweet husband! I did take 5 hens and 1 roo from the general population and tried to make a family group, but one hen pecked at the eyes of my roo and I had to separate them both and then the remaining 3 hens were too anxious to return to everyone else that I just went ahead and reintroduced them to the general levels, so that attempt did not go well. I do have 6 hens in 2 different rooms and they are getting along on my second shelf, but I do eventually want a roo with them. Hope this extra info helps and whatever thoughts you can share would be most appreciated!
Well I so appreciated all the help when I hatched my mix of jumbo coturnix quail over 4 weeks ago!! Thank you all!!! Any-coo... we ended up with 41 beautiful healthy quail with at least 14 of those birds being hens. (As some of the breeds are not feather sexable, I will likely wait another week or so to attempt vent sexing.) Back to my situation...I have a large cage with 4 levels that are 4'x2'. We have water and feed on both sides of each level. The entire top level was devoted to my original mix of standard quail-1 roo and 5 hens. I have since added a solid partition on that level and one other level a couple of days ago, modifying their living space to a 2'x2' area and they are adapting and have continued to lay just fine. My thought is to add more dividers to the rest of the cage to create a total of 8 2'x2' areas. The idea is to establish 8 breeding families, each area with 1 roo and 5 hens. It seems it would allow me to moniter who is laying well, which eggs are generally getting fertilized, those kind of things. HOWEVER, I am not sure on the timing of this, do I do it now before they are laying eggs and they are still getting along? Or do I wait until I know which birds to breed when they finally reach full size? Should I remove dividers and let 10 hens and 2 roos coexist? I am a little concerned that it might get loud, but I don't want to stress out my birds or my sweet husband! I did take 5 hens and 1 roo from the general population and tried to make a family group, but one hen pecked at the eyes of my roo and I had to separate them both and then the remaining 3 hens were too anxious to return to everyone else that I just went ahead and reintroduced them to the general levels, so that attempt did not go well. I do have 6 hens in 2 different rooms and they are getting along on my second shelf, but I do eventually want a roo with them. Hope this extra info helps and whatever thoughts you can share would be most appreciated!
JK! Thanks Poultry hoarder!
haha
