When to remove heat lamp and when to put birds with existing flock in winter

[rek9]

Hello all,
Recently I was given 11 jumbo coturnix and one grey tuxedo coturnix and they are now a little over 3 weeks old, look very feathered and eating like crazy. My questions are as follows. Right at 3 weeks the birds seemed like they were avoiding the heat so I have moved the heat lamp farther away. I am planning on moving them to my heated garage at some point to help acclimate them to the winter weather (Central Indiana). The garage is around 40-45 degrees at best. When do you think I should move them to the garage and eventually outside? Also I have 12 four month old jumbo coturnix in my outdoor pen currently with plenty of room but worry about the bigger birds bullying the youngsters. Current weather is anywhere from 32-42 as a high and around 28-30 degrees at night.
Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[rek9]

Thank you Nabiki,

I had initially thought about trying the first option of removing all birds and rearranging some thing and then putting new birds in first . Think I will try that and hope for the best

 

[Nabiki]

You can probably put them in the garage at around 4-5 weeks, and outside at 6-7 weeks.

 

[rek9]

Awesome thanks. Any advice on adding the new quail to the existing flock?

 

[rek9]

Also do you think I should still have the heat lamp on them in the garage ? I plan on taking the heat away in a day or two since they are indoors in my basement

 

[Nabiki]

It sounds like they don't need the heat indoors. If you watch them, they'll tell you if they need heat. If they're all huddled in a corner together, they need heat.

Here are a couple of ways to introduce new birds that have worked for me:

Remove all of the birds from the pen that you want them all to live in, completely rearrange it, then put them all in, new birds first.

Keep the new birds in a pen or enclosure next to the older birds so they can see each other but not touch. After a week or so, you can usually introduce them.

Either way, keep a close eye on them for a week or so because they all have different personalities, and some are more aggressive than others.