Woke up to a scalped quail!?

[Jrose]

These guys were doing it from the day I brought them home. Darn! Maybe I'll get more hatching eggs and try again.

 

[Dustystrail]

Sorry
The good thing is the couple girls should lay like crazy so you should have your own eggs to hatch. I would cull or at least separate the extra boys right away.

 

[Lozuufy]

#3 and #5 are for sure boys, the rest are tibetan/range or rosetta so they cannot be sexed by feather color. There is a great thread called coturnix quail basics- information and pictures galore that has lots more info.

 

[Jrose]

Sorry

The good thing is the couple girls should lay like crazy so you should have your own eggs to hatch. I would cull or at least separate the extra boys right away.

Yeah, I'm trying not to get too bummed out. Reminding myself that I can always raise more once they lay. Which should be soon, right, as they're in their 8th week?

#3 and #5 are for sure boys, the rest are tibetan/range or rosetta so they cannot be sexed by feather color. There is a great thread called coturnix quail basics- information and pictures galore that has lots more info.

I will look at that thread, thanks! I spent some time in the pen this morning studying them. I agree on the two copper breasted. One of the brown ones does crow. He's the smallest of the bunch. The other two (#1 and #2 in the photos) are the docile ones that like to follow me around.
I can separate two of the boys into a hutch straight away- but I have some questions about that.
First, will the two separated boys fight if not around hens? I'd like to grow em a bit longer before culling. Should I keep the hutch near or in the quail pen?
Also, which do I pick? I don't know how clean the genetics are, so I'm tempted to keep a copper breasted boy in with the brown girls, just to make sure there's no in-breeding. I don't care about keeping a 'pure breed' of feeder birds One of the copper boys is quite large compared to the others. Would it be wise to keep him for size genetics?

 

[Jrose]

I put the hutch in the pen for starters. My instincts were to leave the largest male (a copper breasted one) and remove the two smaller males. Immediately the two brown quail in the pen and the one brown in the hutch flipped their lids. The two copper breasted quail didn't seem to give a hoot, but the brown ones panicked. So I left the three brown ones in the pen together and took out the two copper breasted ones. Those copper boys are always hanging out by themselves anyhow. Not sure if the brown ones are all female. The one I suspect is male gives that abrasive escalating call, and the other two respond in a different softer tone.

 

[mobe_45]

Rats can cause scalping also. But not enough hens per rooster will do it too.

 

[Jrose]

Rats can cause scalping also. But not enough hens per rooster will do it too.

Well luckily it's not a rat problem! I'm sure it was an issue of way too many roos. There's been no further issue since I removed the two copper breasted boys. Only problem is that I don't know if the three I left in the pen are all girls or if there's a roo in there! Also realizing how difficult it's going ot be to find eggs in that tall grass... hm...

 

[Sill]

Well luckily it's not a rat problem! I'm sure it was an issue of way too many roos. There's been no further issue since I removed the two copper breasted boys. Only problem is that I don't know if the three I left in the pen are all girls or if there's a roo in there! Also realizing how difficult it's going ot be to find eggs in that tall grass... hm...

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