YAY! My babies are showing their gender, I think.

[peewee]

What I would do is wait until your younger pair is as least 6-8 weeks old. Give them time to grow up and put some weight on. Then I would introduce the pair and the females that you want for your breeding set into a neutral pen that neither have been in. Watch them closely to make sure the older hens will not beat up on the younger pair. I have found that they are usually pretty calm and excepting but I have seen an older hen beat up on younger birds.
Your rabbit hutch sounds good to me - 6 sq. feet for 4 birds is perfect. If you are keeping your birds outside in this please consider putting a wire "skirt" around the bottom of your pen. There have been many post on here about raccoons and other predators pulling the feet threw the bottom of cages that have quarter inch hardware mess for the floor.
Good luck with your little quailies!!!

 

[Emilys3guppies]

Quote:
Thank you for your reply. I will wait until they are 7 or 8 weeks then before I introduce them. They will be in the garage for the winter, where predators can't get them, but I will definately figure out some predator-proofing for the spring when they get moved into the backyard.

 

[deerman]

Quote:
Yes I had to put wire around the bottem for that reason. I did use 2x4 weld wire around the hutch leggs.

Lost a nice batch of quail, by coons taken off their leg and thigh

 

[ken429h]

Quote:
Well, this gets very complicated. If you want want 4 girls on their own producing...logically 4 eggs a day(for eating) , then keep them separate from any breeding stock. If you want breeding stock, then a 1 roo to 3 hen ratio is advised. Your numbers don't add up for me, but I think you could pull it off.

I'm just not sure what you want at the moment, so it's hard to advise.


Ken

What do you mean the numbers don't add up? Maybe I'm not understanding.

I have 6 grown hens that are 11 weeks old.
I have 2 three week old chicks...a male and a female.
That's a total of 7 female and 1 male.

My goal is to have sterile eating eggs (DH is skeeved by fertile) AND to have fertile hatching eggs. I don't need many, just enough for fun.

I understand that 1 hen with 1 roo will result in a very tired and abused hen. How and when do I introduce that young hen and roo to a few of the older hens? At what age are they old enough? FWIW, the 4 of them will be living in a wire floored rabbit hutch, 6 sq/ft, that's sitting empty waiting for them (better so none get territorial if I intro the olds to the news, right?).

Thanks!

Well, first off, I was confused with the numbers, but have a better grasp on the numbers

Secondly, you can eat sterile or fertilized fertilized eggs. I eat both, and you can tell DH, that is "skeeved" about eating fertile eggs, that I said he should grow a set, because if he has eaten grocery store eggs, then he has probably eaten a fertilized egg or hundred in his life. This is just a freaky response for me. People turn down FREE DELICIOUS quail eggs from me all the time, usually because they are "Cute", "Not the usual White color they expect", "they only think white chicken eggs are delicious, and anything else POISION". ALL WRONG!

Well, you really only have a one roo genetic line, and a long term breeding stock is not in your future.

This is just a strange dynamic for me.

Ken

 

[Emilys3guppies]

LOL, Ken, you're preachin' to the choir!

*I* know and *you* know but hubby is living in the dark ages. We've been getting sterile farm-fresh eggs for years cause he, apparently, thought this through before we met. I can't complain too much though cause he helped build my cages, wire my incubator and is caring for the chicks while I'm away this week, dispite not enjoying birds at all.

I have more eggs coming mid-october from another breeder to hatch. I hope to have more than just the two cages of quail eventually.

My question was at what age can I start to integrate the young birds with the older birds. I'm going to do so when the young ones are 7-8 weeks. And I've decided on putting him with 3 hens instead of 4.

Thanks for everyone's advice,
Emily