How far should a bachelor pen be from females?

[Fishkeeper]

If I want to have a pen of mostly female quail, and also a bachelor pen, how separated do they need to be for the males to be happy? Will they hear the females through a solid barrier (i.e. plywood) and respond to that?
What has everyone's experience been with coturnix bachelor pens? Do the males tend to keep to a minimum of fighting?

 

[Little Jerry Seinfeld]

My males ,when i tried to have a bachelor pad, at 7 to 8 weeks of age started fiercely trying to kill each other. They cold hear the hens though, in the same room. I moved their bachelor pad into my freezer...

I think if you were to get it to work you would need them to be far enough away to not hear each other, im not sure how far that would be for coturnix but i know the wild quail arund here call each other from very far away.
At least not being able to see each other is a good start tho.
And
Hopefully someone will have better advice if they have gotten it to work, and will chime in.

 

[CoturnixComplex]

I have never made it work long term either. They are not like chickens who will calm down without females. They just fight fiercely to mate each other.

 

[CoturnixComplex]

(Fishkeeper I know you find this distasteful but this is why most quail keepers end up processing at least the extra boys)

Huge huge huge huge aviary with lots and lots and lots of plants, and only brothers raised together, and you *might* make it work.

 

[Fishkeeper]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I fully understand why people generally kill the extra males. I'm not against it if it's done humanely. There's not much else you can do with them, after all.
I just don't think I could do it myself with something I raised from a little fluffball. I have a hard enough time dispatching lizards after a cat gets ahold of them, and they don't flutter around when you hold them. I'm not so sure I could give them to someone else to kill, either. It's too bad there's no such thing as parthenogenic quail, because then they'd all be females.

 

[CoturnixComplex]

Yes, it's kind of a lose-lose situation.

Good luck figuring out something for them

 

[DK newbie]

I had a bachelor pen that was 2x4' in a completely different building from the females - pretty sure they couldn't hear them. Didn't work. Even when there were only two males left (we butchered two at a time and always from the most aggressive end) they were still chasing each other around all the time.
I have another bachelor pen in the same building as the females. Around 3x6', holding 5 males. That works a fair bit better. It's not ideal, there is still some fighting, but it's much less than it was in the smaller pen. Based on this, I'd say enclosure size is more important than ability to hear the females.

 

[bantamsrmyfav]

this is only for coturnix. right? Button quail bachelor pads aren't as bad are they?

 

[CoturnixComplex]

Buttons fight even worse from my understanding. Don't know about the viability of bachelor pads for them but most people keep them in single pairs, so having a bunch of small pair cages is pretty crucial if you're hatching and planning on keeping them all.

 

[Fishkeeper]

Oh, no, buttons are worse. I know that much. Anything other than a m/f or f/f pair, maybe a m/f/f or f/f/f trio if you get super lucky, is asking for major trouble. Trouble is, they aren't a flock bird, they're a bird that naturally pairs off and chases away any birds from outside their pair.