Combining ages?

[Susan Skylark]

I have a pen of 5 week old birds and a brooder of 1 week old birds, in 3 weeks we are going on a trip and I’d like to leave 2 pens of birds to simplify things for my bird sitter (this sounds like a math problem!).

So the two age groups will be 4 and 8 weeks old. I have at least 4 males in the older group (5 birds in total) but we’ll dispose of all but 2 (one older rooster per pen) before we go. Is it realistic to think this might work? The younger birds should be big enough not to get squashed but not yet sexually mature to minimize fighting? It would be 1 8 week old rooster (and maybe a hen) along with 9 4 week old birds per pen. We’ll be back in a week and then can sort out breeding pens. Thanks!

 

[Nabiki]

I wouldn't put the younger ones in with the older ones until they're six weeks old. At four weeks they're still significantly smaller than the older birds and are likely to get bullied. The older male will try to mate with the younger birds and likely injure them in the process. I've seen this happen.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Good to know, I suppose I can’t leave the older pen intact with 4 males and one as yet unknown at 8 weeks?

 

[Susan Skylark]

Can I leave a pen of bachelor males (8 weeks old) together for a week (same hatch) assuming plenty of space/hidey holes?

If one is female, can I safely put her in with the younger birds?

I have 4 Roos to 1 hen (maybe), apparently this hatch is dyslexic when they read the manual!

 

[scyllarus]

A pen of bachelor males is safer than trying to integrate multiple ages. There will absolutely be chasing and mounting, but they should be able to manage it fairly peacefully.

The one hen may or may not tolerate babies - most of my older hens ignore the younger quail. If you can provide hiding spaces, especially some that have smaller entrances so that the babies can escape the bigger hen, it might work.

Just to to give you an example of my attempts at mixing ages: I have a main cage, an auxiliary cage wired to the main cage, a bachelor cage, and a brooder. Juveniles go in the auxiliary cage at about 3-4 weeks so they can do a see-but-not-touch introduction with the adults for a week or two before I try to put any in the main cage, usually when they're 5ish weeks and it's becoming too crowded in the auxiliary cage. My main cage is 6x4 and has a ton of things that break sight lines and several planks that make up a sort of second story walkway (which I find most of my quail will use, but especially those escaping another bird) - and despite having all these precautions, I still had to bring one of our roos in to protect the juveniles from being scalped. The other roo, who I regularly praise for being a gentleman, still chases the juveniles around and pecks them but doesn't grab and hold on.

(Juveniles will make this sort of sobbing distress cry that I assume would summon their mother in the wild or function as a "please stop" to the covey they were raised in, but seems to just enrage the adult birds in a situation where the juveniles weren't raised in the covey)

Long story short, all your birds are individuals and may or may not tolerate younger birds. Roos are less tolerant in my experience, and as Nabiki mentioned, may attempt to mount. Hens may or may not accept the younger birds, but probably won't chase them down.

 

[Susan Skylark]

I was also worried about 1 hen with 4 males or having a hen in a bachelor group increasing the tension, if she is a he no problem I guess, but if she’s a she it could be interesting!

 

[Nabiki]

You can try a bachelor pen, but make sure they can't see or hear the females. They will fight if they know hens are around.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Ugh, boys!