Quail Couple Picking on One

[monaelisac]

Hi, I joined this community because I decided to finally get myself into quails. I got them on May 23 and they were about 6 weeks. I bought 5, but unfortunately one passed away a week after I got her. I still don't know why, the breeder informed me it must have been just the stress of moving. The guy I bought them from definitely didn't keep them the most healthy, so I'm sure she was sick prior to coming to my home. They are supposed to be all siblings, but I'm sure that was also a lie due to one of my hens being still much smaller than the others, so there is no way she's the same age as the others.

I have now 4 left, 3 being white and one being a tuxedo quail. I sexed them and I have one male and 3 females. Everything was fine till last week when I discovered one of my white hens with a bloody head. She was fine in the sense that she was walking around trying to find worms but her head was graphic to say the least. I immediately pulled her out, cleaned her wounded head and she stayed with me in my room for 2 days and then I put her back in the quail cage.

My cage is one of those 2 story big rabbit hutches. I kept her upstairs separated from the bullies. I blamed the male because his entire chest was bloody and he's the only boy I have, but now I don't know.

Today I found my male chasing after my tuxedo female, and I was like that's it so I let out from upstairs the bullied hen. Her head has healed mostly so my plan was to let her out and catch the male and shove him into isolation but the second my poor girl stepped out the tuxedo female went in for the kill. I kept shoving her back but she kept trying to attack, so I put the tuxedo female upstairs and then the male tried his shot at bullying as well. Now both bullies are in quarantine and I have no clue what to do. I found a local quail breeder that was willing to trade with me the male. Do I have to get rid of both bullies? Are they bullying her because the tuxedo female is jealous? What behavior is this??

Obviously, the goal was to enjoy cute pets that also gave me yummy eggs but this social brutality is not something I expected. I am partial towards the underdog so I will get rid of both if necessary. Any tips, please? I would greatly appreciate any advice you guys can give me.

 

[monaelisac]

Sorry I would like to also add, they haven't layed a single egg which I don't understand why. Theyre past 3 months now. Shouldn't they be??

 

[Fishkeeper]

What kind of quail are they? Bobwhites? Buttons?

 

[monaelisac]

What kind of quail are they? Bobwhites? Buttons?

They are Coturnix.

 

[el dorado quail]

Pics of each would help? Size may be a factor. Are you feeding them an adequate amount of protein? Do they have any place to hide in?

 

[Ebony Rose]

Please post some pictures of each; I'd like to see their chest feathers and their vent (feathers held out of the way of the picture). Japanese coturnix quail mating habits look brutal, and sometimes the cock will accidentally scalp the hen; their skin is so very thin and fragile. Did you apply blue-kote (or purple) antiseptic spray on her head to disguise the red wound? The color red will draw the wrong type of attention; severe aggression. You doubt your supplier's word on their siblingship, but what he may not have said is that it was possible for some to be from one hatch, while others with the same parents were from a subsequent hatch... technically they'd be siblings, but not hatch-mates. If your male continues with raging hormones (he's still young), you could separate him in such a way that he can see and hear the hens, but not touch... You could do this for a couple of weeks to let his testosterone chill out some, then reintroduce him; by that time, the hens should have had a chance to catch up to his sexual maturity. Coturnix cocks tend to mature sexually about 2 or 3 weeks prior to the hens, and if he's constantly chasing them they may not have the desire to lay... and yeah... coturnix can CHOOSE to lay or not. Seriously, if they're stressed out, you won't get eggs. If they're ticked off, at you or their mate... no eggs... It's just the way they are. Don't give up on your birds, this is just a little hiccup, and quail heal amazingly fast from such accidents.

 

[Fishkeeper]

I don't think quail choose whether to lay eggs. It's a reproductive effort, after all. If they're stressed, sure, they'll stop laying, but that's not choosing. That's their bodies shutting down their ability to lay eggs, because clearly if they're in this much stress they wouldn't be able to raise babies.

You aren't getting eggs because of how stressed your females are. I agree with the above advice- split them up. I'd split them all into separate areas for now, and put blu-kote on the injured hen. You might also consider trying to get another couple of hens, since males should really have more than 2 hens apiece. And if you have access to a different male, then yeah, I might be inclined to swap that one out if he doesn't settle down some.

 

[Ebony Rose]

I may have overstated my case about them choosing to lay; but I swear... if I do a deep cleaning of their cage, they refuse to lay for at least a week... and this last time, after about a week of no eggs, I gave them a 'peace' offering of finely chopped lettuce and they laid eggs that very evening... so it really feels like they chose to give me eggs ;p The lettuce they were served was iceberg... so zero nutritional value... but they love it.

 

[Fishkeeper]

I'd suspect that the deep cleaning frightens them, and that a combination of time to calm down and abundant food got their instincts convinced that it was safe to try and reproduce again. I sincerely doubt that they're going "you disturbed us! we're not going to lay eggs- oh, wait, you gave us lettuce, we like you again, you can have eggs". I also rather doubt that they even know that eggs are something they make. After all, if poultry knew what eggs were, they wouldn't eat them.

 

[monaelisac]

Thank you so much for all your guy's advice. I have split them up. I feel like the male has some favoritism with my tuxedo hen because they behave together perfectly fine, it just seems to be aggression towards the other girl. If worst comes to worse and no one behaves, I'll just keep them separate permanently. Is it bad to keep only two hens together? My plan is to give more hens to my later on calmed down roo and then keep the two abused gals together in peace.