Quail help!

mccardey

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I have four corturnix - 1 male, 3 female. The male is outside the coop for now, until he learns better manners. Meanwhile, apparently two of the girls set up a nursery together with shared egg-sitting duties - but now the larger of the two won't let the little one sit. Every time she gets close, the larger one chases her off.

I moved the little one for her own safety, but she almost strangled herself trying to get back to the nursery. I tried moving the larger one, and the same thing happened.

Anyone, is this normal behaviour and will it settle down? Or do I have to go in there and start yelling at them?

Help!

ETA: I did also try putting the male back in to see if he would be a calming influence, but he wasn't. No surprises there...
 
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Jason

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Sounds like a pretty fowl situation... :roll:

Sorry, I know nothing about quails, but the joke just couldn't be helped. My old neighbor is something of a farmer, so I'll ask her, but no idea here.
 

J.J.PITTS

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While I've never raised quail, I have raised both bantams and full sized chickens, pheasant, turkey and guinea fowl for 40 years.

I've never heard any bird that will willingly share setting duties. I've had a few try, more than once, but one, the least aggressive, is always booted.

If the larger bird can set on all the eggs, leave her to it. Even if she can't, the eggs she can't handle will be pushed out of the way. I just had a bantam set six eggs, too many for her tiny size. Eventually before even 7 of her 21 days were over, she pushed two from the nest and just recently hatched the remaining four. I've never had a chicken, even a bantam, set this late in the year!

If it were me, I'd secure the smaller female away until she is 'broken' from wanting to set this particular nest in a well built cage.
 
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I have four corturnix - 1 male, 3 female. The male is outside the coop for now, until he learns better manners. Meanwhile, apparently two of the girls set up a nursery together with shared egg-sitting duties - but now the larger of the two won't let the little one sit. Every time she gets close, the larger one chases her off.

If you have multiple broody hens, sometimes one will be dominant. Just let them both work it out. It generally is more sound and fury and loose feathers than actual injury.

Either the larger one will get bored and leave, or the smaller one will start setting on her own.
 

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Please check with Old Hack. She's raised a lot of fowl and may well have an answer for you.


ETA: or listen to what Lisa said.
 
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mccardey

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If you have multiple broody hens, sometimes one will be dominant. Just let them both work it out. It generally is more sound and fury and loose feathers than actual injury.

Either the larger one will get bored and leave, or the smaller one will start setting on her own.
Well, they've survived another day - though the smaller one (I'm on her side, for obvious reasons) was bolshier today and got 30 minutes of sitting in.

Meanwhile there are seven eggs in another clutch with no-one to set them. Their mama is too busy being supportive of the small girl.
 

Old Hack

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I've had several chickens who shared egg-sitting duties. They didn't share, so much as nest next to one another and steal each other's eggs when either one of them left the nest.

Quail are notoriously compulsive and aggressive, and although I've never kept them I have friends who have. I've seen cases where they've killed each other in their determination to get what they want, although that's usually in relation to mating rather than sitting.

If you can, the best solution is probably to isolate the two sitting hens. Give them their own nest, divide the eggs between them. Do it at night, so they are sleepy and don't realise entirely what you're doing. Let them be on their own, but in sight and smell of the other quail. You'll have problems reintroducing them to each other, but this is how you'll end up getting the highest hatch-rate.

If that's not possible, consider taking all the eggs away from them, and incubating them artificially. You'll have to prevent the two of them from sitting for 24 or 48 hours, which can be difficult: don't give them nesting boxes, don't let them get too comfortable, keep them cool if you can.

If you're determined to let a hen hatch these eggs then choose the dominant one. Move her, and her eggs, at night if possible, to a place where the others can't reach her. What this will mean is you'll probably have to reduce the number of eggs she's sitting on. Candle them to work out which (do you know how to do this? if not, ask, and I'll give you some help), and move on. If she has all the eggs she won't be able to cover them all sufficiently and although you might well end up with more chicks this way, you're likely to get chicks with leg deformities because they'll have been brooded at an irregular temperature. This is not good. There is no way to save those chicks.

Good luck. Quail are gorgeous birds, but very difficult and temperamental. And I say this having raised hundreds of guineas and peas, as well as chickens.
 

mccardey

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Oh, my - thanks for all that, OH. I don't know about candling - will have a look on google and see if it makes sense. I'll separate them tonight and see how that works. I would rather not incubate them because of the guilt if something goes wrong.
 

Old Hack

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Candling is easy. It's a way of checking how well the egg is developing. You can use a special candler but you can also use a torch and a cardboard tube (used to distance the torch from the egg, to protect it from overheating). Always candle from the blunt end of the egg, and size the cardboard tube so that it holds the torch an inch or two from the egg. You should be able to sneak the eggs away from the nest a few at a time, preferably at night as the hens will be sleepy and foolish then. Do a few at a time so they don't get chilled. Discard those which aren't developing, there will probably be one or two per clutch.
 

mccardey

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Thank you, okay. I'll do that tonight and mark the ones I've done before I slip them into the second nursery. Should they all be roughly at the same stage of development?
 

Old Hack

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Use pencil to mark them, not a marker pen. And yep, they should be all at the same stage, pretty much. If they're not you're not going to be able to get one hen to brood them all as she'll leave the nest within a couple of hours of hatch, and so the later eggs will be chilled and abandoned, and so won't hatch.
 

mccardey

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This is all so helpful - thank you. I'm all set up for tonight now - and I watched some you-tube so I know what to look for, sort of. Except what if I make bad decisions? What if one nest ends up with all the bad kids, and the other nest gets all the honour students? This all feels very fraught.
 

Old Hack

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Those chicks are going to squabble like you wouldn't believe once they're hatched. Watch out for any injuries, no matter how tiny, because all the others will peck compulsively at any speck of blood, and they will peck the injured bird to death if it's left with them.

I quickly learned not to brood guineafowl chicks with peachicks. The peas were twice the size of the guineas, but the guineas would peck at their faces and could kill them in an hour or two. Vicious little birds.
 

ElaineA

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Those chicks are going to squabble like you wouldn't believe once they're hatched. Watch out for any injuries, no matter how tiny, because all the others will peck compulsively at any speck of blood, and they will peck the injured bird to death if it's left with them.

I quickly learned not to brood guineafowl chicks with peachicks. The peas were twice the size of the guineas, but the guineas would peck at their faces and could kill them in an hour or two. Vicious little birds.
This has been your daily reminder that birds are only sized-down velociraptors. :scared:


(This thread has been simultaneously fascinating and terrifying.)
 

Old Hack

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I've not even started talking about the horrors of cockerel damage or sinus infections in birds.
 

mccardey

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That didn't go very well :( Both quail seem to have abandoned the nests. I was as calm and gentle as I could be during the process, but I seem to have ruined Motherhood.

*sob*
 

Old Hack

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Oh, no. I'm sorry, mccardy. But you will get lots more eggs, very soon.
 

mccardey

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I have to be away from home this weekend (my son's wedding) so I think I'll scoop up and discard any new eggs, and then build a little nursery divided into a couple of boxes next week before I let them set again. The mean girl who kept hurting the other would-be hatcher is just sitting in the old spot as though she is shattered. I obviously didn't know enough at the start. When I was a little kid, my quail just laid eggs and hatched them quite happily.

*sob*

I feel terrible for the mean girl, now. :(
 
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swachski

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Dang it. I just wandered into the nature forum and this thread caught my eye. Now it's like watching the pilot of a new TV series... I need to know what happens next!

Mccardey, did your squabbling squabs start any new clutches?
 

mccardey

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Dang it. I just wandered into the nature forum and this thread caught my eye. Now it's like watching the pilot of a new TV series... I need to know what happens next!

Mccardey, did your squabbling squabs start any new clutches?
They did, and one of the mamas hatched a nest of 7 on Dec 28. They don't fight - yet. One of the seven is a bit crippled, and there's video on my fb feed of some of the others helping him feed. They're terribly cute, but almost fullsize already, so I'm going to have to start separating them. I hope they don't get sad.
 
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swachski

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Thanks for the update! The videos are great, and it's so uplifting to see how nurturing and protective the mother and sibs are. You made my day!