New hens not going into Eglu Go Up

[userfriendly1980]

My male quail has been acting odd lately. Most of the time he's

his normal self then he has sudden bursts of insanity.

 

He would go into the house and make this wierd 'grunt' noise

and I can hear him going around in circles and kicking out all

the woodshavings and hay. The female would then go into the

house and see whats happening and this calms him. Then she wonders

out and he starts going weird again, and the same happens.. the girl

would go in and calm him down. Its weird!! Can anyone help??

This has only just happened!

 

Thanks!

[Janty]

What sort of housing are they in?

 

I only ask as when I got my first quail, the breeder advised me to keep them in a rabbit hutch as he did. After a while, my quail displayed similar behaviour to what you describe so we moved them into a run.

 

 

[userfriendly1980]

Hi!

 

Thanks for replying! Yes they are in a large rabbit clutch.. around 2 meters... so roughly a meter square per bird. He never done this before.. only when he become sexually active. its so bizarre. So you think I should transfer him into a run outside?

[Janty]

Other people keep their quail in hutches. It would be interesting to see if they have ever seen this. We wouldn't keep ours in a hutch now as we haven't seen this behaviour since we moved them. Ours love their run and they even pop ther heads through the mesh and steal the chickens' food (and live to tell the tale). We have just asked the famous Tony to build us a special quail run outside for when I hatch some more.

 

Here's our new run...

 

 

 

However, I would see what other people have to say before moving them straight away. It could just be co-incidence.

 

Jan

[Lewis]

When I've heard the grunty noise, it tends to be when they're chasing someone, but it does sound like they could be bored, or maybe he's just being dominant?

I had mine in hutches but they'd go in a run during the day. Seen it at the farm too where they were kept in big runs with a few guinea pigs - could be a stress related thing

 

Could you move things round in the hutch, add a few conifer branches and plant pots to hopefully enrich them, if that doesn't work, a run sounds good

[userfriendly1980]

Thanks! You have provided me get information. And the mean thing for me is that I don't have a crazy quail! The weather picking up now, so I have decided to build a nice run outside. The next job is to make is fox/cat proof.. I have some nasty foxes out there... I will let you know how I get on!

[xScrunchee]

Thanks! You have provided me get information. And the mean thing for me is that I don't have a crazy quail! The weather picking up now, so I have decided to build a nice run outside. The next job is to make is fox/cat proof.. I have some nasty foxes out there... I will let you know how I get on!

 

And don't forget the photo's

[userfriendly1980]

I managed to purchase a quail eglu! However my quails are abit slow and need time to get used to it. My male is sooo noisy its driving me mad! He calls almost 24 hours a day and starts about 2am non stop, i swear my neighbours will complain. I have bought an extra 2 females now (3 in total) and he still won't be quiet. I'm getting very restless now and the lack of sleep is slowly killing me lol

[Quaillover205]

Male quails will usually call out if they see light or if they want attention, I recommend putting them in a dark place or putting a thin black blanket they'll quiet down because that's what I do