3.6m Omlet Chicken Run for sale, Brand New in Boxes, Milton Keynes (MK19)

[xScrunchee]

Had a huge quail problem recently.

One of the quails went mad and started attacking all of the other quails.

It was awful-there was blood everywhere. All 5 quails have some degree of eye damage and leg bruising because quail number 6 was pecking at them.

One of the quail had both eyes closed and blood tears streaming down its face. I truly thought that it had lost it eyes. (I have been having to feed it and give it water as it couldn't really find its way around)

I tried to seperate quail number 6 but it was not a practical solution and when put back in the group she still chased and attacked everyone.

 

I ended up getting my brother to come round and cull the quail.

Very sad but I felt that my choices were limited and I had to think of the happiness and safety of the rest of the flock.

 

Things settled straight away and the run was peaceful and calm.

The quail with the bad eye damage is now recovering and has both eyes, although I am not sure of the quaility of vision in one of them-but she is doing fine.

 

Anyway-I have just been watching them and it seems that there is more trouble.

They seem to be fighting and chasing agan.

What am I doing wrong?????

 

The run is 4ft by 2ft.

They have Aubiose on the floor.

2 water bottles, a large feeder, millet hung up, greens hung up, a seed ball on the floor, plastic plant to hide in as well as real plants, boxes and pots to jump in/on etc.

I give them meal worms or wild bird seed as a treat in the evenings.

 

HELPPPPPPPP Please

 

I am starting to think that I am more of a 'chicken person' as the quails are driving me mad!!!!!

[cathybc]

sorry, no advice as I know nothing about quail but sorry to hear of your problems with them x

[francesca88]

What's your ratio of girls:boys? It should be at least 3:1 - if you have more than one boy they will fight, and if you don't have enough girls the male will get a bit too frisky for them!!

 

It's also so important to integrate them properly. With my hens I'll just chuck a new one in the coop with the flock and let them get on with it, but there's no way I could do that with my quails! I have to section off part of the hutch with chickenwire with the new quail on one side for at least a couple of weeks so they can get used to the sight/smell of each other.

 

I know what you're going through - have had quails for five months now (hatched them from eggs) and they are a nightmare, so much more aggressive than chickens!

[xScrunchee]

I have no males. The 5 remaining ones are all hens and the one that was culled was also a hen.

I have heard of loads of people who keep female only groups and they seem to get on fine

Mine are all from a breeder and they were kept together from hatching. Since the really vicious one has gone-it is much calmer in there and being honest, since my post this morning I have not seen any more trouble. It just turned my stomach this morning when I saw them s"Ooops, word censored!"ping as I thought it was going to end in another day of eye bathing and gore

 

I would think that a 4x2 ft run would be fine for them and I do give them things to peck at and hide in so I have no idea why the other one went so mad and I don't want it to happen again so any tips really appreciated

xx

[ladyjulian]

Are you absolutely 100% sure that they're girls? When we got our first lot, we thought we had 6 girls and 1 boy, and it was only when one of them started attacking the one we knew was a cock that we discovered there were actually 2 boys. Similarly when we hatched some, we mistook a couple of the boys for girls. I find it really difficult to sex them before they actually start foaming.

 

None of our female quail have been aggressive at all, but we had real fights when we accidentally put more than one boy in together.

[Janty]

I was going to say the same thing. I bought four more girls from a breeder and he sexed two wrongly. We have had a few fights as a result even after a really slow intro period. They were fine at first but once the boys started foaming, the trouble started.

 

They are being swapped tomorrow.

[miss_spent]

xScrunchee - how did you one with the damaged eyes recover? I have said in another post that one of mine has an injured eye from either a cat attack or a fight between my 2 quails.

 

My 2 quails, if they did fight, have spent most of the time since cuddled together so I am not sure what has happened