Smallholders Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: feather pecking hell! - Quail  (Read 7405 times)

Clarebelle

  • Joined Jan 2013
  • Orkney
feather pecking hell! - Quail
« on: May 10, 2013, 12:39:22 pm »
Hi all,

As some of you may know, I recently started with quail, my first experience with poultry. Well, I have four 5 week old chicks living outside in an eglu. There are 3 males and 1 female. I also have more eggs in the inccy due to hatch on sunday. The plan was to, obviously, keep the one hen, and cull the spare boys once they reached full grown.

Anyhoo, this morning I went to feed them and noticed one of the boys looked a bit odd, the way he was holding himself. So grabbed him up and took a look. Basically his skin had been ripped open down the entire length of one side of his body, from under the wing joint to all the way down his leg, I could see all the muscle etc. exposed. I could see straight away there was nothing to do for him so I put him to sleep. I checked all round the area and could see no signs of attempted entry by any predators.

Then noticed that the hen had a bit of blood on her, caught her and took a look, she has had her primary feathers on one wing snapped off and the ends had been bleeding. Checked under her wind and she also has a tear in her skin, its about an inch in length and, again, I can see muscle underneath. Now, she is perky, drinking, eating, pooing normally, she is bright eyed. I have separated her from the remaining two boys and she is indoors. I have sprayed the area with purple equine spray which is all i have. My question is, will the gash under her wing heal on its own or does she need to be culled?

Also, does anyone have any tips on stopping feather pecking and cannibalism? If I find the culprit I will cull him but would like some advise for future reference. Also, does anyone have any suggestions for why they would start? There are only 4 of them in the eglu so I don't think its overcrowding and they have a sand bath, logs, mirrors etc. to keep them entertained. The weather has been pretty bad the last couple of days so they have been stuck in the eglu a bit but I keep the door open all the time. This seems to have occurred at night as they were fine before i went to bed last night. The males arn't showing obvious signs of dominance/sexual maturity that I can see so I don't think its that?

Thanks everyone for any advise.  :gloomy:

in the hills

  • Joined Feb 2012
Re: feather pecking hell! - Quail
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2013, 01:09:34 pm »
They come into lay from 6 wks of age so are at sexual maturity probably and are no longer chicks.  If no sign of predators, then my guess is that it will be normal quail aggression, I'm afraid, and not feather pecking as you would get with chickens.


We have seen no signs of trouble and then got up to similar situation. We had visitors at the weekend who commented how cute our quail were .... in our experience they are def. not  ::) .


We have seen quite bad injuries on our quail and they have survived so  :fc:  for your female. Of course can't see her injury so can't say really.


I wouldn't put her back,once recovered, with more than one male. Ideally I would say 5 hens to one cock but we have a pair living together fine at the moment .... just depends on individual birds I think.


Be aware that even when adding new females to an existing group there can be similar aggression ..... in our experience. We have had females aggressively attack males. We find them more difficult in this way than hens and cockerels and adding fresh birds to an existing flock does not seem to be easy even if you wire pens so that they can see but not get at each other, provide distractions etc.


In other ways they are easy to keep and their eggs are yummy ..... just aggressive wee souls.  ::)

Clarebelle

  • Joined Jan 2013
  • Orkney
Re: feather pecking hell! - Quail
« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2013, 01:30:09 pm »
what a nightmare!  :chook:

I think I will keep her separate for a couple of days to keep an eye on her and if she seems ok put her back outside. I don't know whether to just cull one or both of the cocks as we have 16 eggs due to hatch sunday so can replace them in a few weeks provided the hatch goes ok.

Do you find that all the individuals are aggressive or are some worse than others?

My plan for integrating the chicks from my hatch was to put their brooder (a hamster cage) in the eglu with the original birds for a couple of weeks

in the hills

  • Joined Feb 2012
Re: feather pecking hell! - Quail
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2013, 01:55:59 pm »
Do I remember correctly that your aim was to eat the males?  If so, to be honest with you, I would have a snack now or keep them separate from the hen for a couple of weeks and then eat them .... if you think they need to plump up a bit .... seeing that your next lot will be ready soon and they are mature so quickly anyway. You will find it easier to integrate the one little hen than those two males into the new batch.


We have found that they do vary in how aggressive they are ..... just as with any species. Spring and summer, when they are sexually active, are the times that trouble breaks out and there seem to be few problems during the rest of the year. We have a pair living separately from the main group at the moment because the male is really nasty and you might know it happens to be daughters favourite  ::) . Some males less so but still .....


We only keep them for eggs but if I was keeping for meat I would def. have a separate coop or two and pop all the males in there once they had feathered and could be sexed. Hopefully they wouldn't fight if the girls were out of sight. They seem to do each other a lot of damage in a very short space of time and without much of a build up ..... if you know what I mean.


 We find lots of conifer branches help .... plenty of hiding places and breaks an attack.


Never had much luck integrating in the space of an ark, even when wired off. They went bonkers, wouldn't calm and were in danger of breaking their necks or skinning heads  ::) . Did manage to integrate some in a large shed before moving outside. Let us know if you find a successful way of doing so.

Clarebelle

  • Joined Jan 2013
  • Orkney
Re: feather pecking hell! - Quail
« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2013, 04:25:26 pm »
Yes, I was thinking the same. I think we will keep the two males separately and fatten them up for a couple of weeks and eat them. Then we just have the hen to integrate with the flock we will hopefully hatch at the weekend.

I'll let you know how the integration goes.  :thumbsup:

Clarebelle

  • Joined Jan 2013
  • Orkney
Re: feather pecking hell! - Quail
« Reply #5 on: May 11, 2013, 07:06:19 am »
Well, kept the hen indoors last night, so two males outside together, woke up this morning to find one dead in the run with severe injuries. There were clumps of feathers and bits of wing against one edge of the mesh run. After blaming the quail I now think it might actually be our cat who is responsible. He stalks them whenever he can although we have never seen him try and get one through the mesh, the gaps are easily big enough for him to get a paw in.

The extent of the injuries and the clumps of wing and feathers scattered along the edge makes it look more like the cat than the quail. I am off today to buy some small hole garden mesh to cover the run with. Nevermind foxes and badgers, need to worry about my own cat!

in the hills

  • Joined Feb 2012
Re: feather pecking hell! - Quail
« Reply #6 on: May 11, 2013, 10:12:49 am »
Arrrr ..... sorry.


Yep, ours have that very small squared strong wire on the run sides and base.


They are incredibly "stupid" things  ::)  ..... sorry but they are.  Our cat, strangely enough, seems to ignore them but she probably knows that she can't actually get at them. However, "something" has paid us a visit sometimes at night and have got up to find they have damaged their heads ..... flying upwards to get away. They do have shut in sections they could go and hide in but ..... oh no!!!!! When we have tried introducing fresh quail to existing groups they have "freaked out" and flew at sides and roof in a similar way (even though the new individuals were wired away from them). They will do it to an extent that they damage themselves. If puss or some other predator could get a paw in they would just fly everywhere and damage themselves or probably straight into an awaiting paw  ::) .


If your cat can get a paw in, my guess is a rat could get in. "Rats" are to quail what foxes are to hens.

Raine

  • Joined May 2011
  • Lincoln
Re: feather pecking hell! - Quail
« Reply #7 on: May 11, 2013, 02:28:53 pm »
 :wave:


I've found you need the smallest mesh wire possible with quail.  My friend had a normal rabbit hutch she used and a stoat got in and ate the lot.  Blood everywhere.


It's not just rats, stoats and weasels will have their fill too.  If a cat can get it's paw in, all three of those can get straight in.

Clarebelle

  • Joined Jan 2013
  • Orkney
Re: feather pecking hell! - Quail
« Reply #8 on: May 12, 2013, 07:40:14 am »
We went out yesterday and bought some fine mesh and have covered the run which was a right pain to do! But - both our remaining quail were fully intact in the morning!  :chook:

Thank everyone, I'm glad it didn't turn out to be the quail themselves, I was aware they could be violent but the intent of the injuries was a bit of a shock!

I'll let you know how the integration attempt goes in a few weeks when the new chicks are older (8/16 hatched so far!  :excited:)

 

Forum sponsors

FibreHut Energy Helpline Thomson & Morgan Time for Paws Scottish Smallholder & Grower Festival Ark Farm Livestock Movement Service

© The Accidental Smallholder Ltd 2003-2024. All rights reserved.

Design by Furness Internet

Site developed by Champion IS