FairOaksRod
Member
A friend put 23 quail chicks in a pen with an adult Quail or two. Next morning, all chicks are dead with a hole in their head. Did the adults kill the chicks? If so, is this common? any insite will help. THanks, Rod.
Is it Cannibalism
- Thread starter FairOaksRod
- Start date
OKIEGunner
New member
Seen it happen many times
small munsterlander owner
Banned
had a old hen that had hatched out many broods do it to new un related chicks & teenage hen bob whites a few times... i figure she was trying to be the dominate hen or brood hen???
if they were all adults they would fight but work it out & covey up??? she didnt like young new strange hen bob whites... thought the male was the prob removed him & she still killed young hens???
if they were all adults they would fight but work it out & covey up??? she didnt like young new strange hen bob whites... thought the male was the prob removed him & she still killed young hens???
I'm not sure in this particular incidence, whether this trick would have helped or not, but you might want to try it. First however, let me say that I used to raise quail, and when I first started I was advised that one could not put different ages of quail together for the very reason you asked this question. The birds already in the "covey" will hunt down every one of the new ones and kill them! That is true, HOWEVER, I discovered that if I put the younger, new additions into a small cage (cat carrier) and went quietly into the flight pen after it was completely dark and just set the cage containing the newbes down on the floor and opened the door to it very slowly and without disturbing either the older birds in the pen nor the young ones in the cage...then just left quietly, that the next morning all was well and not a single bird was dead or even hurt! It is the panicked scurrying around of the newcomers that triggers the attack of the others. When they all "woke up" together the next daylight, they were all just part of the covey, I guess.
I set a hundred eggs a week in the incubator and hatched off about 60 to 70 chicks out of those hundred eggs. These chicks went into a small cage with a light bulb for a brooder, food , and water were also provided. I then had a new hatch every week to do the same way, and when they reached about 6 weeks old, I added them to the flight pen by the method I described above, and thusly had a new batch to add every week. I only had twenty pair of adults for laying the eggs and that is why I did as I did, and it worked like a charm. I never lost a bird to their having fights with newcomers. Did lose some to a blacksnake that discovered easy pickin's for a while though!
Anybody need to ask me about this PM me and we'll talk it through. IT CAN BE DONE, I assure you!
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