Twenty minutes we drove off with 3 hens and the last 6 quail hens they had left. And so similarly to that momentus time I came home to discover 6 hens in the back of the car and a chicken enclosure to build, I now found myself with 6 quails in the back of the car and a quail enclosure to build...
More about the quails' home in other post.
Our six quails took up residence in our garden, matured and started laying eggs at a fair rate. Although we were told that quails are quiet creatures, we discovered that they can make a cute little trill usually as a warning call as we approached. A year and a half later, I noticed that quite a few of our quails were developing bald patches. We tried a variety of mite treatments but the bald patches got bigger and sore spots developed. And then I saw one of the quails attacking one of the others. I decided to keep an eye on it and soon found that this was a regular occurrence. And with further observation it was apparent that we had a bully...
A quick internet search later and we had a possible explanation to our problem. We had noticed far more of the quail trill recently. Yes, one of the quail we had bought as a hen turned out to be a big bully boy quail. Apparently only male quails make any noise and when they reach full maturity they can be a bit over-friendly with the females. We also learnt that it is very hard to sex a quail but we can manage it now.
Fortunately the local breeders (different from where we had bought them from) took a shine to our very striking and handsome male quail and traded us a hen quail. I was sad to see our beautiful quail go but our quail ladies seem a lot happier these days!
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