Young female neck injury

[chrisaliz]

We have two girls and one boy and the boy seems to favour one girl. Unfortunately she is missing many feathers at the back of her neck and seems to have two splits there as well. Is there anything we can do to stop the boy being so amorous! She is not bleeding but it doesnt look very pretty

 

[chrismahon]

I've heard quail can be rather aggressive in that respect. Is there any way of separating him completely to give her time to recover before the injuries become fatal? We've had to do this with TNN chickens for exactly the same reason, because when we separated the favourite he immediately over-trod his next favourite. He has been separated from his 4 girls permanently. If we need to breed we can give him one day with them every two weeks. He's not happy, but the hens are.

 

[Marigold]

Hi Chrisaliz, and welcome to the Forum.
Only two girls is rather a small number for an active cockerel, especially as he favours one of them. He really needs about four-five to help spread the load, but I realise this may not be possible for you. It does sound as if he's rather too hard on her. Once he started to draw blood, she will be in trouble, and anyway it's not good for her to be so much bullied. You will need either to separate him, or separate her, perhaps by making a mesh barrier across the run so they can see each other but not get in touch. If you do this it would be best to keep the two girls together and the cockerel on his own, so he doesn't start on the other hen. Then you will have to decide what to do about the cockerel. Is there a particular reason for keeping him? The hens will be happier and more peaceful in their own and will lay better without the stress. What sort of birds are they, and how much space do they have in their run, in square metres?