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snototter · 6 months

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A male wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) in the snow near Lake Meyer Park, Iowa

by Larry Reis

#wild turkey #turkeys #gamebirds #birds #meleagris gallopavo #meleagris #phasanidae #galliformes #aves #chordata #wildlife: iowa #wildlife: usa #wildlife: north america

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underthehedge · 3 years

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Quail are being big stress right now need to rant

So 2 months ago I completed my incredibly delayed project of building a big outdoor quail run, up until that point I had a grand total of 5 quail, 3 boys and 2 girls (not the ideal mix) and not enough space for more. Housing arrangements until the big run were

Curly (M) and Scream Child (F) outside in a small run for 18 months

Greyby (M) and Runty (F) my two falb fee living in the creepy child cage in the shed for a month

Arsehole (M), who just like, lived in my house "as a temporary measure till I can get more hens" for a year and a half

Scream Child was my first, a single hen and the sweetest/angriest quail on earth, precious daughter. Curly and Arsehole, hatch mates and Arsehole got his name from his attitude. Greyby is a lorgest boy, Runty was his hatch mate, a small, runty chick...she's the biggest quail I've ever seen, she is my huge daughter, she is the Crushinator.

Ordinarily you don't keep Japanese quail in pairs, domestic males are hypersexual and will endlessly harass the hens, pluck them bald in the mating season. Greyby and Runty as a pair was no exception but Curly was a rare gentleman; he lived in a small run with Scream Child for a year and a half just fine, crowed rarely and has a beautiful voice.

Arsehole, devoid of hens used to crow constantly and has a voice like a bag of nails and woke me up at 5am or earlier every morning in summer to Sex Yell.

Anyway with the big run finally completed, the bird flu epidemic tailing off and lockdown eased enough I could finally get 10 more hens and combine them all into one big flock...plenty of space, multiple feeders and waterers, hiding spots, visual barriers and 4 hens per cock so all good right? Obviously some fighting is going to happen when you mix new quail but they'll balance out. A couple of the new hens were dicks but they stopped trying to fight everyone else after about 4 days and a few thrashings from grumpy tiny lady Scream Child. And my mornings were blessedly free of hearing Arsehole yelling from downstairs.

...Curly is now the worst, he is a douche to the other boys and endlessly mounting the hens, chasing any that spurn him. Arsehole, spoiled indoor boy, had a rough time for a few days but adjusted (there was rain), oddly decent with the hens. Greyby seems unaware that he's huge and so was beating on Arsehole but getting chased by Curly, and getting his eyes pecked but no lasting damage. Things settled for a short while actually but then the boys all worked out they can attack each other better when the other cock is mounting a hen. Curly is just, a horrible bastard man.

As of two weeks ago? Arsehole has bumblefoot I'm treating, so he's confined to a cage in the house as he suddenly went off one foot. I am once again subjected to Constant 5am Sex Yelling. The shed cage also has one last one I hatched, the sole child of Curly and Scream Child, who turned out to be a boy alas and so is scheduled for culling and does not have a name. But Arsehole can hear him from in the house so, shed quail crows, Arsehole makes an annoyed noise and crows, there's a pause, shed quail crows, rinse repeat, go slowly insane. If I shut a couple of doors between though he can't hear it so there's less crowing.

And now? Idek what's wrong with Greyby but he's looking like shit and clearly not well so now he's upstairs in a small cage in my bedroom. Idk I think it might be gapeworm, as he sounds a touch wheezy. He's lethargic and not wanting to stand because he's seeming kinda weak, and also missing a bunch of feathers (I wonder who could have done that, coughCurlycough 🙄). Barely made a fuss when I grabbed him from the run to bring inside but he's been drinking and eating some lovely high protein crumb with coccidiostat and flubenvet and like...he's fucking crowing now he's feeling a little better I guess??? He's pretty much just sleeping, eating and drinking, occasionally shuffling about and stopping now and again to let everyone know he's DTF. Which is of course setting off Arsehole who can hear another man about and so wants to fight him or at least competitive yelling 🙃

Anyway I'm now stuck in bird yelling hell, my house has 2 fucking ill quail lads in it now who are unable to walk properly for different reasons but still totally ready to shout about their readiness for sex, Curly is still being obnoxious despite having a grand total of 12 girls to himself currently and of course looking beautiful the whole while because he is doing all the bullying. I suspect if I can get these two better and back in I can pull him out for a week to see if that fixes his attitude otherwise...well it's not like I don't already have one too many boys.

@kedreeva I'm tagging you because Phasanidae are all pure bastard stress birds with rocks instead of brains, industrial issue lungs and just generally Problematic.