some questions on pecking and feeding

First posting here! i had bobwhite last year that did fine till a fisher got them all, about a month ago I bought 20 coturnix. they lived together in the two mixed groups i bought them in, on a small poultry ark. Then i seperated them and put them together as mating pairs in smaller cubicles, leaving a few extra males and one pair in the ark.
So here is the problem: the females of the pairs peck and fight with the males when i feed them, is this normal, the few left in the ark do not do this. It gets so that the male is not getting much of the food. The pens are 12x15 inches or so and all together so the birds can see each other. Also how much do i feed them? as much as they will eat in 10 minutes or something like that?
Also the few birds left in the ground ark seem depressed. they are sullen and do not chirp and get excited when i show up at feeding time. The ones in the cubicles seem happy enough (just fighting). Also one male in the ground pen seem to be flying into the roof, his head is all cut and bloodied. so those are my problems right now. I'm not trying to get them to lay or anything right now, just want them to get through winter happy and healthy. oh yeah, we are in ontario if that matters.

Thanks,
tom