Quail egg laying problems

[buddhabrahma905]

Do silver gene females lay? Because the better part of my flock of 15 birds is made up of silver females and I'm still only getting 1 egg every few days. On top of this, I've tried incubating the eggs a few times and I'm not even sure they're fertile despite the fact that I have two silver males in the cage. I have my quail in temperature controlled room in a 4 foot by 2 foot cage and they're being fed gamebird starter mixed with layer crumbles.

 

[eHuman]

What age are your birds?
How long have they been in their current enclosure?
How much light per day are they getting?
Are they stressed?

 

[buddhabrahma905]

My birds are only 3 months old, they've been in their current enclosure for 2 months, they're getting approximately 14+ hours of light per day, and to the best of my knowledge they are not stressed since I have a good male to female ratio.

 

[lomine]

Eight sq feet for 15 birds is not much space, unless you are talking about button quail but still. That's a little over 1/2 sq foot per bird, not counting the space taken up by food, water, and whatever else you have in there. The minimum recommendation is 1 sq ft per bird, but the more space you can provide the better. They are likely stressed from the cramped quarters. It would be best to build a bigger cage or better yet build a second and split the group.

I also suggest you stop giving layer feed. The protein level is too low for quail and too much calcium can harm the males. Just give the gamebird and offer a source of calcium free-choice (oyster shell or crushed egg shells).

On the fertility, sometimes it take the males time before they get the hang of mating. The lack of fertile eggs at this age is common.

 

[poultrymad]

Do silver gene females lay? Because the better part of my flock of 15 birds is made up of silver females and I'm still only getting 1 egg every few days. On top of this, I've tried incubating the eggs a few times and I'm not even sure they're fertile despite the fact that I have two silver males in the cage. I have my quail in temperature controlled room in a 4 foot by 2 foot cage and they're being fed gamebird starter mixed with layer crumbles. 

Guessing you mean Japanese. If so you need at least 3 males to get a good fertility of that many hens any other breeds you would need more. That is plenty of room for Japanese and twice what you need for cpq but half as much as you need for bobs. Layers and game bird starter is what I feed mine. Do they have constant food and Water?

 

[lomine]

One male should easily be able to cover 10 females.

 

[poultrymad]

If that is the case in your experience ok. But I have tried one male with more than 5 females quite a few times (usually 6 or 7 ) and the male would only ever tread 5 of the hens.

 

[lomine]

If you are breeding to sell eggs and you want 100% fertility then yes, you are better off keeping breeding groups with one male and 3-5 females. But I have mine for meat and eggs. I would rather have 90% fertility and hens that are happy and not over mated. If I need to put a few more eggs in the incubator so be it.

I seriously doubt that adding another male to an already too small space would have any positive effect. You'd likely have fighting males, overmated bald females, a whole lot more stress, and maybe even deaths. It's not going to help much with egg production either.

 

[poultrymad]

I keep mine at 1/2 square foot per bird with 1 male per 5 females and they lay extremely well and it is extremely rare that there is a fight or a hen with a bare back. With a pen that size I would probably end up putting 20 hens and 4 Cocks in it. I realy don't see why I should get a lot lower fertility of the birds for the sake of adding one cock bird when all that will happen is that the fertility goes up.

 

[poultrymad]

My birds are only 3 months old, they've been in their current enclosure for 2 months, they're getting approximately 14+ hours of light per day, and to the best of my knowledge they are not stressed since I have a good male to female ratio.

They might just be a slow starting strain some strains will start laying at 5 weeks where as others won't start till there 12 weeks, generally the fancy colours are the latest to start.