My Quails Not Laying Eggs Yet

[YASIN]

Hello
I am new to raising quail , although i have raised chickens and pigeons for some time (during my school yrs , now I'm in college)
I bought 6 Quails on Sept 1 , 2 males and 4 females (wat the shopkeeper told me) , then again 4 (2 M & 2 F) quails ... (i lost two of them , one flew away in my absence and the other died , may be both were males) ..... now they are more than 2 months old ....... but they havnt started laying eggs yet ..... this is concerning me somewat ....
I guess it is bcuz it is the beginning of winter now (winter can get very cold here but never snows) ....
I dont know if the diet is proper or not , since I live in Bangladesh , we dont have very good access to good pet foods and stuffs (the ones I read on the internet) ... so i make a mix of different foods like lentils , gram , rice , wheat , mustard and also add a feed that i buy from the quail shopkeeper (he said it is made specially for the quails to lay) ... water is always available , ...... i give them soil, sand and hay to play in and scratch and also used to give some bugs and earthworms (now too busy becuz of exams) ... i also make the feed lactofermented and give dem sometimes
I kept them at first in an empty room which had good access to sunlight and fresh air ... now temporarily in a large chicken coop or house which is a bit dark ...... wen i had time i used to open them in my netted/caged garden during the day

More concerning is another fact - even from over a month ago , i could feel a hard lump inside their bellies (many of them , i guess not in the males) , i thought it could b an egg , but no eggs laid ..... there is still a lump inside nearer to the vent and now it is larger ... could it be an egg or is it something else

anyone plz help

 

[SeptemberQuail]

Hi,

First off, you should not keep more than one male in a pen, especially when females are around. The male's will fight to death if in-sight of one another. You should be keeping one male to three - seven females per pen. One square foot per bird I think.

I can't really understand exactly what you're saying so excuse any misinterpretations. How many quails do you have now?

Quail's do not lay in winter. This is their resting period so their bodies can rest and prepare to lay for the months to come. If you want them to lay, then you'll need to give them additional lighting in their cage. So, once it gets dark, turn a light on for another two - four hours so that they presume that the day is longer. They should be getting 14 hours a day of light (including artificial light) in-order to lay. This is because in winter, the days are shorter, and in summer, the days are longer.

You should try giving them things like mealworms, scrambled/boiled eggs, or kale for extra protein as quail need a lot of protein to live well. They also need a form of calcium. You can provide this to them by giving them calcium shell grit, crushed oyster shell, OR boiled egg shell that is crushed up with their regular food. Its important that they get calcium so they can make the egg shell.

The lump could be an egg.

 

[YASIN]

Thanks .....
I dont think i am having any problem with the male to female ratio - no fighting ....... actually i'm not really sure if there are any males cuz one uncle of mine said so ...... and i lost another one today (flew off and dont know whr it went ) , may be they were all males
i had 10 , now 7
is the present diet good enough ?? dat uncle who had once kept quails advised me to give them poultry chick feed dat is given to farm chickens raised for meat - is it good ?? i mean safe and not too unnatural ...... we dont really have access to mealworms and stuffs or even kale
and wat can i give for grit ?? ...... all we have is broken pieces of concrete and bricks as stones , not much real stones and gravel around here and dont even know where to get oyster shells ... jus giving them egg shells occassionally

but anyway thanks

Also I want to identify wat breeds they are of ??

 

[dc3085]

I can see at least three male quail and I believe that all of the Pharaoh colored quail in the picture are males. I can't be sure about the ones facing away from the camera but I can see at least three males looking at the camera. pharaohs and Goldens Autosex so hens will have speckled chest and the roosters have that rusty brown like yours do.

The bird in back but facing the camera is a golden rooster all the rest in the pic are hens

Both birds you can see in this pic are hens, see how they have speckles on their chests?

 

[YASIN]

Thanks ... I'll post individual pictures tomorrow In Sha Allah for better identification ..

 

[YASIN]

No. 1

 

[dc3085]

You see how the breast is a rusty color and there are no black speckles? That's a rooster if it's a pharaoh or golden colored bird.

Here is a picture of a pharaoh hen. Golden hens will have the same black speckling on their breast

 

[YASIN]

No . 2

 

[YASIN]

No. 3

 

[YASIN]

No. 4