broody japanese quail hen

kingpincray

Songster
10 Years
Jul 19, 2009
223
4
111
Palmerston North
I posted this in the quail section but no one posted so I am trying here. I have a japanese quail that has decided to incubate eggs. She has been sitting a few days and the first few days she didn't really know what she was doing and the eggs were all around her not under her. She is learning and I have put some hay in for nesting material and she refused to go back to the nest after that as it changed. She did in the end after more than half an hour and she is quite comfortable now and hopefully she might have some chicks of her own. How long can eggs be left without the hen after being incubated?

The rest of the hens in the same cage behaved unusual as well as they attacked the males and almost killed one. It seemed like they were protecting the broody one. One of them even pulled out all her bum feathers to contribute to make a nest for her.

Does anyone else have a jap quail that went broody that can share their story? I keep reading that it is unusual...
 
well, complicated, i never have a broody quail.

do you have broody hen? better let the hen handle it. i heard quail isn't a real good broody bird.

if you don't have broody hen, you can use incubator to hatch it. many have done it here
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She seems to be doing very well with the eggs now. She come out once or twice a day to eat, drink and defecate and goes back to sit on the eggs. Something might hatch. I have agot eggs in the incubator as well.
 
She should do fine. Coturnix don't normally go broody, but it's not impossible. I would think since she wasn't exactly sitting on the eggs at first, it probably didn't hurt them. Besides, the first few days, the eggs tend to go dormant if they get cool, they don't die too easily early on. Heck, they don't really die all that easily later on either.
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You'll be better off moving the other birds out of her pen, they'll probably kill the babies when they do hatch. And make sure the wire is no bigger than 1/2" so the babies can't get out. You'll need to cover the bottom with smaller wire (1/4") or with some rubber shelf liner, so their little legs don't slip through
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Congrats on the broody coturnix!!
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The due date is next friday I think if they hatch
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I kind of made the initial nest for her as she was sitting just on the plywood...didn't think that was too comfy for her. I made two nests as two of them was actually sitting but they other one was just keeping her company i think coz she didn't have any eggs underneath her but she did pull out her bum feathers for the one that is sitting on eggs to "make a nest" I think. Very fascinating behaviour.
However I have moved the other so she is sitting on her own now.

After that, she moved all the eggs after modifying and merging the loose hay from both to make what she is sitting on at the moment. quite amazing.
 

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