How many days can quail eggs sit before incubating?

[DK newbie]

Usually fertility of the eggs start dropping after a week and by 14 days after the egg has been laid it is rather unlikely to hatch. In the wild, a clutch of eggs might be 10-12 eggs meaning the oldest egg is still within the 14 day limit when they start sitting on the eggs. So if she hasn't started sitting 14 days after the first egg was laid, that one is unlikely to hatch - though some of the younger eggs might still hatch if she starts sitting, and the first one could still hatch as well.
Hay seems to trigger my buttons to go broody - a handful near the nest so they feel more sheltered and have some material to build a proper nest from. Probably more than a handful for bobwhites as they are larger..

 

[HarleyQuailison]

Usually fertility of the eggs start dropping after a week and by 14 days after the egg has been laid it is rather unlikely to hatch. In the wild, a clutch of eggs might be 10-12 eggs meaning the oldest egg is still within the 14 day limit when they start sitting on the eggs. So if she hasn't started sitting 14 days after the first egg was laid, that one is unlikely to hatch - though some of the younger eggs might still hatch if she starts sitting, and the first one could still hatch as well.
Hay seems to trigger my buttons to go broody - a handful near the nest so they feel more sheltered and have some material to build a proper nest from. Probably more than a handful for bobwhites as they are larger..

Thank you so much. I'm not quite sure what they are doing, but they seem to be both sitting on them and continuing to build nest. They have hay, grasses, weeds, and as of this morning, hay pellets. They have used the hay pellets they have torn up to cover the eggs up while they are working on the nest. Now I'm wondering, how are they going to get the eggs in the nest when they are finished with it?? I'm not sure if they can pick them up and move them. They completely trust me, and only me, to touch their eggs, although I have not. I'm wondering if they need help, being this is their first time?

 

[DK newbie]

They can't pick up their eggs.
Usually they'll build a nest and then lay the eggs directly in the nest. If they've laid some eggs right outside the nest, they can roll them into the nest with their beak, but from my experience (with button quail) they don't do this if the eggs are more than ~10 inches from the nest. Bobwhites might gather eggs from a slightly longer distance.
As long as your hen hasn't laid any eggs in the nest they are building, she's not really considering it her nest. The nest is the place she lays her eggs. If she starts laying in the new nest, you could move the old eggs there. But unless she's broody, there is no point in doing so - eventually there will be so many eggs you'll have to take them out.

 

[HarleyQuailison]

They can't pick up their eggs.
Usually they'll build a nest and then lay the eggs directly in the nest. If they've laid some eggs right outside the nest, they can roll them into the nest with their beak, but from my experience (with button quail) they don't do this if the eggs are more than ~10 inches from the nest. Bobwhites might gather eggs from a slightly longer distance.
As long as your hen hasn't laid any eggs in the nest they are building, she's not really considering it her nest. The nest is the place she lays her eggs. If she starts laying in the new nest, you could move the old eggs there. But unless she's broody, there is no point in doing so - eventually there will be so many eggs you'll have to take them out.

Why would I have to take them out? She has now, since last Sunday, laid 7 eggs, only 1 in the new nest because they are young, had a bully male up until two days before the first laid egg, and just inexperienced. But they have been worried a little frantically about these other 6, so I put them in the nest this morning, and all seems right as rain. But I don't know she'll even lay anymore, as he has kinda stopped the mating. He kinda mounts her, but doesn't go through with it anymore, so I don't know. I'm trying to just see what nature holds.

 

[DK newbie]

Well, if she doesn't go broody and you don't take them out, you'll end up having a cage littered with eggs that might be rotting and wouldn't hatch anyway if she went broody. Bobwhites might have some kind of stop function on their egg production, but buttons and coturnix certainly don't - mine still lay well with just 11 hours of light. And as you are keeping your bobwhites inside, there is no seasonal change to stop her from laying, so she might lay an egg a day for months. You don't want to leave all of those eggs in the cage.