10 weeks, not laying, advice on lighting

[chellejay]

Hi all,
My coturnix are approaching 10 weeks old and have not started laying. Coming into winter, we have only 10 hours of daylight here at the moment. Plus, their enclosure is in a shaded area, so they are probably only getting 9 hours max of light.
I'm looking at the LED candles with timers that have been suggested here. But it seems battery life will be an issue. I'm not keen on paying for something that will need batteries replaced every few weeks.
My past experience with solar lights that come on as the light fades, is that as they run out of stored energy they gradually dim. So they don't really stay well-lit for 4-5 hours and then just immediately turn off plunging the quail into darkness. So I am not sure why they are generally not recommended.
Does anyone have recommendations for inexpensive lighting options (in Australia) that have worked for you? I've purchased those string lighting things plus path lights from Bunnings in the past, but they only seemed to last for a few months before totally dying so I was hoping for something better.
cheers,
Chelle.

 

[feedman77]

Is your quail pen close enough for electricity?

If it is could hook up a small lightbulb on a timer.

I have solar rope lights, path lights, and a 9 light flat solar light. I don't think they produce the right light as mine didn't lay til they got full sun hours.

 

[Binki]

Perhaps you could invest in some rechargeable batteries if you have a use for them other than with the quail lighting?

I know that LEDs take very little electricity and lasts waaaay longer than incandescent, I know you had a bad experience but I would think outdoor use rope led lighting would be best on a timer.

I don't have personal experience with it but would seem the best option for long life, bright light and little cost?

There are also plant lights you can buy - multiple LEDs in one fixture with different spectrums, that's as close to natural sunlight as I can think of

 

[chellejay]

Not possible to run electricity unfortunately. I think I'll ask around about the solar path lights and see if anyone local can suggest something decent, and if that fails I'll give the LED candles a go with the re-chargeable batteries.
All the LED rope lights with timers look a lot more expensive than I was hoping to get away with!

 

[JaeG]

If you are, like me, coming into winter they will take longer to start laying. My 3 girls (out of 22 chicks - so frustrating!) that hatched on 21 March have only just started laying yesterday - a full two months old. Most of my males are outside, so no one is crowing, but even the one I have indoors isn't crowing yet. I can hear his deep voice but I cannot work out which one is the boy (they are tuxedo rosettas).

 

[Binki]

If you are, like me, coming into winter they will take longer to start laying. My 3 girls (out of 22 chicks - so frustrating!) that hatched on 21 March have only just started laying yesterday - a full two months old. Most of my males are outside, so no one is crowing, but even the one I have indoors isn't crowing yet. I can hear his deep voice but I cannot work out which one is the boy (they are tuxedo rosettas).

*edit* woops it posted accidentally before I could write anything xD

I wanted to say WOW! Only 3/22 were female?? What are the chances of that like really :O sorry to hear that!

Might still get some more girls since as tuxedos their plumage isn't sexually dimorphic?

I had a boy named Robbie that "turned" into a girl - still looks like a boy to me, such a tiny thing! but she literally snuggled into my hands to lay an egg today so... No doubts there LOL... That's the only time she will tolerate being held is when she's about to lay, it's hilarious.. She will roam around nearly flipping the other girls over, trying to snuggle into them to lay.... I thought it was just her thing then seen another girl in a different cage outside do it the other day!

 

[Quaillvr]

That is really cool! What type of quail was that? Tuxedo? Not familiar, will have to look them up.

 

[Binki]

That is really cool! What type of quail was that? Tuxedo? Not familiar, will have to look them up.

It's a coturnix quail, just type of feather color

These girls are all coturnix quail, just different color versions