Anyone else's birds quitting early this year?

[joe125]

Quote:
I keep most of my coturnix laying all year long. Heat and cold has an effect on egg production, but mostly fertility.

I'm cold tested to 12 deg. F.. No heat lamp

 

[Wifezilla]

I am only getting 1 egg a day from 3 hens, but one just got done raising a chick and someone is molting, so I am not surprised. Have there been a lot of feathers floating around the pen lately??

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

Yes, I have molting browns, but they are still laying but skipping a day.
M Golds are not molting and are laying an egg a day.

I give them extra light in the evening to make it 14 hours.

My 6 week old browns just started laying without additional light (they are under the breeder pens) in their grow out pen. Time to separate again.

 

[Stellar]

I have mine indoors so I can control the lighting. I do give them a break for two weeks at a time by decreasing the lighting times. Then I get less eggs. If it gets cold fast, which did last year, I had to supply heat indoors because they stopped laying for awhile.

 

[Mrs MIA]

I noticed that quite a few of mine were molting, too, just like my chickens. I usually have mine inside the breeding coop in the winter, and since I try to keep it just above freezing I still get eggs through the winter with supplemental light. A friend of mine housed hers all winter in a hay-packed rabbit hutch, and they did fine without heat down to -30F. Of course, she wasn't looking for eggs at that time. I need them year round so I have to house them warmer/lighter in the winter. I keep breeding pens with 4-5 hens to one male. It just seems that I read somewhere that after 8 months they become a "liability", ie. fertility and productivity go down, so my goal is to rotate them every 6 months. At 4 months hatch more to replace the older birds. I just met a falconer a couple of months ago, and he wants any older birds that I lose or put down, so they won't go to waste. I can't eat that many quail.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
You can supposedly make coturnix lay all year but it is not natural for them to. I did have a few females that laid all winter last year, but none of the eggs were fertile.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

I noticed that quite a few of mine were molting, too, just like my chickens. I usually have mine inside the breeding coop in the winter, and since I try to keep it just above freezing I still get eggs through the winter with supplemental light. A friend of mine housed hers all winter in a hay-packed rabbit hutch, and they did fine without heat down to -30F. Of course, she wasn't looking for eggs at that time. I need them year round so I have to house them warmer/lighter in the winter. I keep breeding pens with 4-5 hens to one male. It just seems that I read somewhere that after 8 months they become a "liability", ie. fertility and productivity go down, so my goal is to rotate them every 6 months. At 4 months hatch more to replace the older birds. I just met a falconer a couple of months ago, and he wants any older birds that I lose or put down, so they won't go to waste. I can't eat that many quail.

I've not had any fertility problems, and most of mine are at least a year old, some of them are close to 2. But production is down, that's for sure. But it's hard to say why, I have changed their feed some this season, and they are all crammed together in that one pen.​

 

[Stellar]

Once you get them separated and with more space, I bet you will see some changes, Shelley

Maybe they just need a break

 

[JJMR794]

Mine Are Crankin Out More Eggs Than Ever Before...

 

[joe125]

Quote:
Well, mine are crankin them out as well! I don't even know why, but they are.