Ive given up on trying to get the hen broody and removed all the eggs but on the positive side my button quail pair have gone to nest on 7 eggs and their five chicks are just coming on five weeks
I had bantam chickens when I started. I keep finding rocks & walnuts in there coop all nested together. The birds weren't laying yet. I thought it was one of my kids putting them there until one day as I was watching one cross the yard & drop a rock. She hurried to scoop it back under her wing & ran back to the coop to put it in her nest. It was the funniest thing is ever seen.
After they got older I tried to let the ones that wanted to incubate eggs but nine ever stayed on the nest long enough. They have up about three days shy. I tried letting then nest on fake eggs about a week before my hatch day with my incubator then replace the fake eggs with the ones I incubated the day before they hatches. Most eggs hatches but they always got their chicks in trouble & lost the whole clutch.
I did have one bird disappear for a month & finally come home with a clutch but she lost them also. I have up at that point.
My bobwhite hen has been acting crazy today staying in the box which they made a dome out of grass so I placed 6 of their previous eggs laid the last three days under her. I checked when I came home (11pm) and shes sitting on them. There infertile (two hens) but im gonna try put button eggs under her shortl.