Broody Coturnix hen(s)

[CovidtimeQuail]

If your gal starts hatching eggs, I would take her, the nest and chicks and put them in a seperate space. I've heard the males can be either amazing or horrible towards chicks

Females too. Regardless, keep an eye on them. Some of my birds were hatched by a broody hen, then rescued after she started to kill them. Another set I know of was abandoned after a few hours.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Do you have a barn cat?

 

[Lilyofsalen]

How exciting!

Once the chicks hatch I would move them to their own space, but be prepared for the hen to not be a great mother. The stories of broody quail I've read on here usually end in the human raising the chicks as the mother doesn't seem to know what to do, so keep them in a small space (so chicks don't stray too far) and keep an eye on them. Usually it would be the male's job to round up stragglers, so any chick that gets too far from the hen won't be rescued by her.

Maybe try to include the nest in their new space as she'll want to return to that initially with her chicks.

Keep us updated. The mice probably won't go after the quail's nest/eggs. They'll be more interested in stealing seed and feed.

Ok, do you think I should move her nest before her little chicks hatch?

Why has broodiness been bred out of Coturnix quail? Some chickens are bred for broodiness, aren't they? So why not Coturnix? Do you think it would be possible to breed it back into them? What kind of traits would you be looking for in a male Coturnix in this scenario?

 

[Lilyofsalen]

Do you have a barn cat?

I wish, but a cat seems like a nuclear option. My neighbors had a cat and it did an amazing job at destroying the native lizard population (although we also had no mice/rat problems for as long as it was around).

 

[JaeG]

Ok, do you think I should move her nest before her little chicks hatch?

Why has broodiness been bred out of Coturnix quail? Some chickens are bred for broodiness, aren't they? So why not Coturnix? Do you think it would be possible to breed it back into them? What kind of traits would you be looking for in a male Coturnix in this scenario?

I'd wait until they hatch otherwise she may abandon the whole nest and eggs. They get attached to a nest location rather than the eggs when they go broody.

Coturnix are a production breed, bred to lay eggs, not sit and hatch. It doesn't take many generations of being artificially hatched and raised for quail to lose the ability to go broody. They are also rarely kept in roomy enough enclosures for them to display any natural behaviours.

 

[Nabiki]

Hi I am really glad you started this thread, DH and I were just talking about expanding into quail. We already have chickens, were discussing how frequently quail go broody and what we would need to get started. I don't have a bator and have always hatched using a broody. I wish to continue with broodies. I am sorry I can't be much help to you, as I am just starting to amass info, but if you don't mind I have a question or two.
Are your male quails very loud? Do they crow like a rooster? Or is it a different sound? I am hoping to keep from having to buy hatching quail eggs to keep my flock going. But do not want the neighbors to complain. Thanks and good luck with your hatch, let us know in a few days how it goes.

Here's what a crowing coturnix sounds like.

They're definitely quieter than chickens. That's a lot of why I chose quail over chickens. I live in a suburb with neighbours all around. The only time I get a lot of noise out of my birds is when I have too many boys.

They are very unlikely to go broody, so you should have an incubator.

 

[Lilyofsalen]

OK, sort of random question . . . Why does there seem to be so much more genetic diversity in chickens than in quail? silkie feathers, a lot more colors, and patterns, many different egg colors, head feathers, cheek feathers, etc can be found in chickens.

 

[Lilyofsalen]

Hi I am really glad you started this thread, DH and I were just talking about expanding into quail. We already have chickens, were discussing how frequently quail go broody and what we would need to get started. I don't have a bator and have always hatched using a broody. I wish to continue with broodies. I am sorry I can't be much help to you, as I am just starting to amass info, but if you don't mind I have a question or two.
Are your male quails very loud? Do they crow like a rooster? Or is it a different sound? I am hoping to keep from having to buy hatching quail eggs to keep my flock going. But do not want the neighbors to complain. Thanks and good luck with your hatch, let us know in a few days how it goes.

I just got some two-week-old silkie chicks too and they are at least twice as loud as a similarly aged Coturnix. I would also say that they are louder than the full-grown female Coturnix. The difference in noise level already is astounding and silkies are supposed to be pretty quiet too.

 

[Lilyofsalen]

There's been a pretty major change in the behavior of the female Coturnix in my aviary. A lot of them don't like the males and they've suddenly become more aggressive. Some of them are building nests and showing more interest in sitting on eggs. I'm pretty sure this behavior has to do with them going broody. There's another hen cave that has become a big community nest. The big problem is that there are too many hens competing for it. I put in two more hen caves pretty recently but it seems to take a bit for them to warm up to them. I would've put a lot more nesting sites in had I anticipated them taking an interest in hatching their own.

 

[shrimpsilkies]

OK, sort of random question . . . Why does there seem to be so much more genetic diversity in chickens than in quail? silkie feathers, a lot more colors, and patterns, many different egg colors, head feathers, cheek feathers, etc can be found in chickens.

Japanese quail, the only domestic quail species in captivity, have only been domesticated for about 1,000 years. Chickens have been domesticated for around or less than 10,000 years, so we’ve had a lot longer to mess with them all around the world and breed really different looking varieties from all the mutations that popped up over the thousands of years. Coturnix were also only kept in Japan—I’m fairly sure they’re all descended from the resident population of C. japonica there. They were first kept for their voice, and later for eggs and meat. Some varieties had special crows and were prized for their “singing”. In WWII most of the quail varieties such as the singers went extinct as people lost interest or their birds were destroyed. What we have today are the descendants of that population, a much smaller and less diverse gene pool.