Broody Coturnix hen(s)

[Lilyofsalen]

I definitely have couples. I even have a set of five birds with two couples and an extra girlfriend. Every once in a while they have swingers' party and everyone takes a turn.

Yes, I know -- not recommended. Still, I'm not changing it up until it stops working.

(P.S. Right now they're making a community nest and all the girls put their eggs in the hole they dug. I'm not holding out for them brooding though. Too many "almost" stories, so I'll just skip the drama.)

I'm thinking of separating them into compatible couples before trying to reintroduce them into a group setting to see if that works. That's kind of what happened with the five birds mentioned above.

As you can tell, I'm losing my backbone on culling the extra roosters. . .sigh.

Out of curiosity, what is the space you give per bird with your set of five? I don't think I've ever seen my birds pair up but I don't keep too many males either. I think I will try to boost my male to female ratio to 1:3 and see how that goes . . .

 

[Lilyofsalen]

@Lilyofsalen, if you're interested in pair-bonding and broodiness in japanese quails, I would recommend looking at this article and others on the website from someone who does keep quails in this sort of setting.
https://holistic-hen.blogspot.com/2017/05/ideas-for-encouraging-pair-bonding.html#.YAoWkugzaUm

Thank you for the resource! It's cool that she got one of her Coturnix hens to adopt chicks. I wonder if I could try that with some of the other hens I'd seen take an interest in setting eggs. I have a Scarlet X Silver (sex-linked) hatch in the incubator that goes into lockdown tomorrow.

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

Out of curiosity, what is the space you give per bird with your set of five? I don't think I've ever seen my birds pair up but I don't keep too many males either. I think I will try to boost my male to female ratio to 1:3 and see how that goes . . .

Right now they're at about 10 square feet for the five of them. They do have a lot of distractions and hiding coves too.

Mostly, I think it helped that the first occupants were already a couple, a hen I saved and the companion that got saved because she was lonely. At this point, those two are practically pets. She loves me since she heard my voice and I fed her when she was blind, and she loves him because he dropped into her brooder when she was desperately lonely in recuperation.

 

[Lilyofsalen]

Still, no chicks. When will I know there's no hope of the eggs hatching? They have bright, clearly defined air cells and definitely look viable. It's reasonable for them to hatch later since I guessed the ages. I'm just nervous . . .

 

[Lilyofsalen]

 

[Lilyofsalen]

It didn't quite go the way I was hoping but she hatched some chicks. I candled the eggs more thoroughly and found that most had died during the late stages of incubation (It smelled and looked like infection). Only two looked good and only one of them had any movement. I exchanged the two good eggs for four eggs from the incubator. The four hatched beneath her overnight and after the hatch was done I brought her inside. She is a good mama. She talks to her chicks, shows them food, shows them water, calls them to her, etc. She has also adopted four more chicks from the incubator. Her chicks will join the aviary and since they have been raised naturally they will be more inclined to go broody.

 

[OzarkCountryGirl]

When I get a hen that begins to act broody, I move all the girls and the male into another cage. That leaves her in the cage she's already used to so it doesn't break her broodiness, which I've found that sharing the pen with others can also do hence the reason for moving all the others out. So far the hens I've done this with have successfully hatched and reared their young every time.

 

[suburban quail]

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.

Hi,
I hatch Jumbo Coturnix (wild brown) several times a year. I just love these little birds The male coturnix are really quiet up until about 8-10 weeks old, then puberty hits and they get noisy and overbreed the females. Around 6 weeks of age, you can look at the feathers to tell which is a hen and which is a rooster. I strongly recommend removing most of the roosters at that time (keep a ratio of 1 roo to 4 hens if you want to have fertile eggs). If you only have 1 rooster for every 4 hens, the roosters stay very quiet.
I can't tell you what to do with the roosters, but if you put them in a separate pen together, they will try to breed with each other and tear out a lot of feathers in the process.

 

[Quailobsessed]

It didn't quite go the way I was hoping but she hatched some chicks. I candled the eggs more thoroughly and found that most had died during the late stages of incubation (It smelled and looked like infection). Only two looked good and only one of them had any movement. I exchanged the two good eggs for four eggs from the incubator. The four hatched beneath her overnight and after the hatch was done I brought her inside. She is a good mama. She talks to her chicks, shows them food, shows them water, calls them to her, etc. She has also adopted four more chicks from the incubator. Her chicks will join the aviary and since they have been raised naturally they will be more inclined to go broody.

Congrats! I love watching broody hens raise their own chicks! Hopefully those chicks will eventually make good parents too!

 

[Lilyofsalen]

Here is a video for your enjoyment where I feed the hen and her babies some mealworms. I normally don't feed young quail mealworms out of fear that they will go after each other's toes but with my broody hen showing them toes aren't food I've never had a problem. There was one case where one chick grabbed another's toe but it was quickly diffused by the hen picking up a mealworm in her beak and showing the offending chick actual food.