Broody quail, now what?

[Oob Child]

One of my quail, George, is broody. She had been test sitting the last few days but now I think she is actually broody. She is sitting on 12 eggs, now what?
She lives in a big cage but not a big enough one for her to escape the other birds. I've got a bad male too female ratio because I had one female die and another was an undetected male.

Should I separate her or something, or fence off that bit of cage? The male seems to know most of the time to not annoy her while she is broody.

I already have a plan of what to do with the babies if she hatches any.

What do I do now?

Also, is it safe to deep clean the cage except for the nest or should I wait?

There have been one or two extra eggs added since this picture was taken.

 

[sourland]

I would either move the other birds to another cage or make it so that they could not access/disturb her.

 

[Nabiki]

Take the other birds out and leave her alone. Don't let her have any more eggs. You can mark the ones she has and maybe take a few away.

Have a brooder ready in case she actually hatches them. She may get tired of being broody in a few days, so you may want to have your incubator ready too. If she stays on the eggs and actually hatches them, she may attack the chicks. She may be a good mom, but it's better to be prepared in case she isn't.

 

[007Sean]

@Nabiki , has given you excellent advice. If this was my hen, I'd remove all but 6 of the eggs, 12 is too many for her to incubate/hatch.

 

[Oob Child]

I would either move the other birds to another cage or make it so that they could not access/disturb her.

I'll do that, but that will make a bad ratio for my hens. She has 14 eggs now.

@Nabiki , has given you excellent advice. If this was my hen, I'd remove all but 6 of the eggs, 12 is too many for her to incubate/hatch.

Ok, I'll do that, but will it make her not want to be broody anymore?

Take the other birds out and leave her alone. Don't let her have any more eggs. You can mark the ones she has and maybe take a few away.

Have a brooder ready in case she actually hatches them. She may get tired of being broody in a few days, so you may want to have your incubator ready too. If she stays on the eggs and actually hatches them, she may attack the chicks. She may be a good mom, but it's better to be prepared in case she isn't.

Ok, I'll set up my incubator and a brooder.

 

[007Sean]

I'll do that, but that will make a bad ratio for my hens. She has 14 eggs now.

Ok, I'll do that, but will it make her not want to be broody anymore?


Ok, I'll set up my incubator and a brooder.

Taking away all but 6 or 7 eggs, shouldn't make her not be broody. ...taking them all away would....maybe?

 

[Oob Child]

Taking away all but 6 or 7 eggs, shouldn't make her not be broody. ...taking them all away would....maybe?

I took away 10, it turns out she had 16.

 

[Oob Child]

Update: she's still broody!

 

[Oob Child]

I put some soft bird-safe materials in the cage and when she got up from the nest to eat and drink I watched her collect them and put thek as part of her nest. It's so cute

 

[Oob Child]

She stopped sitting. She was broody this morning and some of the eggs were around day 6. She was doing really well and oy left the nest to eat. I think something must have spooked her, I doubt she would've changed that quickly otherwise.

She had 7 eggs, one of them looking around day 6 and the others day 3, one of them didn't develop but I know it's old. I put them all in the incubator.

I waited about 3 hours but she didn't go back on the eggs the whole time. If she decides to try again for whatever reason and seems to be doing well I'll give them back to her, but I'm keeping them in the meantime.