Broody quail

[Gaucha]

I have a quail pen I set up over a year ago. Got my first quail as eggs from Amazon lol. Mix of jumbo cotornix, Japanese, and something else. Anyways, a few months ago I kept a few eggs and incubated them. After culling some males I now have total 9 female and 2 male in the pen. Till recently I was getting 9 eggs a day. My pen is not set up to cause them to brood. It is very basic. Lots of room of course to fly and run with some shelter. The last 3 days I have not picked up about 10 eggs because there are 2 of my quail taking turns being broody with them. No hay or bedding in there. I tried adding bedding today and they ran from it so I took the hay away. They went right back after. Do I just let them continue? And yes, my quail pen has always been predator proof

IMG_2696

• Gaucha
• Jul 24, 2017

Both broody hens, after I took the bedding they hated away. They kicked two eggs out of the...

IMG_2697

• Gaucha
• Jul 24, 2017

After the dark broody hen left. Took the two eggs kicked out away. Dark hen came back after the...

First pic the broody quail are together. It was after I took the bedding away. They kicked 2 eggs out. Second pic after I took the two eggs out. The dark one came back to set the unattended eggs. All eggs are "covered" now.

 

[paneubert]

Might as well see if they hatch anything. The problem is that broody quail are rare, and broody quail that actually stick with it for 17 days are even more rare. They have a short attention span.

 

[DK newbie]

They are so cute ^^ For now I'd just leave them alone as much as possible, but if they get to 10 days or so and still seem serious about it, I'd start to worry about the chicks - quail chicks can get into all sorts of trouble. Give them a gap to get stuck in or a drop of water to drown in and they will. The other quail are also very likely to hurt them - I might catch them and place them in a temporary cage if it was me.

 

[Birdhunter]

I bought 20 bobwhite chicks last May at 2 days old. Still have all of them 14 months later. I put them outside in a coop when they were 10 weeks old. I had a heat lamp out on all the cold nights. But my hens started laying eggs in November not may like I have read. I just hatched my first 50 eggs out of a 140 and I'm pretty excited. Can a person keep hatching eqqs threwout the year. Oh yea. I have one hen who stayed with her eggs until two hatched.

 

[paneubert]

Bobwhite do not tend to lay as long or frequent as coturnix. And I have heard that the "off season" eggs are not as fertile.

 

[Binki]

Hehe awesome!! Mine went broody in an aviary but beside a clump of grass that I put the top half of a dog crate over her, seemed to trigger when I didn't pick up the eggs for a few days which allowed several to accumulate in her nest.

The other two hens kept laying I it so I had to mark 13? eggs and remove the new ones when I unblocked the front of the crate to let her out to stretch/have a dust bath for a few minutes a couple of times a day - then right back to her eggs. I had food and water beside her.

She hatched out 7 and one I found in the morning squished and the next morning I found another who seemed to have been pushed out of the nest overnight and got a chill and didn't recover.

It's risky trusting a hen with the chicks, especially in an outdoor setting.

She would tidbit for them and find grubs, we would dig together for the chicks but after a few days she seemed to be losing interest and would pace sometimes, sometimes trampling a chick in the process so I removed them and raised them myself

You can see a chick in the last photo yup she made tidbitting "woop woop woop" sounds, just like the boys do

 

[blackdust951]

View attachment 1089037 View attachment 1089039 View attachment 1089040 Hehe awesome!! Mine went broody in an aviary but beside a clump of grass that I put the top half of a dog crate over her, seemed to trigger when I didn't pick up the eggs for a few days which allowed several to accumulate in her nest.

The other two hens kept laying I it so I had to mark 13? eggs and remove the new ones when I unblocked the front of the crate to let her out to stretch/have a dust bath for a few minutes a couple of times a day - then right back to her eggs. I had food and water beside her.

She hatched out 7 and one I found in the morning squished and the next morning I found another who seemed to have been pushed out of the nest overnight and got a chill and didn't recover.

It's risky trusting a hen with the chicks, especially in an outdoor setting.

She would tidbit for them and find grubs, we would dig together for the chicks but after a few days she seemed to be losing interest and would pace sometimes, sometimes trampling a chick in the process so I removed them and raised them myself

You can see a chick in the last photo yup she made tidbitting "woop woop woop" sounds, just like the boys do

ARE YOU GOING TO LEAVE THE CHICKS WITH HER?I LIKE YOUR CAGE I WANT TO MAKE ONE LIKE THIS WITH LOTS OF PLANTS AND HIDING PLACES

 

[pigeoner]

can you post pictures of your aiviary

 

[pigeoner]

was your broody quails separated from the rest of the flock?

 

[jak2002003]

It's always great when they go broody.... shows they are really relaxed and happen in the environment with no stress.

It's very rare. As, other posters have said, for them to go broody, even in the best conditions as it's been bred out of them... like some chicken breeds.

But every now and then it does happen... and keeping a photo record will help.. because many people refuse to believe it.

I have had Chinese painted quails (AKA button quails) go broody and raise their own chicks many times over the years. I have also had a Japanese Quail go broody and raise her chicks (some of them) to adulthood.

From my experience it is more to do with the genetics of the birds than the environment. However, in a wire bottom empty cage with many birds stuffed together there is no way one will go broody.

My button quail were kept in pairs, each had a small wooden open front nest box with hay inside. They were kept in quite small pens outside.. like miniature chicken tractor which was divided up into sections for each pair, with a dust bath, balls of hay and plastic plants to hide in. The floor was fine wire mesh, but it was on the ground, so grass and live plants (and worms, bugs, insects) could be eaten by the quails. I moved it every few days to fresh grazing. I had no problems with them going broody and being very good parents. They even did not mind being moved around when brooding, so long as the nest box was always facing the same direction (they got confused about the entrance side if it faced a different direction).

However, I gave up on them for a few years as I reduced my bird collection.. which had got a bit time consuming to care for.

When I got some new button quail I tried again... the exact same set up, but no broody hens ever! The homes my original birds young went to (kept in contact with 2 of the people) told me they had gone broody in their aviary. The new birds I got were super aggressive, even the females.. and there was lots of fighting, crowing, and the birds were very different acting to my first lot.

The Japanese quail hen went broody in my parakeet aviary. She just started to lay the eggs in a pile in the corner in a depression in the bark chippings I used to cover the floor. I got lazy collecting them... and when I went in one day I saw her brooding the eggs. I thought maybe she was just laying an egg and left her to it. The next day she was still on the nest... and eventually she hatched out 8 chicks. Sadly they seem to be prone to squashing the babies by accident (probably from their habit of pacing up and down the sides of the aviary). She only raised 2 in the end. She was in with one other female and a male... both of witch showed no aggression to the chicks. She also let a lot of eggs chill by accidently kicking them out the nest.. so I suggest OP, you somehow make it more of a bowl or depression.

Good luck with your pair!!! Keep us posted please.