Broody roo?

[Ravenlover]

I feel so strange asking this. We started with a rescue quail that turned out to be a male. The wildlife center that had him figured he was young when they got him (I'm guessing less than eight weeks because he grew larger than when he was found). They kept him in a large dog crate for two months alone. Tried to home him with a farmer who put him in with chickens. Chickens did not accept him. Farmer took him into the house where he crowed and crowed until they sent him back to the wildlife center. Two more months pass and he ends up with us.

I'm new to quails but not to research and I immediately recognized he needed females. I obtained four young hens and he was finally content. He does have some unique behaviours, which I'm guessing are from his lonely stressed out upbringing. He has never attempted to fly, and when I add special treat foods (live worms or sunflower seeds) he makes his very loud happy sound (which alerts the girls, who immediately go steal his treat). Lately I've had a hen who is a bit broody but she has no follow through once she's gathered all the eggs under her. She'll sit for a half hour then forget about them. Moved all the birds recently to much larger pen where they picked a nesting spot. I noticed since the move that the roo seems protective of the eggs.

Didn't think much of it until today when he spent time digging up the area around the eggs that the semi-broody hen had shuffled all the eggs to. He dug up enough of the dirt that they were lightly buried, then he went and sat on them! It took live worms in the cage to get him to give up his guard. Do the males take turns sitting on the eggs to let the female have a break? Is he possibly sitting on them with purpose or just back to guarding them? I find it fascinating and would love to help them kick that instinct back on to naturally hatch their own eggs.

Picture of Captain Quark the roo

Love the story and i know buttons/kings help incubate them when they a good lad which is rare lol o.o i say go with it and see what happens it is the dads job to gather the wondering babes and guard them after they hatch on buttons so lets find out with coturnix ?

 

[muans]

my only roo is also very broody but my hens are not..he keeps on collecting the eggs and when ever i open their coop and try to take the eggs he keep on running around the coop and alert the hens like "intruders is coming, retreat or hide away"

 

[Ravenlover]

my only roo is also very broody but my hens are not..he keeps on collecting the eggs and when ever i open their coop and try to take the eggs he keep on running around the coop and alert the hens like "intruders is coming, retreat or hide away"

Awww give him 1 to try just 1

 

[muans]

Awww give him 1 to try just 1

would love to but my niece and nephews really love quail eggs so i have collect every friday..see on thing is that he's not happy with a coop without a single egg..so i always have to put back atleast one egg from the fridge then he would stop alerting the hens

 

[Ravenlover]

would love to but my niece and nephews really love quail eggs so i have collect every friday..see on thing is that he's not happy with a coop without a single egg..so i always have to put back atleast one egg from the fridge then he would stop alerting the hens

Eat fridge egg let him have it lol vote people let the poor guy hatch

 

[muans]

Eat fridge egg let him have it lol vote people let the poor guy hatch

i don't think he'll hatch any as he only cares for the egg not sitting on it but collecting them and building nest and offer his nest to the hens

 

[Quailobsessed]

I have had males who help out with incubating eggs, including one who would force his mate to go broody. He would lure her into the nest with food and then sit on her to make her incubate the eggs!

 

[Ravenlover]

I have had males who help out with incubating eggs, including one who would force his mate to go broody. He would lure her into the nest with food and then sit on her to make her incubate the eggs!

So wished u had pics of this

 

[Captain Quark]

Checked on the buried eggs, they were somewhat unburied as they had added to the pile and one was smashed. I've removed the broken one. The roo was giving me unhappy noises and charging around the pen. The girls could care less . Eggs aren't warm at all so I'm guessing the sitting behaviour isn't happening often enough for any hatching hopes!

We started up the incubator so we can really get some chicks. It's our first hatching experience. I'm looking forward to seeing how the roo reacts to the babies.

I'm guessing we can't keep the females in that pen with him because he'll mate with the daughters? I've got the pens sectioned off so there will be no inbreeding. Not many quail people that I've found near me to get a fresh bloodline introduced. We will keep looking!

 

[Quailobsessed]

So wished u had pics of this

I don't have a picture of that, but I have a picture of another broody pair.