Can I breed broodyness back in? Inky poroblem to...

[nayeli]

Good Luck GD, I read somewhere that privacy and extra space will encourage broodyness.

 

[teradragon]

This looks interesting. Can you take pictures of your pens before you put the quail in?

 

[GD91]

Sorry, no. I haven't got a digital camera or phone. I'll try & get one.

Well today I noticed one of the males crowing & chasing the other male around. He also tried to mount a hen.

I took the other male & hen out & put them in a large hutch temporarily.

I can describe the 1st pen.

Its 6 1/2 x 4 1/2 ft in L & W with a H of 4 1/2 ft. Its all wire meshed in. Great pen. I have one pair in there now.

The pair have a large wooden box, covered in a nailed down green tarp that has a hole cut in one end. Its very dark inside. The box is about 2 x 3 feet & was designed to shelter many birds at once during high winds. I designed & built it myself, the hole is placed right in the corner of one of the long sides to prevent much draft blowing in. The quail love it.

The also have sticks, a "bush" of twigs over a black flower pot (dark / boring colors make birds feel safer using them) 2 bricks next to the flowerpot, a rock & their feeder & drinker at the front. Also half of the pen is covered by a tarp.

If the hen ever goes broody, I plan to remove the male immediately if he upsets her too much.


I'm going to start building the second pen tomorrow..

Also the great thing is, they have been on natural light since they hatched, so they will be following natures beat so to speak.

 

[teradragon]

Sounds awesome. I hope your experiment works.

 

[GD91]

Has nobody ever actually tried this before with coturnix?

Usually when you revert a domestic animal back to a wild environment it will revert back on instinct. The parental instinct is very hard to breed out completely. Its one of the main instincts that keeps an animals species alive.

I'm even considering removing the male & reintroducing him when she's laying to encourage her to "call" for a mate & reinforce the reason why she's calling.

If I get any chicks I'll have to get a camera

you all won't believe me if I don't.

 

[TwoCrows]

I keep Bobwhites, which have not had time to breed out any broodiness. (Bobs are very recent to being kept in captivity) I keep them in VERY large aviaries with some of them having 50 square feet per bird. Lots of peace and quiet, brush and branch piles, hay for nest making, bushes and trees to fly into, piles of dirt for bathing, natural sunshine, everything that is in these birds natural habitat. I raised them from babies and are THE most laid back Bobs this side of the Mississippi!! And in all the many years I have been doing this, NEVER has a hen or roo stayed on the nest the full term. Yes, they will set for a few days, day and night. But at some point, they just get off the nest. And believe me, I have tried!!

So this approach can help the situation, but it is not ALL of the situation. Some birds just have very strong instincts and some don't. There are people on here that have quail that went broody in a cage FULL of birds in loud environments, and hatched out a brood. And like my case, a micro wild environment, and nothing.

But I keep trying.

 

[James the Bald]

Wish me a hell of a lot of luck. It probably won't work, I'm just curious. I won't be disappointed if it doesn't

I for one will wish you luck, at least you have a positive attitude on what you are trying to accomplish.
Good Luck,
James

 

[GD91]

Well, bit about monogamy may be true.

The hens have been calling since I split them up. Then I remembered the large male had been practicing mating with the golden hen.

Swapped the hens & they are now quiet with their separate mates. They settled down immediately, so I assume I mixed up the pairings to the hens dislike.

The males didn't seem bothered apart from the fact they wouldn't chase tail with the wrong hens!
The thread about bobwhites is very interesting

How many years have you had those? What are they like?

One of your aviary's is as big as my garden

In the UK all the gardens & houses are tiny compared to the USA & abroad.

I'm so jealous!

 

[TwoCrows]

Well, bit about monogamy may be true.

The hens have been calling since I split them up. Then I remembered the large male had been practicing mating with the golden hen.

Swapped the hens & they are now quiet with their separate mates. They settled down immediately, so I assume I mixed up the pairings to the hens dislike.

The males didn't seem bothered apart from the fact they wouldn't chase tail with the wrong hens!
The thread about bobwhites is very interesting

How many years have you had those? What are they like?

One of your aviary's is as big as my garden

In the UK all the gardens & houses are tiny compared to the USA & abroad.

I'm so jealous!

That is the smaller aviary. LOL My largest is a 10x30 foot. I have kept quail for almost one decade now. Seems like a lifetime. LOL And actually I am thinking about getting out of the quail biz and onto something else, I will always keep a handful of Bobs on hand just because I like them so much. But it is time to move on to other poultry. I started in with chickens 3 years ago and am thinking on the lines of pheasants or guineas in the near future. Letting my old Bobs die off naturally. I have some 7 year old Bobs that are still going strong!

 

[GD91]

Another update today!

Today Big Male was displaying territorial behavior, not just to Little male, but also to Little Males mate to across the garden.

I had to place them all together for 10 minutes while I sorted something out & Big male was being hostile to both Little Male & Little Males Mate.
By hostile, I mean chasing them both around & trying to flog them both. Even the hen, & before anybody mentions maybe he was trying to mate - he wasn't. No grabbing, just full on charging & pecking & lunging. Little Male & his Mate ran around keeping close together & hid.

Needless to say I took them both out of there ASAP. Big males mate "Golden hen" was not that bothered by the 2 others being in the pen, but he was.
Big male was attacking whenever the other 2 approached the food dish or got too close - within a distance of about 3 - 4ft & only when Golden Hen was eating there. Makes me wonder if he didn't want her to be disturbed, he seems to be trying to convince her to become receptive. At the moment she isn't laying & mainly runs if he trys to mate, although she does seem to see him as "hers" & they call to each other frequently.

As you can all gather, I have not much better things to do at this time of year than watch my birds