Coturnix not laying (7 months old)

[jstamper]

I have about 25 7-month-old A&M coturnix, all together in a wire-bottom pen. They have yet to lay the first egg, and I have heard no crowing/singing. Are they that much more sensitive to daylength than chickens (my chickens have been laying good for a while now)?

I have had them on 20% Purina gamebird breeder/layer feed through the winter, and some that I have eaten had a lot of visceral fat. Could this be the problem?

Thanks!

Jonathan

 

[joe125]

You may want to bump them up to GBS, and check your lighting.

They are most likely not getting the proper amount of light, because they should lay on even that feed.

It's a light thing. I'm most certain!

 

[joe125]

Ooops!
Even the most diligent coturnix hen can wait 8+ weeks before they lay eggs.

Check your feed,time-line, or wait a week or two. It works wonders sometimes

 

[jstamper]

Just to be clear, they are 7 MONTHS old, and they are outside.

 

[mhwc56]

if they're not getting 14 hours of light they wont lay
can't think of any other reason why you wouldn't be getting ANY eggs........have you ever had any eggs from them..like last fall...? i'm thiking you haven't from your post but just wanted to be sure....
strange.

 

[ostrichlover]

I think it's the lighting...

 

[sfw2]

I'd guess light, too. You don't say what state you're located in, but here in Virginia, my one-year-olds - who were crowing and laying up a storm last summer and fall - have just started up again.

 

[jstamper]

I'm in sw VA. I have heard that they need 14 hours of light, but that's also the standard line about chickens, and they for sure don't need 14 full hours to lay at least some.

These quail were hatched last August, and didn't lay last fall. NO eggs yet.

Would it help to split them into smaller groups, or perhaps to provide a nest box?

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
THEY LIKELY WONT USE A NEST BOX... COTURNIX HENS SEEM TO JUST LAY EGGS LIKE MANY OTHER BIRDS HAVE BOWEL MOVEMENTS, THEY JUST KINDA SLOW DOWN A TAD AND SHAKE IT OUT THEN KEEP GOING... I REALIZE THEY ARE 7 MOS OLD, BUT HAS ANYTHING BEEN CHANGED WITH THEM? HAVE THEY BEEN MOVED, HAD FEED CHANGES, NEW PEN MATES OR NEIGHBORS RECENTLY? ANYTHING AT ALL THAT YOU CAN THINK OF IN THE PAST 4-6 WKS.

JUST A LIL CAVEAT--- ARE YOU SURE THEY ARENT EATING THE EGGS?

 

[jstamper]

They have been in the same pen, in the same place since they came out of the brooder.

I have thought about egg eating before, and have kept an eye out for shell fragments (have seen none). Seems unlikely that they would eat every single bit of every single egg. Also, no crowing/singing and no mating/mounting activity (at all).