I bought 6 females, 1 male about 12 days ago. They have given us approx 18 eggs - which is not a lot for this many females old enough to lay. I bought from a breeder, and they have them systematically sorted by age, with two laying eggs before we left the breeder! These birds seemed stressed and nervous overall, so I tried a few things: a flattened box on top of their cage, for starters and this actually seemed to calm them, however, they were scared anytime I had to remove and put the box back on - seeing as how they are prey animals, this made some sense so I moved the box to cover the front (and left the 3 remaining sides and top opened to the light - with hardware cloth, of course!).
2 days ago, I went back to the breeder and purchased 6 more quail: 1 male and 5 females, along with some eggs to attempt to incubate. These new batch of quail are 100pct more chilled out than the first group, and they have stayed that way. In addition, the first batch seem to have chilled out a bit too. I placed these cages side by side, with their feed trays on the same side so each group face each other when they eat.
In order to help distract the first batch of nervous quail, I have tried some treats and they like cooked egg, chopped cabbage, and apple a lot - only giving them a treat once per day/not every day. I also put a cuttlebone into the cage, attached to the side, and they really seem to like this as it is getting disintegrated. They are being fed Purina Mixed Flock crumbles. I inadvertently bought Game Bird Starter that is medicated, and I don't think I should feed adult quail medicated feed (this is just an assumption, I really don't know) and so the Purina feed was what I could get at my local store that had a higher protein content as compared to the other feeds available.
Anyway, good luck - I'm going through similar issues as well. Hopefully you'll get a reliable egg source beginning soon.
