Do quails sit on their own eggs to hatch them?

[QuailFarm]

Do quail take care of their eggs? Or do I need to use incubator to hatch eggs?

 

[nchls school]

I've raised button quail in the past and had good luck having them go broody and raise chicks. In the absence of a huge flight/run, they went broody only when they had a cage of their own where only a pair was present. I removed the male when a number of eggs had been laid.

I did the same with the Japanese quail, above; the hen was quick to lay a clutch of eggs and go broody. The hen in the above picture was raised by a serama bantam. That might account for her being prone to broodiness???????

This is the serama bantam with quail chicks; one of which is the quail hen in the other picture with her chicks.

 

[Bengt747]

I would invest in an incubator.

Some quail will occasionally go broody, like button quail and bobwhites, but in captivity certain quail simply don't go broody, if ever. Even in buttons and bobwhites it can be a rare oddity to find a competent broody hen. My Pharaoh Coturnix never had any interest in sitting whatsoever. Additionally, by getting an incubator, you can ensure more frequent hatches with a decent hatch ratio.

Best of luck!

 

[mrplattypus]

I own 3 female and 1 male common quail. Had them for about a month. 2 females are sitting on large clutches of eggs. I was surprised to see that you guys have problems with them being broody haha. Their more broody than my hens.

 

[nchls school]

Japanese cortunix quail hen with her newly hatched brood of 10 chicks.

 

[nchls school]

This is a Japanese quail where nesting behavior is close to that of a button quail; only more difficult to achieve. Button brood more readily.

 

[QuailFarm]

I don't have any quails. I am curious my self about techniques employed to encourage brooding.
Maybe quail eggs don't require mother quails to sit on them to hatch?
Maybe that is why mother quails don't sit on them?

 

[mrplattypus]

Yes, the coturnix quail. All 3 are now sitting on a clutch of eggs. No natural environment whatsoever...

 

[Bengt747]

Yes, the coturnix quail. All 3 are now sitting on a clutch of eggs. No natural environment whatsoever...

That's rather interesting...

Do you house your birds on wire? And have they exhibited this behavior before? (Or hatched out chicks, even?)

I suppose for every thousand Coturnix, there must be a handful that go broody. However, I was under the impression that it might take several hundred birds before finding even one with interest in being broody...My own Coturnix (way back when) showed no interest in going broody whatsoever.

Would you be willing to provide a pick of your Coturnix set-up with the broody hens?

 

[cocatoolover101]

I have my jap quail in pairs. Both of my females sit on there eggs. One of them have hatched 4 chicks then after a week they died. the other one is sitting on her eggs. she still has a while to go but if they do hatch should i put them under a light or let her raise them like the other one did?

Any advice would be much appreciated,

Thanks