Do quails sit on their own eggs to hatch them?

[Elza]

I dont know too much and i am new to all this and only have 2 now 3 indoor quails but form my experience, the male can be very useful in the cage. My male protected the eggs and when the mother got off for a feed, he protected her on the eggs when she sat and when the chicks hatched he was a little weirded out and poked about at them a bit then removed himself and after a few hrs of working out what the hell came out of those eggs, he helped show where the food and water is, and even played and took over looking after the chick.. i think you just have to watch the other quails, i would leave them until the chicks hatch and then watch their body language to see what they may do. the other half broody hens could quite possibly help with raising the chicks and help the mother sit on them... but if they are aggressive after a few hrs then yes definitely remove them..

 

[brodydwhite]

My male sits on my hens eggs some times but she is in the box with him it's like they take turns

 

[Jacob Duckman]

I'm late to the party here, but wanted to add my 2 cents.

Got a flock of domesticated coturnix in large coop and run, no broodyness or sign of nest-building at all in over two years. I'm starting to think it's been bred out of them.

 

[nchls school]

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

 

[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.

 

[Copperboom]

This set up is so lovely. I made something similar for my chickens out of a repurposed swingset. I worried that the chicken wire wasn't enough to protect them from predators so I moved them into a coop made with hardware cloth. I know this is an old thread but if you are still keeping your quail in that coop, do you need to do anything else to prevent predators? I'd love to house my quail in the swingset coop, they are in a hardware cloth type tractor hutch now. I'm interested in promoting broodiness, might try having a broody bantam raise a batch and then seeing if one of those will go broody like nchls school did.

 

[nchls school]

This set up is so lovely.It sure is! I made something similar for my chickens out of a repurposed swingset. I worried that the chicken wire wasn't enough to protect them from predators so I moved them into a coop made with hardware cloth. I know this is an old thread but if you are still keeping your quail in that coop, do you need to do anything else to prevent predators?Chicken wire has too large of openings for quail chicks should the adults brood and hatch. Chicks would walk right through it. I'd love to house my quail in the swingset coop, they are in a hardware cloth type tractor hutch now. I'm interested in promoting broodiness, might try having a broody bantam raise a batch Exactly what I did as the picture above shows, and then seeing if one of those will go broody like nchls school did.

When trying to get quail to brood use only one pair in a cage,

 

[Dakota14breyer]

My button quail hen has just gone broody for the first time, and my male has now decided he doesn't want kids so he chases her off the nest now. It's so wierd, because he's the sweetest male with her every other day, just not these past 5. Is this a personality thing or an instinct thing? (they live indoors in their own tank, they've been together the better part of this year)

 

[nchls school]

Yes, button quail will brood. If your hen has actively built a nest around her eggs, she is broody. Buttons, unlike other birds, build a nest after the eggs are all laid. Typically, mine laid all the eggs 8-10, in the same general location. On the day that broodiness started the hens pulled the eggs together and built an extensive, for a quail, nest around and under the eggs. Button hens are good parents. Many Button males are not. I always pulled the male when the hen had several eggs and put them in bachelor quarters. Your male's behavior is how most of mine acted.

 

[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.