Does seperating male and female coturnix impact start laying?

[ryan112ryan]

I have 7 week old coturnix, (brown and Texas A&M's) that haven't laid a single egg. At about 6 weeks I separated them males from the females (3 females). Haven't got an egg yet and am wondering why not.

Any suggestions to get them laying?

-pen is about 5 square feet for 3 females
-indoors at around 65 degrees
-natural light only
-26% chick starter mash (they don't sell quail feed for 100 miles)
-full access to water

 

[Stellar]

they should lay regardless of being with males or not. Sometimes they take longer to start laying. Even though the books say it doesn't mean they start exactly at the dot.

 

[Stellar]

The feed could also set back their laying a bit.

 

[Fishman43]

If you are only using natural light day length, then the amount of light may impact them depending on where you are.

 

[ryan112ryan]

Quote:
When it comes to feed, like I said it is Chick starter feed crumbles (for chickens) at 26% protein because it is the only thing available. Someone said to me switching to layer feed might do the trick. Layer feed is about 18%, but has other stuff too. What do people think about this?

If you are only using natural light day length, then the amount of light may impact them depending on where you are.

I was thinking of adding a light, would you suggest have light available for 14 hours? all the time?​

 

[Rainwolf]

They need 14hrs of light to be laying,
You can use the chick starter but add in some oyster shells and maybe look at the list of ingredients for game bird vs your stuff and see if you can add what is missing.

I have mine milled at a local feed mill. maybe there is someone close by you that makes feed? then you can just order direct from them? It normally works out cheaper but also they normally have a minimum purchase weight.

 

[joe125]

Give them good Game bird feed, 14+ hours of light, then complain about how to stop coturnix from lying.

I can help anyone out with stopping them from laying.

 

[ryan112ryan]

Quote:
Does anyone know the ingredients in game bird feed? Because like I said, they don't sell it around here and don't know who makes it to look it up online.

 

[Robo]

Go to purina wildlife and it has a breeder starter ext.

 

[ryan112ryan]

So it seems that the stuff I am using is

6% less protein
.15% less lysine
2% less crude fiber
3% more calcium


suggestions to fill the gaps?