HELP! quail chicks

[ButtonquailGirl14]

my Button quail hen is on day 10 of setting, she has tried really hard 7 other times but my male does not breed her very often so they are usally not fertile, this time i know they are and i am so EXITED! she is sweet but the only other (slightly insanely bad mother) broody hen tried to kill all her chicks. there still is a slight chance that she would be aggressive towards them, if she is What do i do???? is there a way to stop this??? also, my male doesn't have any breeding drive, she will go in front of him and plop down and chirp, but he will not mount her. we knew they where a pair at first because we saw them breed. he is so sweet, he cleans her every night, he brings her food when she is setting (sometimes even when she isn't) he even sits on the nest! he guards the door to their house, she is the only hen, i just don't get it!!!! he obiously loves her, he just doesn't have any drive to breed her, is there a way to fix this??? also is there a safe way to mark the chicks??? i want to mark them in some way but every way i hear is unsafe for them. Thanks!

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

sorry for all the questions!

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

what else is weired is all the other males that are paired breed the females excessively, they are all bald! also my female is definitely higher in the pecking order than him, she is bossy LOL!

 

[DK newbie]

I am slightly confused by your post. You are worried another hen is going to kill the chicks? Or you are worried the broody one is?
If there is another hen in with the pair, you might be able to just remove her before the chicks hatch. You could also be unlucky and it could cause the broody one to leave the nest, but the other option is to leave the surplus hen in there and then remove her once the chicks have hatched - and hope you notice the chicks before anything bad happens.
If you are worried the broody one is going to hurt the chicks.. In general her instincts should take over and tell her not to. Do you have any clue what made the other hen try to kill her chicks? And how did she 'try to kill' them? I've had a hen peck at the toes of her single, somewhat wobbly chick once. I strongly suspect the hen had been fed meal worms by her previous owner and thought the toes were worms. I don't feed my buttons meal worms for that very reason.
The mother didn't figure out how to care for the chick before it was too late, but she wasn't actually aggressive towards it. Being incubator hatched herself (I don't know for how many generations, but probably many), she just didn't know what to do.
If you end up in that situation, remove the chicks and put them in a brooder.

The you complain the male is not sexually active but say you know the eggs are fertile? If so, it seems you've already cracked the code.
I sometimes see my males ignore the females when they squat down as well. I think they are just distracted by something or not in the mood. At other times they will breed the girls 5 times in a row. I've never really experienced problems with male breeding activities, but better feed and extra light - maybe even a UVB bulb - would probably be my first attempts at solving it.

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

there is only one female and male, the hen that killed her chicks is my neighbors that i sold her to, she had never had mealworms

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

Thanks!

 

[DwayneNLiz]

could you give her fertile eggs?
maybe get some from the neighbor?

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

that is a great idea!!!! these ones are fertilized, he does breed her on a VERY rare occasion. the second to last time they were fertile, but we had some crazy kids over and they stressed her out so much by tapping on the glass (I WAS SO MAD AT THEM!!!!!!!!!!!) that she got off for too long and they died. i cracked open the eggs and they were fully developed chicks

 

[DwayneNLiz]

dont let those kids into your property while she is setting!! D)
Good luck to her on these eggs!

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

i wontLOL1