Help Sex 8mo old Italian type Quail

[CrosStitching]

After trying everything to get my coturnix quail to lay eggs, I have given up on the bulk of them and gave them to a friend. These are the three that I have left. They are 8months old. I’m fairly certain they are male, but I have been unsuccessful at vent sexing the quail. Would like to see if maybe I have a male/female pair in here before I eat them.

What do you think?

 

[Nabiki]

#1 is a male the other two look like hens. Two hens is not enough for one male.
Here is a list of things that can prevent them from laying:
1 - Not enough light. They need 14-16 hours of light per day to lay
2 - Too many males. You want at least three hens, preferably five for one male
3 - Predators hanging around. This could be dogs, cats, rats, mice, snakes, hawks, raccoons, etc.
4 - No places to hide or get off of the wire. Quail are small prey animals, and providing small hiding places can reduce their stress.
5 - Not enough calcium (though this is more likely to cause egg issues or prolapse). You want a layer feed with about 3.5% calcium or you want to provide calcium on the side in the form of egg shells or oyster shell.

What are you feeding them? How much space do they have? Do they have hiding places? Do they have a dirt or sand bath?

 

[CrosStitching]

#1 is a male the other two look like hens. Two hens is not enough for one male.
Here is a list of things that can prevent them from laying:
1 - Not enough light. They need 14-16 hours of light per day to lay
2 - Too many males. You want at least three hens, preferably five for one male
3 - Predators hanging around. This could be dogs, cats, rats, mice, snakes, hawks, raccoons, etc.
4 - No places to hide or get off of the wire. Quail are small prey animals, and providing small hiding places can reduce their stress.
5 - Not enough calcium (though this is more likely to cause egg issues or prolapse). You want a layer feed with about 3.5% calcium or you want to provide calcium on the side in the form of egg shells or oyster shell.

What are you feeding them? How much space do they have? Do they have hiding places? Do they have a dirt or sand bath?

My local quail friends were also baffled by the lack of eggs. I gave 9 of them to a friend with a ground aviary pen.

They have a big dust bath. I also gave them a bath with fine bedding chips in case they liked that better. They used both and made happy squeaky noises every time I refilled their bath. I thought my male/female ratio might be off, so I separated them into two groups of what I hoped were just females and another pen that were just males. They all seemed calmer after this.

I fed them various feeds over the past 8 months, always a higher protein layer feed with calcium or a grower feed with calcium on the side.

I put silk plants in their cage for them to hide in which they loved, they spent lots of time hiding in there.

I gave them fresh weeds from the garden that my chickens liked and I figured they would too, which they loved.

The cage was a double-decker hutch pen separated into three pens. The top female pen is 2ft x 8ft. The bottom male pen (though I guess not only male if there are some females in the group) is 2ft x 4ft and adjoins the chicken pen of the same size. It is outdoors under a shade cloth where it is bright, but doesn’t get too hot (my chickens lay just fine with this amount of light). The pictures are after it was built and before I added the plants. I do not have that many quail or chickens anymore.

The doors of the coop lock tight so that rats/mice cannot get inside. However, I have seen occasional evidence of droppings on the shelf that catches the manure.

I have considered that the quail might be scared of the chickens (hens), but the top cage shouldn’t be able to see them.

 

[Nabiki]

I'm guessing that it's lack of light or something coming by during the night. Spring is coming along soon, so I expect that you'll start seeing some eggs before too much longer. I would help if you can get a couple more hens or get rid of your male. You only need the male if you want fertile eggs.

 

[CrosStitching]

Thanks

 

[PartiPoodles]

I have 14 different quail pens with each getting different amounts of sunlight exposure. Any time egg production drops in any pens it will always be a reduction in sunlight exposure to that pen when they are shifted or moved. As soon as I move the pen to get more sunlight, the egg production returns in very little time.