How dark is dark enough to stop the quail from egg laying?

[Roomi the quail]

The title says pretty much everything. How dark do they mean when people say 'keep them in the dark for more than 16 hours to stop th hens from laying'?
I need my quail hen to quit laying for a while because she had a prolapse. I put her in a dark barn but kept the door open, otherwise she would have suffocated in the heat. So it's not completely 'dark' dark, its more of a darkish corner of the barn where my quail hen could see the light seeping in sometimes but stays dark most of the time.
Is it enough to stop her egg laying temporarily? Since I successfully fixed her prolapse, I really need her to stoo laying for a bit to stay put...

 

[Ebony Rose]

That's probably dark enough, but if you're really concerned about the light she's getting, you can put a terrycloth towel (read that as bath towel) over her cage with the majority of the toweling covering the portion of her cage that is towards the light source, in this case, the door. Leave at least one side of the cage uncovered so she can breathe and so that heat can escape the cage. To ease some of the stress of being confined, you might consider giving her a leaf of lettuce... about zero nutritional value, but a good source of water and an excellent quail distraction! Egg yolk is also a favorite with my flock, I serve them hard boiled and they typically ignore the egg white... go figure. An advantage to egg yolk is that it offers vital amino acids and protein, necessary building blocks for her healing process.

 

[Roomi the quail]

That's probably dark enough, but if you're really concerned about the light she's getting, you can put a terrycloth towel (read that as bath towel) over her cage with the majority of the toweling covering the portion of her cage that is towards the light source, in this case, the door. Leave at least one side of the cage uncovered so she can breathe and so that heat can escape the cage. To ease some of the stress of being confined, you might consider giving her a leaf of lettuce... about zero nutritional value, but a good source of water and an excellent quail distraction! Egg yolk is also a favorite with my flock, I serve them hard boiled and they typically ignore the egg white... go figure. An advantage to egg yolk is that it offers vital amino acids and protein, necessary building blocks for her healing process.

Thanks, I'll try the towel right away!

 

[Nabiki]

If you're concerned about heat, you might try taking a 2 litre bottle, filling it about 2/3 with water and freezing it. My quail will actually sit on it in the 90+ degree heat we've been having here.