How do I get my quail to mate?

[EvieChickenGirl]

I have a male and 4 females in one aviary. I have never pushed any of my other quail to mate, but these guys are NOT DOING IT. I really want to breed them as this aviary is the best one. The females started laying at 3 1/2 weeks, but the male is not interested. The other male that I put in there also wasn't interested. I took the other male out because he was quite older/ish and put a young stud (14) weeks old. He's not mating them. Is there something wrong with the females????

 

[Nabiki]

Are they getting at least 14 hours of light per day? Other than that, leave them alone. Young males are usually quite eager and will figure it out.

 

[EvieChickenGirl]

They are getting a lot of light. About 13 hours. So I guess I'll just wait?

 

[Nabiki]

They are getting a lot of light. About 13 hours. So I guess I'll just wait?

Just like the hens need 14-16 hours of light per day to lay, the males need the same to become sexually active.

 

[EvieChickenGirl]

Ok! Should I hang artificial lighting?

 

[Nabiki]

Ok! Should I hang artificial lighting?

If you don't want to wait for things to happen naturally, you will need to.

 

[EvieChickenGirl]

Ok. I might just wait. Just didn't know if it was a problem with my girls

 

[Susan Skylark]

Eggs at 3.5 weeks!? Mine are just starting at 7, my 4 week old hen is still a baby. But time is the issue here, I have four 7 week old males and 1 year old rooster, the teenagers weren’t doing anything 2 days ago while gramps has decided to retire when he was a sex maniac two weeks ago, don’t ask me what happened! The teenagers all of a sudden are crowing and chasing girls while gramps sits in his recliner and watches golf! They’ll figure it out, just wish I knew which switch I hit!