how do you make quail lay eggs???

[laseterlass]

If you are raising them to butcher? 24/7 light grows them faster and bigger. But as pets or layers? I would not do it UNLESS you live in Alaska. We cannot help it.

 

[Stellar]

"When raising strictly meat birds, males can be given 8 hours of daylight a day to gain weight. This reduces their sexual urge and energy to breed or fight." From Coturnix Revolution Available May 17, 2013 By Alexandra Douglas

 

[laseterlass]

"When raising strictly meat birds, males can be given  8 hours of daylight a day to gain weight. This reduces their sexual urge and energy to breed or fight." From Coturnix Revolution Available May 17, 2013 By Alexandra Douglas

Robbie gave me this information. I raise them for eggs right now. Send the occasional cull and retired bird to freezer camp. I make more selling the retired birds to gundog enthusiasts.

 

[cccresteds]

I have males and females outside in a coop. I have waiting which seems like forever for just 1 egg, which I cannot seem to get. They all are mating, but no eggs yet.

 

[Weirdness555]

You said a quartet? I assume this is one male to 3 females, in which case the male could be stressing the females by over mating, and you could probably use a few more hens, about 1 male to 5 females is best. Next, the most important thing is high protein. They will need about 25% protein diet to lay every day, we have ours on 22% quail breeder pellets with plenty of mealworms as supplement, plus the bugs they pick up from the ground. Next vital thing is that the quail aren't stressed. To this end, add hiding places, as many as possible, tubes, tunnels, flowerpots, huts, cardboard boxes with hay in them, whatever you fancy.

So if all this is in place along with 14+ hours of daylight, you should get eggs. If those eggs are a bit odd, ie they don't have shells or the shells are soft, then provide more calcium.

Hope all this helps

 

[vhu88fan]

not sure how this thing works but i am wanting to ask a question. Sorry if this ends up on someone else post. But we recently just got 10 corturnix quail. We started with six but later found out that they were all males. We took them back to exchange for females then got four more. The guy spoke spanish so was not clear on how old they are and when they should start laying eggs. We have 5 in two seperate cages with one red 100 watt bulb in each giving light 14 hours a day. My questions are, what does it mean if they missing feathers off their back? Do they NEED protein to lay eggs? And after everything is right with what they need when will they start laying? We went to tractor supply and got meal worms, oyster shells, and two bags of different feed with high protein. My wife is getting impatient and wandering what we are doing wrong, lol. Any additional and as much information is really appreciated.

 

[dc3085]

not sure how this thing works but i am wanting to ask a question. Sorry if this ends up on someone else post. But we recently just got 10 corturnix quail. We started with six but later found out that they were all males. We took them back to exchange for females then got four more. The guy spoke spanish so was not clear on how old they are and when they should start laying eggs. We have 5 in two seperate cages with one red 100 watt bulb in each giving light 14 hours a day. My questions are, what does it mean if they missing feathers off their back? Do they NEED protein to lay eggs? And after everything is right with what they need when will they start laying? We went to tractor supply and got meal worms, oyster shells, and two bags of different feed with high protein. My wife is getting impatient and wandering what we are doing wrong, lol. Any additional and as much information is really appreciated.

Don't mess with the age old formula for protein, which is feed them game bird food like you are supposed to, or any other poultry/fowl feed with 20%+ protein and ideally 24% for laying hens. Don't feed them more than 24% if they are of age to lay eggs. Over feeding protein can kill laying hens especially young ones by causing them to develop too large of eggs leading to a blow out and a bird you will have to euthanize. If you can't get it locally almost any feed/pet store can order purina gamebird chow. They will start laying between 8-12 weeks old assuming they are getting correct lighting. Sometimes they wont lay when winter first breaks, be patient. Feed typically has little do with egg production but everything to do with the overall health of the birds. Also put a pan of oyster shells in the cage and keep it full they will eat the calcium as they need it.

The missing feathers if they are on the back of the bird are from fighting (most likely) or they are eating feathers due to calcium deficiency. Remove the aggressor of the fights not the victims. Overly aggressive birds should be sent to freezer camp. If you have a feather picking it is usually from overcrowding the birds or keeping them in an improper ratio. If you just purchased them you may not have purchased the bullies but still keep close watch. They should not be fighting more than just a little tap on the head here and there. They should never bleed, if they bleed the others will kill them. If the feathers are missing on their head its due to over breeding and you can rest the hens in another cage for a week or so until feathers come back.

Most importantly go to the search bar on this website and search for raising coturnix quail. you will be inundated with information that you are going to need in your adventure. Good luck and feel free to ask any other question you have, private message me your questions if youre having trouble working the forum.

 

[gameguy]

Got a question on oyster shell, I went to my feed store and got a bag of crushed oyster shell but it looked large and jagged and It scares me to put it out for them. It's a little bigger than their crumbles but it's so jagged it looks like it might rip up their insides. This is my first year of quail and they have just started to lay a couple of weeks ago.

I'm giving them 22% protein and 3.5 calcium in their feed but I put some crushed egg shells in there for them to have access to and they gobbled them up immediately. I read they will leave it alone unless they need calcium so that's why I thought to add access to oyster shells even though I read 3.5 calcium is plenty. Any thoughts? Thanks

 

[TwoCrows]

3.5 is all they need. But you don't want to offer up this much to males as it will destroy their kidneys. This 3.5 is for females. Since I keep males as well, I like to keep the oystershell on the side so when the females need extra calcium, their bodies tell them and they can consume what they need. No sense in forcing some birds to eat calcium that may not need it. Some need more calcium than others.

As for the scaley hard shells of the oystershell, their gizzards are designed to grind all that up. It won't hurt them when they swallow it. As long as it is small enough for them to consume, they will be fine.

 

[dynodon]

Put a light on them ,feed them 15 to 21% laying crumbles . That's all I do , and mine keep me covered up with eggs .Just make sure they are in a pen that they can feel safe and happy in.