How long does it take a quail to lay a clutch of eggs, and other breeding questions.

[CuriousCreature]

Hello! Thanks again to those who gave their advice on my crazy male button quails earlier. Things seem to have settled down for the most part.

One of my two female buttons has been laying an egg every day for just over a week now (the other hen hasn't started yet, not sure why). I have been removing and refrigerating them with the intent of eating them soon. But I've noticed that the males get very excited around laying time, and every day they create a beautiful nest of hay for the hen, who lays her egg there, and then both she and the males become very broody and take it in turns to sit on the egg for a time, before they seem to lose interest and abandon it.

(I should also point out that the dominant male has been regularly mating with this hen since she arrived a few weeks ago.)

I'm wondering if I'm doing the right thing by removing the egg. I'm very keen on having chicks, so I don't want to be eating fertile eggs by accident! Which brings me to my questions:

- Is it possible for a button hen to lay a single fertile egg, or is she just confused/inexperienced?

- On average, how long after a successful mating will a hen lay a clutch of fertile eggs?

- On average, how long does it take a hen to complete laying a clutch, from first to final egg?

- When a hen has been fertilised, will she stop laying daily unfertilised eggs?

I await your quailish wisdom!

 

[kingmt]

If there is a too in there more then likely they are fertile. They probably know what they are doing & when they have enough eggs she will stop laying & start brooding.

 

[CuriousCreature]

Hi Kingmt, thanks for replying. Could you please confirm what you meant by 'If there is a too in there'? I'm guessing that's a typo.

Do you reckon I should let the eggs gather in the cage over the course of this week and see what happens, then? But as mentioned the quails lose interest in sitting on the egg after an hour or so. So won't the embryos die in the mean time?

 

[DK newbie]

What exactly makes you think her eggs are not fertile now? From what you say, I find it highly likely that they are, though I don't know exactly how long it takes before the hen starts laying fertile eggs after being placed with a roo and starting to mate with him. My guess would be a week or so.
I think kingmt meant a roo
Your hen and the roos are not incubating the eggs as soon at they have been laid. They are just very excited over the new egg - I have noticed that with my buttons too and I think it's so cute! The egg doesn't start to develop just from this one hour of excitement, so there is no need to worry about dead embryos.
The first time one of my hens started incubating eggs, it took 9 days from the first egg was laid, till she started incubating. By then, she had 6 eggs. The second time, it only took five days from the first egg, to a broody hen, but there were 3 hens laying eggs in the same nest at that time, so she had 11 eggs when she started incubating them.
So if you want your button to go broody - yes, I would certainly leave all eggs in the cage for 1-2 weeks and see what happens.

 

[chiques chicks]

The embryo won't die. It's like a person that incubate storing eggs for days before setting them.
In general, birds will only lay one egg a day. They will give them short periods of incubation to keep them in optimum condition.
When the time is right, they will brood them, if they are the broody type.

Nature knows what it is doing.

I don't have button, but have experienced this in chickens as well as observing wild birds of many species.

 

[kingmt]

Yes I meant roo but I can't teach auto correct anything it seems.

 

[CuriousCreature]

What exactly makes you think her eggs are not fertile now?

Because all the guides said that a fertilised button quail would lay a clutch of 4-6 eggs, and I'd always figured that meant one after the after in fairly quick succession, on the same day. And that by contrast laying one egg a day was simply the bird passing an unfertilised egg as normal. None of the guides specify the period of time over which a fertile clutch is laid.

I feel like a bad person now! D: I'm lucky enough to have button quails that are interested in their eggs and I've been taking them away... I hope I haven't caused the little guys too much distress.

 

[chiques chicks]

You haven't. In nature, predators do the same thing. They will continue to produce, up to a point, until they have the amount they want to hatch, then will go in to brooding, then hopefully, caring mode.

 

[DK newbie]

Oh, that explains Stupid guides. One egg a day is quite good, sometimes a hen will lay an egg every 18 hours or so, but rarely more than that And those who lay many eggs are more likely to get calcium deficient and die at a young age, so if you have your birds for the fun of it, more eggs is not necessarily better.
I'm sure your buttons will get over their loss ^^ Perhaps it will cause them to try lying eggs in several different places around the cage, to see if any place is 'safer' for the eggs, but otherwise it shouldn't change anything.
Good luck with them and keep asking if the guides are not telling you what you need to know

 

[CuriousCreature]

Good points all. I suppose removing eggs only what any other quail keeper would do if they don't want to be overrun. As I understand it, a broody button is fairly rare, so I don't want to deny them the chance to raise at least one clutch the natural way. But I now need consider if I'm ready to accommodate the resulting fluffballs. Much to think about! Thank you for the clarification everyone, I'm glad I asked.