How many eggs do quail typically lay in a clutch?

[Athena2344]

I Have a trio of two males one female, (was NOT planning on the second male), and my hen has been laying an egg a day for over a week, and stopped yesterday so i now have a total of 11 Texas A&M eggs. I will put them in the incubator after i have some geese clear out and get a quail tray. But i was wondering:

1. How many times a year do they breed and lay?
2. What is an average clutch size?
3. How long are these eggs supposed to be incubated for and at what temp and humidity?

 

[JaeG]

Japanese/Coturnix (which are what your Texas A&M are) quail eggs take 18 days to incubate. Coturnix have been bred to produce eggs and not go broody so it is very, very unusual that one will decide to go broody (as rare as hens teeth kind of rare). They will lay as long as they have 12-14 hours of daylight so if you supplement their light they can lay year round. Just be aware this will burn out the females and it shortens their life.

They are incubated the same as chicken eggs but monitor their air cell growth to figure out where the humidity needs to be set. The standard recommendation is 45-50%.

It's generally advised to keep one male to at least three females as they are can be very aggressive when breeding. In a large aviary situation you could get away with a pair, provided there were places for the hen to hide from her mate when she needed a break.

 

[Athena2344]

They are in a large hutch on the ground and all the sunlight they want. There are no peck wounds or anything, so i'm assuming they are getting along ok. I do plan on selling/trading one of the males soon though

 

[Athena2344]

SO i ended up seperating the original hen as she was a bully to the two new hens that i got, so i have in one pen two hens and a roo, and a pair in a second pen. I actually put 34 of their eggs in the incubator on the 23rd, 2 days ago, i would have been able to put more, but about 20+ went bad while i was waiting for the goose eggs to clear out

 

[nchls school]

I have a hen Japanese quail that has constructed a nest and has now gone broody. She had 13 eggs which seemed to be a lot for such a small bird. I removed 2 leaving 11 in the nest. Still, it looks a lot for the hen to cover adequately. Is there someone who has Japanese quail that brooded? Can someone tell me the right number of eggs to leave for the best hatch results?

 

[RosieR]

I have a hen Japanese quail that has constructed a nest and has now gone broody. She had 13 eggs which seemed to be a lot for such a small bird. I removed 2 leaving 11 in the nest. Still, it looks a lot for the hen to cover adequately. Is there someone who has Japanese quail that brooded? Can someone tell me the right number of eggs to leave for the best hatch results?

Idk the correct number of eggs, congrats on your broody! Do you have an incubator ready in case she quits?

 

[Erkenstein]

SO i ended up seperating the original hen as she was a bully to the two new hens that i got, so i have in one pen two hens and a roo, and a pair in a second pen. I actually put 34 of their eggs in the incubator on the 23rd, 2 days ago, i would have been able to put more, but about 20+ went bad while i was waiting for the goose eggs to clear out

She is protecting her territory from intruders. It is difficult to integrate quail and easiest to do in a cage that is new to all of them. If that is an option I would try again.

If you have so few hens and 34 eggs that tells me that you have been collecting them for quite some time. They will lose fertility after 7 days, so I generally don't set anything less than 10 days old, and I keep them at 65 degrees while collecting.

 

[DK newbie]

I'd remove as many eggs as necessary for her to cover the rest properly. With my buttons, I find that their ability to cover the eggs vary greatly from hen to hen. One can only handle 5-6 - another has no problem with 9. So I suspect it varies with the cost as well.

 

[nchls school]

We have a number of different species brooding so we keep our incubator ready. Just yesterday I had to bring in a clutch of hatching turkey eggs when I saw they were being crushed as they pipped; thin shells. It's impossible to see if the quail hen is covering all the eggs. I guess I will have to trust to luck. Thanks to those the responded.