how old do quail need to be to lay?

[wildone]

okay, I am confused. I got seven coturnix quail a while ago as chicks, and now they are four weeks old. I am thinking I might have a pair that are going broody, but they are only four weeks old as previously stated. so I was watching them yesterday, and all the rest of my quail seemed to randomly go to the little nook that my (hopefully) broody pair spend most of their time in and then left. I remember that that was kinda what my chickens did when my Americana laid her first egg. I tried to peek in and see if there was anything inside, but my birds went crazy, and I didn't want to scare them, so left and watched them from afar. is it just a coincidence that my quail did that? do they even act like that? as I said I am confuse.

 

[JurassicBawk]

Quail don't use nest boxes, and virtually never go broody. Mine will sometimes make a nest hole, but that's more for them to sit in or dust bathe in, because they don't care at all about their eggs. They literally will just plop out eggs anywhere and everywhere in the hutch. Occasionally the females in one hutch will lay theirs in a general pile together but in the 5 years I've had quail not one has offered to go broody or wanted anything to do with them once they were laid. Even if I've seen them sitting on an egg, it was because the egg just happened to be in the hole they wanted to sit in.

They usually won't start laying until 6 weeks at the earliest. The ones I hatched out last year started about 7 weeks. At 4 weeks old you should be able to tell genders if you have a mixed group now.

 

[wildone]

thanks for your answer! I have heard tales of quail laying at five weeks, so I considered that they might have, even at four weeks, but now that i think about it I realize that it wouldn't really be practical, as they have only just got feathers on their heads.