How old should a coturnix quail hen be before her eggs are hatched?

[rcstanley]

How old should a coturnix quail hen be before her eggs are hatched? Does the age of the male matter?

I understand that in chickens, it is better to wait until a hen has been laying awhile to hatch her eggs, so the eggs are larger. Is the same true of coturnix quail?

 

[paneubert]

wait until a hen has been laying awhile to hatch her eggs, so the eggs are larger. Is the same true of coturnix quail?

In my opinion, this also applies to quail. The boys will often start mating the ladies before they start laying, but it seems to me most of the "first" eggs from the ladies are really small or otherwise "odd". I am sure you could hatch them, but I bet both the fertility rate and the survival rate of the chicks would be lower.

 

[JaeG]

Males lose fertility after a year. I tried hatching some from my two year old quail and I got two chicks out of about 50 eggs! You can check their fertility by cracking open a few eggs and looking for the 'bulleye' on the yolk. I'd wait until they were laying consistently for at least a couple of weeks before trying to incubate any.​

 

[paneubert]

Males lose fertility after a year.​

Ehhhhhhhhh.....not so much. I just hatched about 90% out of my birds who are over a year old. Both the males and females were born early last year. First time incubating, so the 10% duds were probably partially my own fault.

 

[JaeG]

Ehhhhhhhhh.....not so much. I just hatched about 90% out of my birds who are over a year old. Both the males and females were born early last year. First time incubating, so the 10% duds were probably partially my own fault.

Consider yourself lucky then! This is a study done on male Japanese Coturnix fertility:
https://www.european-poultry-scienc...se-quails,QUlEPTQyMTY0ODcmTUlEPTE2MTAxNA.html

 

[paneubert]

Interesting. That study was limited to early aged male quail (only up to about 7 months of age and even then we are only talking about a drop to 84% fertile at 7 months), but they did reference a study about year olds and claimed it showed a "sharp drop". I cant get that study from 1983 to open, so I do not know what they consider a "sharp drop". If it is anything like the drop seen in this study, I would not consider going from 94% to 84% that bad.... If it is 84% at 7 months, I doubt it went to something crazy like 10% at a year.

Edit: Found it. This might be key.....and explain why my guys are still going strong...

"A series of experiments was conducted to study the decline in reproduction associated with age in the male Japanese quail. In Experiment 1, eggs were collected from pairs that were 28, 56, 107, and 149 weeks of age. Pairs that were 56 weeks of age or older showed a sharp drop in fertility and hatchability. Subsequent experiments were designed to study the endocrine and behavioral basis for this decline in the male. In Experiment 2, males that were between 23 and 70 weeks of age were tested for mating behavior, plasma testosterone was measured, and testes wet weight was determined. There were no significant differences between the age groups".

So we can infer that a year and a half old male could/might still be as fertile as a 23 week old bird...and that from the first study, this is upwards of 80% fertile. Also that the study you linked to is sort of not representing this second study accurately....I mean technically they did accurately report the first portion of the study, but conveniently left out the followup....

 

[JaeG]

Interesting. That study was limited to early aged male quail (only up to about 7 months of age and even then we are only talking about a drop to 84% fertile at 7 months), but they did reference a study about year olds and claimed it showed a "sharp drop". I cant get that study from 1983 to open, so I do not know what they consider a "sharp drop". If it is anything like the drop seen in this study, I would not consider going from 94% to 84% that bad.... If it is 84% at 7 months, I doubt it went to something crazy like 10% at a year.

Edit: Found it. This might be key.....and explain why my guys are still going strong...

"A series of experiments was conducted to study the decline in reproduction associated with age in the male Japanese quail. In Experiment 1, eggs were collected from pairs that were 28, 56, 107, and 149 weeks of age. Pairs that were 56 weeks of age or older showed a sharp drop in fertility and hatchability. Subsequent experiments were designed to study the endocrine and behavioral basis for this decline in the male. In Experiment 2, males that were between 23 and 70 weeks of age were tested for mating behavior, plasma testosterone was measured, and testes wet weight was determined. There were no significant differences between the age groups".

So we can infer that a year and a half old male could/might still be as fertile as a 23 week old bird...and that from the first study, this is upwards of 80% fertile. Also that the study you linked to is sort of not representing this second study accurately....I mean technically they did accurately report the first portion of the study, but conveniently left out the followup....

So your 90% hatch rate was still pretty impressive. And if you were a big commercial hatchery any drop off in fertility would be costing you money in the time and resources to incubate eggs that aren't going to hatch.

Your quail must have good genes for fertility. My old codger is definitely past his prime!

 

[paneubert]

Yeah. Seems some of the reduced fertility is linked to the males just not trying anymore. Hahaha. I suppose that is a sure way to reduce fertility. My guys certainly still try hard. Hahaha.

 

[Floof]

I started hatching my quails eggs after the first week of egg laying. My girls may be unusual but even their first eggs were full sized. I got 88% the first batch and 93% with subsequent hatches.

 

[NinjaGamer2022]

Ehhhhhhhhh.....not so much. I just hatched about 90% out of my birds who are over a year old. Both the males and females were born early last year. First time incubating, so the 10% duds were probably partially my own fault.

That's amazing. May I ask what you feed your quail (Protein %, non feed supplements, etc). What type of quail are they? How much room do you give each quail? Thx.