How to stop your quail from laying eggs?

[Dan Ullerup]

Hello All

Any input to these thoughts?

A (winter)break on egglaying once a year is good for the quails (coturnix and button at least). It makes them live longer.

But how do you slow down/stop them from laying egg?

So far I have thought about three solutions:

1. Make it darker. By putting up blindes or putting a cover over their cage. Everything below 14 hours of light will make it less and less likely for them to lay eggs - but don't go under 8 hours.

2. Make it colder. For buttons don't go below 5 degrees celcius/41 degrees Fahrenheit. Same for coturnix?

3. Give less protein. Ofcourse they should still get sufficient nutrition, but just cut back a bit.

Are there any other things you could do?

 

[JaeG]

Egg laying doesn't seem to be temperature related, but more about the amount of light they receive. I'd give them 10 hours of daylight and you could get some black out lining like you'd put on the back of curtains to cover them with to limit their daylight hours. I wouldn't cut back on the protein as they go through a moult at the end of the egg laying season so will need the protein to build new feathers.

 

[ZedR]

I'll just add it you don't really need to worry about the temp with Coturnix. They are cold weather hearty so long as they are draft free and dry. They can easily go below 40

 

[hooliganbros]

Turn off the artificial and ambient light sources. I did this for winter and egg production dropped from 60 eggs/day to less than 10/day.

 

[Dan Ullerup]

Thank you all for your input - hope the discussion can continue

JaeG wrote:
"Egg laying doesn't seem to be temperature related..."

I agree if we are speaking coturnix (because of the huge cold-tolerance mentioned by ZedR)... there you can't do much about temperature.
But if we are speaking button, I'm pretty sure it is also temperature related - agree?

JaeG wrote:
"I'd give them 10 hours of daylight and you could get some black out lining like you'd put on the back of curtains to cover them with to limit their daylight hours".

Yeah, should work both for button and coturnix as hooliganbros example also shows.

JaeG wrote:
"I wouldn't cut back on the protein as they go through a moult at the end of the egg laying season so will need the protein to build new feathers".

As far I have noticed the moult for coturnix here (in Denmark) is in october. If the protein is cut back a bit in december and january (where there is less sunlight anyway), that shouldn't collide with the moult or?
For buttons the moult shouldn't be as hard to them... and also be over in december and january, so maybe it could for them be even more possible to cut back on the protein.

Besides the three things discussed, could any of you think of a possible 4th way?

 

[DK newbie]

Wow. A fellow Dane found his way to this forum. Think that's a first ^^
I only have buttons. Some are kept outside. Last year (as in 2015) they stopped laying at the end of August or beginning og September already, but that's probably because they went broody by then, hatched chicks in September and by the time the chicks had been raised it was too late in the year to start laying again. These buttons were kept in an unheated building with artificial light and I didn't change the light hours to make them stop laying, but there were a couple of small windows in the building so the change in light from outside might have affected them. Otherwise it would have to have been temperature related, yes. This year (2016), however, my outdoor buttons are living with my parents meaning I don't see them much. But there were eggs in the enclosure around Christmas that had been laid within the last month. They might have longer light hours than the year before, but I don't think the temperature is much higher. Can't say for sure yet whether temperature alone affects their laying.

 

[Dan Ullerup]

"Wow. A fellow Dane found his way to this forum. Think that's a first."

Heh, must admit I don't write here much though - but have been a reader for years... and had noticed you - and thanks for your input too.

"Otherwise it would have to have been temperature related, yes".
That's what I have noticed with mine as far I remember. They live in a greenhouse (so lots of light). Ofcourse the amount of light drops in winter, but they still get from at least +8 hours and more depending on which winter-month it is.

I also noticed from others that theirs keep laying eggs in the winter, as long as the buttons are inside - and these people haven't turned on the lights in the room the buttons are (in besides for food+water change etc). So there the big difference is temperature and not light.

I have btw send you a private message