I guess I'm not the only one with unfertile eggs...

[Eldon956]

Its been a while I've been having trouble with egg production and fertility on my 6 month old Brown Jumbos so thinking it was the bloodline giving this issues, I went ahead and ordered 24+ hatching eggs on ebay from a different seller. I received 30 eggs back on Dec 20th all in good condition, I left them settle 24 hrs before setting them, they are due to hatch on the 7th-8th. I just candled them for the first time and only have 4 eggs developing qnd the rest are clear!!! Not even signs of starting developing all clear as day...I guess Im not the only one with fertility issues . My girls started laying eggs a cpl weeks ago after setting artificial lights and changing to layer feed. I just set 9 eggs of my girls on Monday, had more than 9 buy they were pretty big and could be double yolkers so I didnt even bother. I'll candle on Monday to check for fertility. I was told that males are also affected by the lack of extra lights, something about their hormones being affected and be unfertile even though they mate? Anyone heard about it?

 

[Nabiki]

What is the nutrition information on what you're feeding them? If you're feeding them chicken layer feed, they're not going to be getting enough protein.

You want to wait 2-4 weeks after they start laying before setting any of their eggs. The first couple of weeks usually have very low fertility.

The fertility issue with the shipped eggs might not be the breeder. It might be your post office. If the eggs are handled too roughly, they won't develop.

 

[007Sean]

Its been a while I've been having trouble with egg production and fertility on my 6 month old Brown Jumbos so thinking it was the bloodline giving this issues, I went ahead and ordered 24+ hatching eggs on ebay from a different seller. I received 30 eggs back on Dec 20th all in good condition, I left them settle 24 hrs before setting them, they are due to hatch on the 7th-8th. I just candled them for the first time and only have 4 eggs developing qnd the rest are clear!!! Not even signs of starting developing all clear as day...I guess Im not the only one with fertility issues . My girls started laying eggs a cpl weeks ago after setting artificial lights and changing to layer feed. I just set 9 eggs of my girls on Monday, had more than 9 buy they were pretty big and could be double yolkers so I didnt even bother. I'll candle on Monday to check for fertility. I was told that males are also affected by the lack of extra lights, something about their hormones being affected and be unfertile even though they mate? Anyone heard about it?

As far as males having hormones being affected by light, I have no clue! I think the males 'hormones' are always 'turned on' I don't use artifical light....but all of my quail are seasonal breeders. They get the same feed year round and in general, start laying about the same time every year.

It's been years since I last raised Cot's but even back then I didn't use lights to force them to lay.
There can be multiple reasons for the birds not to be laying and for not being fertile....usually these things just tend to work themselves out!

 

[Eldon956]

This is the post I received regarding light and male hormones

 

[Eldon956]

What is the nutrition information on what you're feeding them? If you're feeding them chicken layer feed, they're not going to be getting enough protein.

You want to wait 2-4 weeks after they start laying before setting any of their eggs. The first couple of weeks usually have very low fertility.

The fertility issue with the shipped eggs might not be the breeder. It might be your post office. If the eggs are handled too roughly, they won't develop.

Hi, i kept on feeding the regular 16% protein layer with additional in their diet until today that the layer ended. I live right here by the Mexican border in South Texas and just bought a 45 kg sack of layer feed from mexico with a 22% protein and 5% fat according to its ingredient tag. Im starting feeding them that feed tomorrow hoping things get better. I just posted a screenshot also of the post i got somewhere else regarding the male hormones and lack of light.

 

[Nabiki]

Hi, i kept on feeding the regular 16% protein layer with additional in their diet until today that the layer ended. I live right here by the Mexican border in South Texas and just bought a 45 kg sack of layer feed from mexico with a 22% protein and 5% fat according to its ingredient tag. Im starting feeding them that feed tomorrow hoping things get better. I just posted a screenshot also of the post i got somewhere else regarding the male hormones and lack of light.

That feed seems high in fat, but much better in protein. Here is an article that may help you with what to look for in your feed.

 

[007Sean]

View attachment 4020217


This is the post I received regarding light and male hormones

I'm not in a position to either confirm or disregard the light vs. hormone triggering effect on male quail.

I know in deer, it's the amount of light that hits their retina that makes doe's go into heat. With buck deer it's when the blood supply is shut off to the antlers and the velvet is scraped off. Two different responses and separate times that the hormones are affected, only 1 has to do with the amount of light hitting the retina.

 

[Eldon956]

So lockdown came and all 4 fertile eggs of the 24+ I had ordered hatched on the 8th. I had to cull one because his legs were all straight back and couldnt stand up. The remaining three were put in the brooder along with 5 Maran chicks that also hatched on the 8th. I have them there with 30% protein Turkey Starter, it all looked good with their feed, water, and heat lamp until this morning that two out of the 3 baby quails remaining died, so now I have my 5 Marans and one baby quail. I have 27 eggs of my girls I collected and set to incubate to see if the fertility issue is still a problem after I changed feed to layer and set the artificial light giving them 18 hrs of light, they are going on 2 months with the new setup Ill go to lockdown 9 eggs on the 16th which ill candle on the 13th, the other 18 are due on the 23rd which Ill probably candle them also on the 13th. I also have 100 hatching eggs I ordered and received today of Texas A&M & Italian which Ill set tomorrow.

 

[Nabiki]

You might want to reduce the light to 16 hours. They do need their sleep.

Is it possible that the marans chicks accidentally killed the quail? They are much larger, and might accidentally trample them or kill them with a peck.

 

[Eldon956]

Maybe...they had been all together for 3 days and the brooder is spacious for them to move around and not be all crampled up trying to cuddle because they're cold or something they had been under the heat lamp area all separated from each other sleeping. The brooder is 2ftx4ft and 2ft in height heat lamp is around 3 ft high from the floor of the brooder. I'll build another brooder to separate the quails from the chicks just to be on the safe side since I got 100+ quail eggs and 30 chicken eggs in the incubator I set up today.