Incubating quail eggs for the first time : )

[LindsayB]

I added 3 of the 6 week girls to my 9 week trio and one of the hens stopped laying. Is that normal?? I hope I didn't stress her out adding new friends, they're all getting along great.

 

[calichickies]

First off 7 weeks old is still too young to be expecting eggs. While some coturnix lay eggs as early as 6 weeks, genetics play a huge factor in when they begin to lay. You should not expect the first egg until closer to 12 weeks. It is very commonly said that coturnix are fully mature at 8 weeks but that is only a half truth. By 8 weeks they have typically reached sexual maturity and are at the peak of the growth curve, but they are not full grown until around 3 months. In the world of birds this is already amazingly fast, just be patient.

Also running the light 24/7 is creating a huge amount of stress. If one was ready to lay right now that could prevent them from doing so. They don't need a light at all right now. Having the light on 24 hours a day is clinically proven to drive humans insane, and the mind of a quail hangs by a much thinner thread. If you feel like you need to the run the light 2-4 hours of additional light a day is the maximum you want to give.

This has been a great thread!! dc3085 - do you sell any eggs or mature quail? Where are you at? I'm in the Santa Cruz, CA area.
Thanks for your contribution to this very informative thread.

 

[luvburds]

This has been a great thread!!  dc3085 - do you sell any eggs or mature quail?  Where are you at?  I'm in the Santa Cruz, CA area. 
Thanks for your contribution to this very informative thread. 

ditto

 

[luvburds]

Question, My birds are laying well and when I bought them from a guy locally he had the lighting set to stay on until midnight. With time change thats now 1am. I duplicated his settings when I brought them home 3 months ago. They don't need this much light and I knew it then but I'm afraid to adjust it back a few hours. Would this cause them to stop laying or molt? They seem to be happy calm birds as it is. What do you guys think?

 

[teradragon]

Mine were laying fine until I moved them outside. They are moulting now and I have no eggs! So it's up to you, I had them on 14hrs 7-9 before. We get about 12hrs daylight right now.

You never know, they might not notice!

 

[falconertomt]

Question, My birds are laying well and when I bought them from a guy locally he had the lighting set to stay on until midnight. With time change thats now 1am. I duplicated his settings when I brought them home 3 months ago. They don't need this much light and I knew it then but I'm afraid to adjust it back a few hours. Would this cause them to stop laying or molt? They seem to be happy calm birds as it is. What do you guys think?

Moult/Laying is based primarily on the photo period. 12+ hours should be adequate to promote the moult and laying. The recommended is 14-16, with 16 being max. If you back off the lights and keep it within that range, you should not see a change.


Quote:
Once the photo period extends a bit more you should get eggs again. Also the shock of going from 14-12 and moving outside may have stopped them laying (stress can cause them to stop laying).

 

[dc3085]

This has been a great thread!! dc3085 - do you sell any eggs or mature quail? Where are you at? I'm in the Santa Cruz, CA area.
Thanks for your contribution to this very informative thread.

My birds are just starting laying and I've not had a lot of time to mess with them lately. If you want eggs just shoot me a PM and I'll set you up but you'll want to wait at least a week and I'd say two so I can assure some sort of reasonable fertility. I won't charge you for the eggs if youre trying to get started. THe only thing I ever really sell is chicks and homemade bators but I haven't started on that yet this year.


My birds started a couple weeks late because of predator stress (raccoons hanging around at night) If you guys feel like your birds are late starting keep in mind there are a lot of hungry pregnant predators (and a bunch of new predator mommys) right now and your flock may be getting spooked at night. Also remember a raccoon can pull a coturnix through 1" chicken wire in just a couple pieces, so cover that chicken wire down low because food demand for predators skyrockets this time of year. Anything in the wild with sharp teeth breeds between January and Now in the USA.

 

[calichickies]

My birds are just starting laying and I've not had a lot of time to mess with them lately. If you want eggs just shoot me a PM and I'll set you up but you'll want to wait at least a week and I'd say two so I can assure some sort of reasonable fertility. I won't charge you for the eggs if youre trying to get started. THe only thing I ever really sell is chicks and homemade bators but I haven't started on that yet this year.


My birds started a couple weeks late because of predator stress (raccoons hanging around at night) If you guys feel like your birds are late starting keep in mind there are a lot of hungry pregnant predators (and a bunch of new predator mommys) right now and your flock may be getting spooked at night. Also remember a raccoon can pull a coturnix through 1" chicken wire in just a couple pieces, so cover that chicken wire down low because food demand for predators skyrockets this time of year. Anything in the wild with sharp teeth breeds between January and Now in the USA.

Thank you so much for the info.
I will PM you now.
Cheers!

 

[LindsayB]

I'm setting 18 eggs tonight from my own birds!! This is what I've been waiting for and I'm so excited. Anyone else setting eggs?

 

[LindsayB]

Here they are!