Is the male doing his job?

[Kanarciso]

I am new to quails and 3 weeks ago I bought a male. but I wonder if he is doing his job, if you know what I mean...
I have never heard him crowing (I know it does not sounds like a rooster) or trying to mate with any female. Plus he very often crouch in the floor as if he is waiting for someone to mount on him. I have never seem such behaviour. I have broken a few eggs and so far none were fertile.
I know for sure it is a male as it was vent checked and he is over 10 weeks old.

 

[QuailTail]

I am new to quails and 3 weeks ago I bought a male. but I wonder if he is doing his job, if you know what I mean...
I have never heard him crowing (I know it does not sounds like a rooster) or trying to mate with any female. Plus he very often crouch in the floor as if he is waiting for someone to mount on him. I have never seem such behaviour. I have broken a few eggs and so far none were fertile.
I know for sure it is a male as it was vent checked and he is over 10 weeks old.

I'm also very new to quail, but I've had mine for about 3 weeks and I only saw one of my males try to mount a female this morning - I've not seen any of them do it before this (but obviously I'm not there to watch them all of the time). Maybe he's just settling it in, or isn't trying to mate while you're around as your presence still makes him nervous.

As far as I'm aware you also won't know if eggs are fertile until you incubate them, as female quails rarely go broody and sit on their eggs. The fertile eggs won't start to develop until they have the right conditions, so until then I'm pretty sure you won't know if they're fertile or not. So opening them up if they've not been incubated won't tell you either way.

But again, I'm a total newbie so maybe someone else can shed more light?

 

[FloorCandy]

The males will not start to show real mating behavior, or produce foam unless they receive 14+ hours of light per day. I’ve been lazy about lighting my birds this year, and they already slowed laying, and my males in male jail are living pretty harmoniously and quietly. Try lighting them on a timer to get enough light.

 

[Kanarciso]

Thanks for the answers!
I am in Australia and we are having long warm days this time of the year.
I looked for “bull eyes” on my quail’s egg yolk and only found a little dot. It works on Chicken eggs to check if it is fertile and I read it works for quails as well.
What I find weird is the male behaviour or laying in the ground. None other quails have ever done it and he is not sick! Any ideas of what it could be?

 

[QuailTail]

Thanks for the answers!
I am in Australia and we are having long warm days this time of the year.
I looked for “bull eyes” on my quail’s egg yolk and only found a little dot. It works on Chicken eggs to check if it is fertile and I read it works for quails as well.
What I find weird is the male behaviour or laying in the ground. None other quails have ever done it and he is not sick! Any ideas of what it could be?

I'm also in Australia I've seen some of my birds crouch low, usually as a fear response to seeing a predator. They get super low and kind of lengthen themselves, elongating their necks. Is that what he's doing?

 

[QuailTail]

Maybe you could try to get a photo of it so we can see?

 

[vall]

Well, we just passed the equinox, 12 hours daylight (plus an hour-ish of twilight) everywhere. If you bought him from someone who wasn't supplementing light, he's probably about to start crowing shortly. I agree the crouching may be a predator response to you. I've never seen a hen crouch unless there was a roo right behind her.

 

[Kanarciso]

Maybe you could try to get a photo of it so we can see?

I tried to take a photo in the morning but of course he was not doing that! And now it is raining in Brisbane! I post it later.

 

[Kanarciso]

Well, we just passed the equinox, 12 hours daylight (plus an hour-ish of twilight) everywhere. If you bought him from someone who wasn't supplementing light, he's probably about to start crowing shortly. I agree the crouching may be a predator response to you. I've never seen a hen crouch unless there was a roo right behind her.

I would like spect the hens to crouch, but instead is the male who does it all the time. And he is definitely a male (vent tested).

 

[Kanarciso]

I'm also in Australia I've seen some of my birds crouch low, usually as a fear response to seeing a predator. They get super low and kind of lengthen themselves, elongating their necks. Is that what he's doing?

That what he is doing. But the females don’t do it at all.