I've had my quail for about 15 weeks and they have never showed any signs in laying‽

[Ebony Rose]

Congratulations on your little boy becoming a man

 

[Little Jerry Seinfeld]

Update. One if the quail Has been making that trilling noise all morning. It's still dark out but I think I know which one it is. Why did he just start now?

They do what they want haha
let us know how they do on the sand, im curious. And did no one else worry about the salt? But I'd think it would wash off when you rinse it though.

 

[ManitobaQuail]

Im not wholly convinced of that.. ihave doubt anyway. Jeres why: I hatched some coturnix out, they are just 8.5 weeks, they are inside with no extra light so get about 11 hours of filtered curtain light and have been laying for 1.5 weeks (about 11 days) My neighbor has the bros and sisters from this exact hatch outside and getting 12.5 hours of natural light and some artifical light, they have not laid a single egg, the biggest difference is the temp, and that his actually get MORE light! The groups split at 3 weeks, so it is definitely possible the husbandry is what the difference is between mine laying and his not... his are on wire, mine are on deep sand for bedding and get herbs and fruit and mealworm treats and are bigger and fatter than his are... he feeds the same chick starter but uses oyster shell, (no sand yet even tho we live in a desert!) And his quail wont eat any treats at all, probably because of the sand issue... he also has them divided up by male and female so im now wondering if that is affecting things too since some of you mentioned that...

Predators? Quail are easily scared in my experience, and they can stop laying if they are bothered by any kind of predators. But like you said, there are many other possible factors that affect laying.
Another example - couple months ago one of our males got super aggressive with the females and they all stopped laying for awhile, until we culled that aggressive male. But temperature has never been a factor for us. It drops down to -40 C in the winter and +35 C in the summer (8 hours north of Minneapolis).

 

[Little Jerry Seinfeld]

Predators? Quail are easily scared in my experience, and they can stop laying if they are bothered by any kind of predators. But like you said, there are many other possible factors that affect laying.
Another example - couple months ago one of our males got super aggressive with the females and they all stopped laying for awhile, until we culled that aggressive male. But temperature has never been a factor for us. It drops down to -40 C in the winter and +35 C in the summer (8 hours north of Minneapolis).

Good to know thanks! Its only been around 30f here at nights so must not be the temp causing the difference. Mine are still laying everyday and his still arent!

 

[RabbitsQuailsSilkies]

Sorry I haven't checked up in a while but I have good news to report. One of them laid her first egg today! Yay. It was just in their bath box when I came to check up on them this morning. Oh and I haven't used the sand yet. I totally forgot when I went to the beach this passing weekend.