James Marie pharaoh quail

[Tim88]

I'm new to raising quail.....I hatched some out, I have 5 females and 3 males in a pen together, at 7 weeks old they laid three eggs. Haven't had any more eggs.....they are 10 weeks old now. I am feeding them game bird food 26% and some oyster shells. Is this normal for them to lay and then just stop? Any help is appreciated.

 

[Dragons4u]

Maybe over stressed because of too many males per female?

 

[Quail Jailer]

Maybe over stressed because of too many males per female?

That would be my first guess also.

 

[Tim88]

How many males should I have. What's a good male/female ratio

 

[Dragons4u]

That depends on what you are going for, meat or eggs.
I myself am keeping 7 hens and one rooster when my eggs hatch.
Then I plan to test the fertility of the eggs and if I have too many duds when it comes time to do more hatching, I will cut out a couple of hens.
Until then though, I want all the eggs I can get for eating.
I have read on here that a lot of people suggest a 4 to 1 ratio and as high as 7 to 1.
The common consensus is never to have more than 1 roo in a pen though unless you have a really big aviary with lots of hidey holes.
Depending on your pen size, maybe you could partition it off and put three hens with one roo, two hens with another, and the last roo alone and see if your egg productions picks up?
Quail Jailer, may have a better suggestion as I'm still pretty new to quail.

 

[James the Bald]

Quote: There could be other environmental conditions effecting this... did you move them to a different cage, has the lighting changed (possibly too much artificial light)? There are a couple of things that could effect their laying habits, but if you be patient, they will resume laying.
James

 

[Quail Jailer]

Pick your best rooster, get rid of the other two. I'll be surprised if you don't have to, because they will be fighting soon.

 

[Tim88]

Ok I'll take two roosters out tomorrow and see if that makes a difference. I don't have a light on them. I haven't changed anything since they first laid eggs. Kinda made me wonder if they were eating the eggs. Thanks for all the advice!!!!

 

[Dragons4u]

If they were eating them, you would probably see some kind off mess from it, like broken up shells, or dried yolks on beaks. At least, I think you would.

 

[dc3085]

I've seen chickens get the habit of eating eggs pretty frequently but I've never seen quail practice that behavior.