male japanese quail stopped mating

[zayn]

hi i am based in birmingham england and i am keeping two coturnix quails at the moment. one male one female. i got them on the 10th of july and the hen didnt start laying till 8th december where she started laying one egg a day. that was the same day when my male bird conseqeuntly started crowing and mating. now all of a sudden(since 2015) my male bird has stopped crowing and mating and has started trying to fly off when before when he was mating he didnt try to fly off. he has become his old self when the female still lays eggs..whats wrong with the male? why has he stopped mating? is it the winter? any ideas or advice would be much appreciated. thank you.

zayn

 

[dc3085]

If quail don't have 14-16 hours of full spectrum lighting each day they won't lay eggs. There is no period of a coturnix quail's life that it will go 5 months without laying unless there isn't sufficient light.

Regarding your male mating, he is, I promise. Happy quail won't crow and unless you're watching him every second of the day it's easy to miss the 30 second process of him mating. I always have 6-10 roosters around and you might, hear one crow once a day and usually not at all. They crow when they are young from the raging hormones after about 3 months old they will only crow when they are unhappy or want something.

If your roo is running from your hen she might be picking at him for over-breeding her. This is extremely common in small groups and if you look her over carefully you'll probably find a sore or wound that he is making.

You really shouldn't keep coturnix roosters with less than 4 hens. A male coturnix can easily keep 7 hens fully fertile he breeds so aggressively. On the other side of that coin either he'll breed one hen to death or he'll hurt her and she'll get mad and kill him. For their health and safety you should try your best to get a few more hens.

 

[zayn]

your advice is absolutely appreciated. much thanks. i am looking to get maybe 4-6 more hens to keep my male company when the farmer (comes and sells poultry in my community)my male has definatly stopped c rowing as the foam test proves he is not producing any. any experience or reasons why this sudden stop, here in england its the dead of winter, is it that? but he was mating through christmas?(winter in england lasts nov-feb roughly)once again thanks forthe advice,much appreciated.


zayn