So my quail started sitting more often on her eggs when she laid 7. But she still came off them for periods of time. Yesterday she laid 8 and become aggressive towards the male so I've removed him. He's crowing lots and not too happy! But the female doesn't seem to miss him or care about him at all. In fact when I put him near her in his cage she fiercely tried to get at him whilst making angry noises non stop until I blocked his cage from her view. She is sitting on the eggs all flattened out most of the time but I wondered when she isn't on them how long she is off so I started timing today and so far she is off for upto 30 mins max which I think is normal? She laid egg number 9 today. Is it normal to start brooding whilst still adding to the clutch? And then today I noticed giant sized poo's ! Which again I've seen is normal. At least in chickens as I can't find all threads of info on brooding in quails. Will she accept the male back again after she has possibly hatched these eggs? Or will she now consider it her territory? They did get on fine and mate often up until egg 7? Does it sound like she will indeed hatch these eggs?
Broody poop is a normal phenomenon. Hopefully she has enough broody instinct to hatch and raise these chicks. Reintegrating her and your male will be like any reintegration - possible fighting so monitoring will be advised.
..In addition to my answer to your post in a different thread, the same research project also had a hen that laid an egg the day after going broody. The chicks all hatched at the same time - apparently they listen for each other getting ready to hatch in the shell and speed up or slow down to time their hatch. So, yes, I guess it's normal though if she lays another egg it's probably more than usual. And yes, broody poos are normal. I have buttons and sometimes their poos are neatly the size of an egg when they are broody ^^
Good comments from DKnewbie. I know that pigeon hens generally 'hover' over the first egg and don't go into complete incubation until after the second egg is laid. Perhaps quail hens do the same ?
Awww good luck my broody hen hatched the first several and didn't look back, tried to hatch the remaining several eggs myself, there were a few ready to hatch. She did great finding bugs for them in the aviary but that supply is limited (I would even dig with them with a tiny shovel for all the grubs and she would do her tidbitting sound and they would all ZIP over like fluffy lightning, lol). After a few days I raised them myself as I didn't trust her to keep them warm and she was tripping over them, starting to lose interest it seemed so I didn't chance it!
it would help to give them a good, big natural habitat with plenty of extra room, and a few bushes and rocks, and the like. I have juvenile hen and roo who kinda stay apart from the the rest of the bunch, and like to stay in a little hide hole that I sneakily snuck in, and I'm hoping that they are/will be, a broody pair. fingers crossed!
well my pair have about five square of space each but you don't need to give them that much. I spoil my birds
