My quail coop’s not working! - Coturnix Quail

[jimbo1989]

Suggestion ....first of all coturnix lay year round no seasonal if you have a light fix for them . Just give more lighting and trust eggs will come I keep mine indoors and it just helps with lighting more eggs and easier clean up with the style cages I have again

 

[CapricornFarm]

Here is a pen i built for quail.

 

[CostaMesaQuail]

Well, it’s been 11 days and no improvement on the egg laying. Just the one from my faithful girl. It did seem to wake up one of the boys though. He’s been crowing a few times a day and has started mounting.
I did notice a mouse in the droppings tray last night, going after the food spillage. But one mouse isn’t enough to scare them from laying eggs is it?
Also added some oyster shell to the food on recommendation. Hope that helps.

 

[feedman77]

If the boys are crowing. The females ought to start egg laying soon

 

[lomine]

Here is a pen i built for quail.View attachment 1278143 View attachment 1278144 View attachment 1278145

Quail don't really use ramps; they are ground dwellers. Even if you can train them to use one they usually need one that isn't as steep.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Quail don't really use ramps; they are ground dwellers. Even if you can train them to use one they usually need one that isn't as steep.

I saw a post where they had this sort of set up and the quail liked it. That is where i got the idea. If they can't climb the ramp i can easily make a longer one. Just seemed like something for them to do.

 

[CostaMesaQuail]

Nice coop! My birds wouldn’t know what to do with a ramp... they don’t seem to be the brightest tools in the shed. They just.... mill around. They probably are a bit bored. Hahah

 

[CostaMesaQuail]

I went from 1 egg to 3 eggs two days ago, and pulled 5 from the coop yesterday. The combo of lights and oyster shells seems to be waking everyone up!

 

[Reidmahne]

How do you give them the oyster shells? I'm in a similar situation

 

[kumquat]

I'm glad your lighting change is working out to more laying! Yay!

One idea to consider is switching your supplemental lighting to the morning hours. People do this when providing chickens with more light so they are not caught by surprise off the roost when it suddenly gets dark. Obviously this element doesn't apply to quails, but I was thinking it might help to keep down the number of night-time scavengers/predators that are drawn in by the light.