Quail aren't laying

[blakemartin3]

I have 17 quail in a 6x3 pen. I have two male pharaohs and 6 pharaoh hens. I also have three tuxedos but I don't know the sex. Recently I bought 7 more quail that look like tuxedos but they have way more white. Most of them have whitish brown heads with white bellys and some other white on them. I've had them for a week and still have yet to get an egg. Can anybody tell me what's wrong?

 

[Mountain Peeps]

Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

I know nothing about quail but one of the other greeters, Two Crows will help you.

 

[blakemartin3]

Can somebody please help me

 

[Mountain Peeps]

You can post in our quail area too. I just don't know about quail!:/

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

A few things are going on here. First of all, you do not have the ratio of roos to hens correct and this is going to cause all kinds of issues. You need to keep them 1 male to 4 to 7 females. These birds are very sexual and will over mate a couple of hens and it will kill them. Way too much mating will be going on. It will stress the hens, they won't lay and will eventually turn on each other. So separate them properly. If you have any extra roos or hens, you can keep the hens with hens and roos with roos, out of sight of each other to prevent fighting. If they see each other, they will fight. Quail are very aggressive and will kill each other.

Next, give them more room. I like to give this breed at least 2 square feet per bird. Any less and you are asking for trouble. Put some hidy places in the pen...fake or real foliage so they can lurk and hide, and some over turned flower pots with mouse holes cut into them. This will keep them calmer.

And finally, birds do not like to be moved. So expect your hens to stop laying for a few weeks to a month. Keep them in a quiet area, no loud noises, barking dogs, kids running about, and safe from predators lurking all night long.

Good luck with your birds! Definitely stop by our quail section to chat with our other quail keepers.

 

[drumstick diva]

Welcome to the flock

 

[blakemartin3]

Does anybody know how to tell the difference between male and female tuxedos?

 

[TwoCrows]

You need to ask this question in our quail section. Click here....https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/48/quail

Lots of Tuxedo keepers there that can help you.

 

[Michael OShay]

Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join our flock. I'm a chicken person and don't know much about quail (never had any), but definitely post on our quail section and take advantage of our quail experts there. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with your quail.

 

[gander007]

Wow TwoCrows gave you some great advice

I worked with Quail but different then the one's you have so the best place for you is the Quail Trends and if you have problems type your question into the search box at the top of the page ....