Quail (Coturnix) may be broody?

[BBQuail]

First, I know quail are often not broody, but it happens. And I’ve read everything I can find here. Thanks to everybody on this wonderful site.
My group is 6 hens and 1 roo, all 1 to 1.5 years old. Larger aviary style enclosure, approx 40 square feet.
I have one hen who may be considering sitting. Several hens and the roo show alot of interest in the clutch the group as gathered. But, this hen actually makes pancake bird on the eggs for several periods of time every day. Not all day and she has not stayed overnight.
Every couple days I remove just the oldest eggs, leaving 10-14 eggs. If I leave less she loses interest till that evening when everybody lays again. This has been going on for almost two weeks. I’ve considered separating the rest of the group from the clutch area, as they’re all being pests, and continue to insist on moving her to add to the clutch, or check on the eggs themselves, but was afraid it would stress her out.
Anybody with advice?

 

[Green Bean Quail]

Sorry, I deleted my old post because I saw that some other people with more experience than me had done things differently. I followed a couple of threads and what I have seen is you can try to seperate her and see if she will continue brooding. If she doesn't, no big deal, but if your goal IS to have her hatch chicks then her own enclosure will probably do well, allow her access to plenty of hay and nesting materials and some good food and water. I have a broody female but have never really let her hatch a batch out because my goal isn't more chicks. (I raise them more as recreation/pets.) IF you want to keep her in the hutch with the rest of the flock, add a few good hiding areas that she can climb into where it will be hard for other birds to disturb her. Boxes, plastic crates, or foliage all work well. Sorry for the first post deletion! Hope I helped!

 

[FloorCandy]

Sorry, I deleted my old post because I saw that some other people with more experience than me had done things differently. I followed a couple of threads and what I have seen is you can try to seperate her and see if she will continue brooding. If she doesn't, no big deal, but if your goal IS to have her hatch chicks then her own enclosure will probably do well, allow her access to plenty of hay and nesting materials and some good food and water. I have a broody female but have never really let her hatch a batch out because my goal isn't more chicks. (I raise them more as recreation/pets.) IF you want to keep her in the hutch with the rest of the flock, add a few good hiding areas that she can climb into where it will be hard for other birds to disturb her. Boxes, plastic crates, or foliage all work well. Sorry for the first post deletion! Hope I helped!

I separated my broody and the eggs inside into a 66qt bin. She doesn’t have much space to wander too far from the eggs, birds are kind of dumb, out of sight out of mind. She can eat without getting up, and the water is very close. I do my best to not disturb her. I only pick up her huge broody poops and refill the water, the food is more than enough for the duration. She’s on day 14 now I think. I wonder if it will be a late hatch because some stick out the sides at times, but she shuffles them around fairly often.

 

[BBQuail]

Thanks. For now I’ve made a decent size hardware cloth enclosure around the clutch and put her in there. As expected she freaked out, and it’s 95 degrees here today, so I placed a fan in the general area, and ice in her water. Its been a few hours, and she has started spending even more time on the eggs. I checked her chest and she is quite light on feathers. I’d like to keep her near the covey, but if it doesn’t seem to be working, I’ll try the bin in the house I keep as the trama/timeout unit. At least it will be cooler for her.