Quail DIY disaster ! Fights no eggs ! Help!

[Quailgood]

Glad it's sorted JPine. Hope you get your eggs okay. I had the same issue. Quail had plenty of space, god m/fm ratio, plenty of cover and places to hide etc... They all laid fine for about a month then out of the blue one got aggressive and they all stopped laying entirely. So I got rid of the aggressor and things seem to be picking up too. The eggs haven't started again however. Am thinking maybe its the shorter days so less/no eggs at the minute. We keep one inside as a pet and she lays like a champion. Could be the interior lighting. All the best with your quail.

 

[Quailsong]

I'm glad things are looking up!

 

[Weirdness555]

Sounds like you've got it sorted then

 

[slick rick]

I am having a similar problem. Got quail a week ago, have about 25. Eating and drinking heathy but no eggs. 14 hours of light everyday. What am I doing wrong

 

[Weirdness555]

Probably nothing, quail will stop laying for the first 1-2 weeks after being moved. Also, are you sure they're old enough? Were they laying where they came from? Is there any chance you have all males? Tehe. It's probably just moving strike though.

 

[slick rick]

Thank you. They were laying before me an the owner sexed them and put a band on them. I think you are right and I have to be patient. To top everything off I just check on them at noon and something killed 10 of them. I will be re-fabricating a safer pen tonight

 

[James the Bald]

Thank you. They were laying before me an the owner sexed them and put a band on them. I think you are right and I have to be patient. To top everything off I just check on them at noon and something killed 10 of them. I will be re-fabricating a safer pen tonight

Rick, that completely sux. The bad part is that what ever did this, will return. After hatching my quail, I had a cat kill one of my hens through an opening in the cage where eggs would roll out. I ended up relocating my cages to the inside of my garage. I also had a 5 foot garden snake kill one of my hens, but my wife caught it in the act, so I was able to cut it's head off with the same shears I use to cull my extra roos. Three of my cages have 1" x 1" galvanized cage wire for the sides, and he was able to get inside. My wife thinks the snake gained access into my garage through an open window after it scaled a bush nearby. After that incident, my hens didn't lay for several days.
My recommendation is to use 1/2" x 1/2" hardware cloth to reinforce your cage; your hens will settle down enough so you can get eggs.
James

 

[slick rick]

.. I moved them from an outside colony coop to this one I made yesterday out of a shelf. This should be much safer now. Now just waiting for the eggs

 

[Weirdness555]

Haha I looked at that picture and it looks like the quail are floating in mid air above the floor! Then I realised that it was because they have a wire bottom over the floor and the wire didn't show up in the photo. Just as an aside, if they are on wire like that full time it's good to provide a sand dish that they can get into to get off the wire to rest their feet, otherwise you get problems with their feet in the long run. They will love to dust bath in the sand too.

 

[slick rick]

Thanks you I have been working on that as well along with automatic waterers