Quail production slowed drastically

[Desertquail]

I’ve got 9 coturnix right now, when I first got my quail I had them in a shed in my back yard. In the wire pens for commercial use. They didn’t lay at all with natural light, leaving the shed door open. I added a artificial light with 14 hours of light for them and they started laying pretty close to one egg a day each. After a few weeks of getting a nice amount of delicious eggs on a daily basis, the amount of eggs slowly started to drop. Slowed at first and then got to where I’d be lucky to get one or two eggs every few days. It was still early spring and not very hot out or anything so I’m not sure what made them slow down. I didn’t change there food or anything. I built them a nice coop, it is directly on the ground, with predator proof fencing around it because we have lots of coyotes and I am about 30 minutes outside of town. So they’ve been moved from the wire cage, a nice shady, cool, shed under the tree location, to their new coop which is in direct sun although they have plenty of little shady hiding spots in the coop. I was worried the egg laying would stop altogether during the summer here because it regularly gets over a 100 degrees here and I just assumed the shed was heating up during the day and that made them slow down. But now they are in a hotter coop with close to 100 degree temps, and they’ve started to lay a little more, they still aren’t laying anywhere near one a day. I’m lucky to get one or two a day now but it has picked up a little bit. It is still nowhere near one egg a day from my hens. I don’t know there ages but I do know for a fact one of them is a young hen and even she doesn’t lay one per day. What can I do to get them back to laying more regularly? Thank you

 

[Erkenstein]

Hi. A couple of questions:

What type of food are you feeding them? My research has suggested that if the protein level is too low (like if you're feeding chicken feed) they won't lay.

When did you move them to the new cage? They may need some time to adjust before they get back to normal.

 

[Desertquail]

They’ve been in the new pen for a few days now, but that hasn’t slowed them. If anything it’s slightly increased, because now I sometimes get two eggs in a day where as before the move it had gotten down to one egg every few days. I do feed them chicken food but it is the starter mix that is 22% protein I believe.

 

[Kiki]

The protein amount in the chick starter feed is probably good enough but the calcium amount is not.
Do you offer extra calcium on the side?

 

[Kiki]

You may find these charts helpful:
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/473/feeding-quail/

 

[Desertquail]

No I don’t give them anything extra for calcium, I will start giving them some. I got paranoid about feeding my chickens or quails egg shells. I used to smash them up for the chickens sometimes but they started eating their own eggs because of it. I’m just confused about the quail because there was a time a few months ago, with them on the same exact diet they are now where they were laying an egg a day for quite a while. Probably for a couple months. Then it slowed, then almost stopped entirely. The only change during that, was the weather warming up. Don’t know what caused them to stop.

 

[Kiki]

I believe they are in need of extra calcium.
A bag of poultry oyster shell is very cheap and if you offer it in a dish on the side they will take what they need from the dish.
Do not mix it with their feed.

 

[Desertquail]

Thank you, I’ll get them some oyster shell and hopefully I’ll be rolling in quail eggs again soon

 

[Kiki]

No I don’t give them anything extra for calcium, I will start giving them some. I got paranoid about feeding my chickens or quails egg shells. I used to smash them up for the chickens sometimes but they started eating their own eggs because of it. I’m just confused about the quail because there was a time a few months ago, with them on the same exact diet they are now where they were laying an egg a day for quite a while. Probably for a couple months. Then it slowed, then almost stopped entirely. The only change during that, was the weather warming up. Don’t know what caused them to stop.

I do not believe this is true...that feeding egg shells causes egg eating.
Egg eating is usually caused by not getting a proper complete diet.

I also do not believe that feeding eggs shells back to the birds that have not been getting enough calcium to begin with is going to work out too well.
I really think it would be best to just buy the oyster shell for now.

 

[Kiki]

Thank you, I’ll get them some oyster shell and hopefully I’ll be rolling in quail eggs again soon