Quail still not laying

[6Chickens&counting]

It's been almost 7 months and I have not gotten a single egg from my tibetan coturnix quail. They hatched at the end of August and were fully matured by the end of October. I've read that they need 14 hours of sunlight or artificial light to lay. They are outside with no artificial lights so will they lay in the spring and summer? Please help!

 

[TwoCrows]

Are you sure you have females? Make sure you are feeding them high protein gamebird food so they can produce eggs. Oyster shell on the side for the layers. Spring should get things rolling soon.

 

[bonnie in indiana]

Are they all males? [if they are all males-you cannot tell from there mating practices. At the moment, I have a pen of 13 males and they mate each other more than my male/female pens.
The males will "boink" each other in a heartbeat.]

Are they making the TWEET TWEET noise? [meaning- are they all males]

Are they eating their eggs?

Is there something else eating their eggs?

Are they on wire or ground?

If you have only a few, you might move them somewhere else.

Is there anything [animals] that keep scaring them--again move them if you can?

Do they have a sandbox? Mine love bathing and laying in the sandbox.

 

[6Chickens&counting]

I'm pretty sure I have at least two or three females because they are bigger than the males. Recently there have been some quail that have gone on the nest box and sat there a while but there's never an egg after. I feed them the game bird feed with 22% protein. And so far I've seen two different males crow. A lot of mating too. And they are on dirt not wire. I've also noticed the poop with foam which indicates if its male or not.

 

[laseterlass]

Supplement with oyster shell. Give them straw daily. Sand for baths. Throw meal worms in the sand. Thesr social activities keep mine laying year round.

 

[underground chickenman]

It's probably the light. I don't know where you are, but in Orlando, we are still having less than 12 hours of daylight. If you are any further north than that, then you have even shorter days. Adequate feed, water and longer days or artificial light and you should be getting about an egg a day...unless they are all males.

Not sure about the poop with foam as a sex sign. That sounds more like urine or, more specifically, uric acid, or bird pee, essentially.

 

[BobWhitesrus]

under natural light it will be mid to late april!..all quail are mostly summertime layers..24 hour lite is what we use for all quail here!

 

[laseterlass]

It's probably the light. I don't know where you are, but in Orlando, we are still having less than 12 hours of daylight. If you are any further north than that, then you have even shorter days.  Adequate feed, water and longer days or artificial light and you should be getting about an egg a day...unless they are all males. 

Not sure about the poop with foam as a sex sign. That sounds more like urine or, more specifically, uric acid, or bird pee, essentially.  

foam os a sign that male cotirnix are mating

 

[drowe005]

Unless you live somewhere with crazy long days in the winter (assuming you DIDN'T use artificial light), it is not unusual that you didn't get eggs in the winter. Size doesn't matter; you can't use that as a determining factor. Usually females are larger than males, but not always. A good way to determine is males will crow, which is a very distinct loud sound, and the females make a sound that sounds almost identical to a cricket. The only sure fire way to sex them is vent sexing, in which you have to know what your doing.

I live in Virginia, and with my birds using only natural light, I have only started getting eggs from my Chukars and ringneck pheasants, and its only been an egg here and there. None of my quails have started laying with natural light yet.