quail stopped laying, is she stressed from too many males?

[potatoyay]

We currently have 3 females and 3 males. Yes, the ratio is far off. Originally, we thought we had 2 males to 5 hens, but it turned out being 3 males to 4 hens, then one of our hens escaped and was never found. The males never fight. One female (she was the only laying at the time) stopped laying due to the daylight hours falling under 12. We started adding supplemental light and she finally layed a single egg. The past 2 days, she hasn't layed. And today I saw one of our males biting our female, and she was running away. That same male was mounting her maybe 2 days ago. Is she stressed? Why did she only lay 1 egg than stopped?

PS: we're also getting temperature swings. It's getting colder and possibly going to snow today.

 

[Nabiki]

Too many males can certainly stress your hens into not laying.

It's also possible that she's still getting used to the additional light, but I would remove all or all but one male and see if that makes a difference.

 

[potatoyay]

Too many males can certainly stress your hens into not laying.

It's also possible that she's still getting used to the additional light, but I would remove all or all but one male and see if that makes a difference.

I've watched more closely today. In this past hour, I've noticed the males trying to mount one hen several times. They may have been possibly fighting, but it was hard to tell. We may need to butcher one.

 

[jargon777]

If the males are over-breeding the hens you could look behind their heads to see if feathers are missing. 1:1 is too much IMO, your hens will end up bald eventually at those ratios. Even 2:3 is still too much. I have a group at 1:3 and even at that ratio I notice one of the hens is over-bred and balding a bit.

The switchover from decreasing light to artificial light is to me the likely cause here though. Has she only lain one egg? Quail go through a lot of changes in anticipation for winter, so it won't just be a simple on/off switch to go back to regular laying.

 

[potatoyay]

If the males are over-breeding the hens you could look behind their heads to see if feathers are missing. 1:1 is too much IMO, your hens will end up bald eventually at those ratios. Even 2:3 is still too much. I have a group at 1:3 and even at that ratio I notice one of the hens is over-bred and balding a bit.

The switchover from decreasing light to artificial light is to me the likely cause here though. Has she only lain one egg? Quail go through a lot of changes in anticipation for winter, so it won't just b]]e a simple on/off switch to go back to regular laying.

I haven't noticed balding. But it's been like 2 weeks and she hasn't laid, and the lights are on every night.