Quails eggs still in winter?

[Fishychix]

What can I say. Those two that are still laying were a late hatch. They started laying on October and we still have an excellent weather (9-14C). It's like spring with sunny days. I'm in a quiet place with a few street lights and the older ones stopped layng since late September I think. (Are you sure they live only two years? I thought they can make even 4. I'm new to this. A covid rookie!)

Same here
But I did quite a bit of research and am still researching. I dont think you ever stop learning

 

[MomFoldingLaundry]

I get one or two eggs a day from my 4 mature girls, but half of them come from my tuxedo lady. I know this because every hatch, half the babies look like her.

 

[Quailguy728]

Hi everyone,
So I’m located in southern Ontario Canada and we are well into winter and freezing temperatures. (Snow all over) I have read that quail stop laying in the winter because of the change in light and that adding light keeps up production. I did -not- added any light because I also read it reduces their life span and I’d rather have the little ones around for longer than endless eggs.

This is where it’s odd, I had a point in September where they clearly went through molting and got much fluffier, here their eggs reduced but then it went right back up. Now end December and regular temps of -2 to -8 (with some nice days of a high of +4) and I am somehow happy I’m getting 1 egg per lady a day but worried they will have worse life expectancy. Is there some way to discourage them laying? Should I be worried? Is this just a weirdly good thing?

Temps certainly have been colder here in Southern Ontario! As well, the days have been much shorter. I notice my girls are still laying though, too!

What I've been doing (as I didn't plan to have eggs this time of year anyways) since they won't seem to stop, is feed the eggs right back to them so they can at least recuperate that loss of energy. Quail eggs are a "super food", after all!

Wishing you and your quails the best!

 

[Quail 66]

Temps certainly have been colder here in Southern Ontario! As well, the days have been much shorter. I notice my girls are still laying though, too!

What I've been doing (as I didn't plan to have eggs this time of year anyways) since they won't seem to stop, is feed the eggs right back to them so they can at least recuperate that loss of energy. Quail eggs are a "super food", after all!

Wishing you and your quails the best!

I give them to my neighbor usually. She makes face masks

 

[coturnix dad]

I have 2 males and 2 females in a cage now. I kept them in a separate room in my house but I didn't offer any additional light or heat source. I found two eggs on the floor today and was pleasantly surprised. I thought the quails stopped laying when the day light gets shorter, but they still lay on the day of winter solstice! I'm not sure if they're fertilized though. I haven't observed any mating for awhile.

 

[Vampiric_Conure]

I found it weird that as soon as I gave my birds LESS light, they started laying more. Even my conures are on eggs. Could it be I was giving them too much light at first? I used to leave a small light on for the cockatiels at night, but have stopped doing that, as the conures got really moody with it on. The quail are in the bird room, too. I would say everyone gets 10 hours of darkness now, without the nightlight on.

 

[Nabiki]

I found it weird that as soon as I gave my birds LESS light, they started laying more. Even my conures are on eggs. Could it be I was giving them too much light at first? I used to leave a small light on for the cockatiels at night, but have stopped doing that, as the conures got really moody with it on. The quail are in the bird room, too. I would say everyone gets 10 hours of darkness now, without the nightlight on.

Yes, your birds do need some time without light. 8-10 hours of darkness is about right for best egg production.