Reasons they stopped laying?

[Tegan]

Alight, so my first batch of quail. I had them inside for the first 7 weeks. They started laying around 6 weeks, I moved them outside at 7 weeks about 2 weeks ago (give or take). Egg laying continued to increase until a few days ago. Then suddenly stopped. No predators or anything else around that could have stressed them into stopping laying. Just suddenly no eggs....

Could the light change from inside to outside taken that long to mess them up and stop them laying? Could it be the feed doesn't have enough protein to keep them laying (19% Game bird chow). Do I need to add oyster shell to get them laying again? (They didn't have soft or brittle eggs before though...). Just kinda stumped.

 

[Graphite91]

I know they should get more protein than that, like 24%-30%, with 24% being the lowest. I don't know how much low protein diets affect egg laying though, so maybe someone else will chime in.

 

[dc3085]

Alight, so my first batch of quail. I had them inside for the first 7 weeks. They started laying around 6 weeks, I moved them outside at 7 weeks about 2 weeks ago (give or take). Egg laying continued to increase until a few days ago. Then suddenly stopped. No predators or anything else around that could have stressed them into stopping laying. Just suddenly no eggs....

Could the light change from inside to outside taken that long to mess them up and stop them laying? Could it be the feed doesn't have enough protein to keep them laying (19% Game bird chow). Do I need to add oyster shell to get them laying again? (They didn't have soft or brittle eggs before though...). Just kinda stumped.

Are there feathers everywhere? keeping them on artificial light past 4 weeks and later changing light cycles can mess up the timing of their first molt.

Are predators prowling around at night?

They don't need oyster shell until they begin normal daily production. I start mine around 10-12 weeks.

19% is a little low but better than chicken food, I fed 19% (which is flight conditioner for quail used for hunting/dog training) for about a year when i started until I could get my feed store to order pheasant crumble (28%) to mix the flight conditioner with 50/50. You can also mix it 50/50 with unmedicated gamebird starter which is 30%.

They will lay eggs every day on 15% chicken food, no its not good for them but it's sort of a myth that no quail will lay on low protein. It just kills them quicker and quality of egg and offspring will suffer. There is a bird hoarder not far from me and he feeds chicken food to all his pheasants, quail, and partridges. His birds look terrible but eggs keep rolling out. Low protein in the first 2-3 months can stunt their growth.

 

[Tegan]

There are feathers everywhere...I thought it was just the roos being a little rough with the hens but not that I think about it I bet they are just molting. They all look a little raggedy. Thanks. I'll just give it time and try to get my protein up as well.

 

[dc3085]

They're molting then, give them about 2 weeks to finish.

 

[davedavey]

They're molting then,  give them about 2 weeks to finish. 

Answers my question also.