Signs of Broody Hen?

[KrisandLuna]

Hi all,

Behaviours of a quail becoming broody?
I have a 3 month old coturnix hen that is the sweetest girl, she has been laying for weeks now and only begun laying an egg, then rolling it constantly under her (20 minutes) then she leaves it.
So I started leaving the eggs in there instead of collecting and she now has 5 eggs in a "semi" nest.
She is starting to sit on them occasionally then leave (gets distracted) then always goes back to "count them" (is what it seems). When she gets close to laying, she paces on them then leaves, then comes back for hours.

She's not protective over them, other hens will trample on them and kick them around and she doesn't care.

could this be the beginning of a broody quail?

 

[DK newbie]

I don't know with coturnix, but with my buttons I can sometimes tell about a day before they become broody, if I observe them a lot. They just spend more time on the nest than they would if they were laying an egg, and keep returning to it several times during the day, but I don't count them as 'broody' before they sleep on the nest. I guess your girl might be becoming broody. As long as she's still laying eggs, she's not actually broody yet, but I guess it's a good sign that she's showing a lot of interest in her eggs and is laying them in the same nest.