So.. I'm pretty sure my Coturnix Quail has gone broody.

[BackYardQuail]

About 4 weeks ago a raccoon got into my aviary and killed all the quail that were in there, and turned over a jar of bird feed i had in there for my Cockatiels that share the aviary. I had only two females left which I temporarily moved out of the aviary before the raccoon got in because they were being abused by some of the other quail in the cage. The jar that he tipped over wasn't full, just a little on the bottom which led to the 2 females eating the seed from the jar, I guess one of them liked the idea of laying eggs inside. I saw that she started laying them in there but had no bedding so i threw in some soil/sand/twigs. I've been watching what she does for a little under 3 weeks now and all she does is sit on her eggs, only coming out when she needs some food/water. Also, she is much more calm now than she was earlier. I can pick up the jar or get really close to her and she just watches me without even moving. Could my quail possibly have gone broody? I've had quail for a little over three years now and have never seen any sort of behavior like this.

Only downside to this is that I have no males so I can't give her fertile eggs to sit on. Might need to go do a farmers market run soon for some fertile eggs or a male to test it out, maybe I can finally put my incubator away and have my quail do the raising for me.

Almost forgot, here's an image of the quail in the jar. (I put a second jar right by it just in case the second quail wants to mimic the first)

Sorry about the blurry pic, had to use some trash phone since I couldn't find mine.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Is the container a cockatiel feed container from walmart? I buy those to lol as for broody if she really is thats news to me as most broodyness is bred out of quail these days I had coturnix but processed them as they eat more then a chicken!

 

[BackYardQuail]

Is the container a cockatiel feed container from walmart? I buy those to lol as for broody if she really is thats news to me as most broodyness is bred out of quail these days I had coturnix but processed them as they eat more then a chicken!

Yeah I've heard that it was bred out of them which is why I'm a bit surprised that she is acting this way. Oh boy they sure do eat a lot, too bad I can't keep chickens where I'm located so I guess I'll stick with quail. Also, yes it's a feed container from walmart, I buy them just to use them for storage for feed. I buy bags of feed then pour it into the jars that way I can keep a jar inside my aviary and not need to run to and from my house every day when needing to feed the tiels.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Yeah I've heard that it was bred out of them which is why I'm a bit surprised that she is acting this way. Oh boy they sure do eat a lot, too bad I can't keep chickens where I'm located so I guess I'll stick with quail. Also, yes it's a feed container from walmart, I buy them just to use them for storage for feed. I buy bags of feed then pour it into the jars that way I can keep a jar inside my aviary and not need to run to and from my house every day when needing to feed the tiels.

Quails a start to the chicken world lol and I use my containers to scoop feed to fill my tidy cat bins for my chickens my budgies I feed everyday with a hamster feed cup lol

 

[JaeG]

If kept in a more natural environment with lots of space, like an aviary, quail can go broody. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. The odd one does go broody in a small cage too so there's hope yet for quail raising their own babies. She looks so cute in that jar.

Quail are actually better at converting feed into eggs so even though they eat a lot they also give a lot, and more efficiently than chickens especially seeing as they can start producing as young as 6 weeks old. You can ferment their food so they waste less and need to eat less too (always a bonus).

 

[BaJa]

yes, she's broody. you can totally tell. get her fertile eggs asap!