Something is spooking my Coturnix Quails

[Overeasyplz]

My adult birds from my very first hatch of JJ's eggs back in January, have been living outside in their revamped rabbit hutch pen. They love the pen, it has a 4' run and a hidey-hole box where in the chilly new year I had a light on in there for them. I took that out a month and a half ago. It has been really nice weatherwise here, the snow is gone and the grass is trying to grow. But this last week I went from 10 eggs from 10 birds daily to no eggs at all!! And the birds are not eating as good. They cleaned up their food almost twice daily. I havent seen any tracks around the pen, but I have noticed a lot of shedded feathers. Maybe they are molting. Even in the box there are feathers. But it's not too abnormal an amount. The quail poops are all huge too. I just am not sure what's going on. Maybe they are eating their eggs? I haven't seen any sign of eggs for the last two days..hmmmm

 

[UltraMegaChicken_5000]

Don't know if you would have the same issue up north, but here in Texas I had a rat snake problem with my quail. I had to kill three, 4 to 5 footers, as they were spooking the quail at night, then eventually they got in the pen, killed some, and couldn't get out.
Or perhaps you have a mite or other parasite problem? All i can think of right now.

 

[Overeasyplz]

Good idea.. too cold yet for reps so i will check for mites..

 

[secretquail]

I don't think you should worry. I have the same thing going on. I have a 4x2' run with a box on the one side, similar to yours. And like you, I had a heat lamp in the winter. My girl layed all winter for me, and since I took out the light, she has stopped laying. Same is true with the overload of feathers. I guess change is really hard on the quail. I'm giving mine a while before I really get discouraged. Hopefully she will start laying soon. I'm not to sure though, b/c I am about to add (hopefully) 26 new babies, and they are going into a new larger pen, so the change isn't going to stop for a while. Hopefully yours will perk up soon. She probably just got spoiled with the heated room.

 

[Friend2Fowl]

I took the light away from my quail a few weeks ago and went from 24+ eggs a day to about 10. They've gotten back up to around 12-18, but they still aren't laying like they were.

(preaching warning

)
Quail need at least 14 hours of light a day. If you are seeing a lot of feathers, they are probably fighting. Check your male/female ratio; in a community pen there should be no less than 5 females for every 1 male. Over-breeding or excessive fighting will throw the girls off their routines. My birds that didn't have any light on them through the winter still haven't started laying real well, from about 18 hens I get maybe 10 eggs a day. They still need extra light if you want them to lay regularly. This would explain their low appetites: they need light to eat.

My biggest cage is about 3' by 8' and has around 40 birds in it. About 1/3 of the cage is fully enclosed, and this is where I had their light. You either need to turn the light back on (put a 25 or 40 watt bulb in it so you don't cook them) or wait it out. Mine are finally picking back up, so I think I'm just gonna finish waiting it out

 

[Overeasyplz]

They will get their light back when my meaties don't need it anymore, but seeing as how it was SNOWING yesterday I dunno!! I need an electrician so I can have like 20 outlets in my shed for all the different pens lol.
I got 1 egg yesterday. The pen has 10 hens and one roo. There might be a mean hen out there. I need to watch them this weekend to see who's doing what.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
it does,nt seem like it takes lots of light my bobs are under lights they are all laying and the eggs in the bator say they are fertile woohoo but my coturnix are close enough to the bobs that all them are laying as well just the light is not that intense at their end of the world LOL