To cull or not to cull?

[Sycamore27]

I'm debating what to do about my quail right now.

I haven't got an egg from them since early/mid June and the last couple I got before they quit completely had thin shells and dents in them. They had not been laying long before they stopped.
A few weeks ago we lost one hen unexpectedly and then a couple days ago the roo's most 'favorite', or more aptly the most bald, hen was found dead too. There were no signs before hand and nothing changed. All their droppings were normal and they seemed healthy, I did not try to do a necropsy because a friend wanted the bones to make jewlery and I didn't want to cut them up.

So now we are down to one roo and two hens. One is an A&M and the roo has before now completely ignored her so I'm worried the remaining brown will get the brunt of him and be bred to death.
They are eating a 28% protein game bird starter, they have a mixture of oyster shell eggshell and coral calcium available to them though I never see them eat it, they have waterers they cannot foul, and they have a UV light on a 14 cycle as they are indoor birds.
My thinking when they first stopped laying was to wait until I can order some eggs and brood chicks out to laying age and then cull these and replace them if they still weren't laying by then, but now that we're down to this few I'm worried about them hurting each other and am debating if I should go ahead and cull them and start anew with hatching eggs next month when I can. I'm not inclined to keep non-productive livestock fed and get nothing for my efforts, it would be the most expensive pot of quail stew ever but I'm starting to feel I should cut my losses before they kill each other anyway.

What do you think?
And is there anything else I should be doing to try to get them laying again?

Thanks,
Jessie

 

[TwoCrows]

Sycamore, have you wormed these birds before? How old are they? Generally hens will lay all throughout their lives, even up to death. The average life span of quail is 2 to 5 years and beyond. The lack of calcium has nothing to do with the release of the yolks. Protein however, does play a huge part in the laying cycle and partly responsible for the releasing of the daily yolks. And usually hens are born with more than enough yolks to go their entire lives laying.

So all this being said, because they are on a high protein diet, I would not suspect the diet to be the cause of the lack of laying. All that is left here would be the health of the quail. Is something going on inside their bodies to prevent laying. Soft or dented shells is not always caused from the lack or not enough calcium. Disease, bacteria, virus's, worms, the hens inability to absorb nutrients for what ever reason, can cause eggs to be laid in a poor state. Or just the over health of the hen.

So just for the benefit of not only the birds, but yourself as well, it might not hurt to get them wormed and maybe run some antibiotics thru them as well. If these things do not clear up the situation, maybe a change of food might help. Go over your pen with a fine tooth comb to make sure nothing else is causing this issue. You need to know what is going on for future reference. And if another one dies, or you do cull them, you should probably do a necropsy on them to see what was going on. You never know what is causing this and it may continue with new birds or get completely out of control.

 

[TwoCrows]

Also...and this is also important for laying is how much stress are the hens under. If your ratio of females to this male has dropped too low, and the remaining females are being mated far too much, this will cause not only funky shaped eggs, but a drop in production as well. Death of the hens can happen from too much mating. When they get stressed, they won't lay. Too much human traffic, dogs and kids as well will cause stress.

So look into all of these possibilities to help narrow down the lack of egg laying. Hopefully you get a handle on it soon.