Viability of Brood

[deckstein17]

We live in fairly remote country setting with wild gambel quail running everywhere. In our patio area we had a hanging plant that I would water regularly in the hot AZ summer months. As my watering routine began to develop this season, a hen would occasionally fly out of my hanging basket and of course scare the heck out of me, since that's not where we normally find quail. I decided to look in the flower basket and lo and behold, there I found 5 eggs. We decided to sacrifice the plant and let little mom do her thing. Even set up a video cam to watch as things progressed.

However, it's now been 28 days and no chicks in sight. I'm assuming my prior days of watering eggs and scaring mom may have made hatching no longer viable, even though she would return to the nest within minutes. If this is a worse case scenario, then poor mom might as well be sitting on a batch of marbles.

Any advice on how long I should give mother nature and/or best practices for removing the eggs without giving mom PTSD would be appreciated. Also, should I expect her to return to this nest, even after the eggs are gone?? Thanks in advance.

 

[BYCforlife]

We live in fairly remote country setting with wild gambel quail running everywhere. In our patio area we had a hanging plant that I would water regularly in the hot AZ summer months. As my watering routine began to develop this season, a hen would occasionally fly out of my hanging basket and of course scare the heck out of me, since that's not where we normally find quail. I decided to look in the flower basket and lo and behold, there I found 5 eggs. We decided to sacrifice the plant and let little mom do her thing. Even set up a video cam to watch as things progressed.

However, it's now been 28 days and no chicks in sight. I'm assuming my prior days of watering eggs and scaring mom may have made hatching no longer viable, even though she would return to the nest within minutes. If this is a worse case scenario, then poor mom might as well be sitting on a batch of marbles.

Any advice on how long I should give mother nature and/or best practices for removing the eggs without giving mom PTSD would be appreciated. Also, should I expect her to return to this nest, even after the eggs are gone?? Thanks in advance.

This might be a silly question, but do you have a male quail?

You would want to take the eggs from her, she will ne mad but will forget very soon.

They can get sick from sitting on eggs for so long not doing anything. If she won't stop going broody, you should put her in a wire cage so any eggs she might lay will be easy to take away.

 

[JaeG]

If the eggs aren't going to hatch she will figure it out, but she'll sit awhile longer just in case. Let nature take it's course. I wouldn't interfere. Being a wild quail any interference from you may stress her out more than sitting awhile longer on her eggs.

 

[deckstein17]

This might be a silly question, but do you have a male quail?

You would want to take the eggs from her, she will ne mad but will forget very soon.

They can get sick from sitting on eggs for so long not doing anything. If she won't stop going broody, you should put her in a wire cage so any eggs she might lay will be easy to take away.

Thanks. Keep in mind these are wild quail. The males are all around and one in particular seems interested, but mom hasn't invited him in for drinks yet - not that we've observed anyway.

 

[deckstein17]

If the eggs aren't going to hatch she will figure it out, but she'll sit awhile longer just in case. Let nature take it's course. I wouldn't interfere. Being a wild quail any interference from you may stress her out more than sitting awhile longer on her eggs.

Thanks for the input. Pretty much what I figured, but thought I'd check with the experts.