we have one male, one female quail.. We are now getting eggs. Do we eat them or let her sit on them?

[jordanfmly]

we are very new to the quail raising.. She just started laying eggs, We ate a couple.. Yummy. last night I seen some action going on in the quail pen. I am wondering, do we continue to take the egg and eat it, or let her sit on it. or what?? Not sure what I am doing at this point.

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

what kind of quail are they? Most quail will not hatch their own eggs, so i would just eat it most likely. Is she sitting on them already? Is that what you mean by action?

 

[Sill]

How old are these quail? If they are very young they might not be fertile yet. Also depending on what kind of quail they are one hen might not be enough for your rooster.

 

[dc3085]

Seriously the chances of most domestic quail breeds going broody would be insane if anyone bothered to check, like one in a million or who knows maybe far more. I've seen two examples of domestic coturnix incubating their own eggs in all the time I've been keeping and researching quail.

 

[jordanfmly]

They are Bob White quail. In seeing action, I mean they were mating . She dug a nest out and laid an egg in the nest and is sitting on it. I have not removed it yet. But after reading lots of material. I am seeing that it's not usual for them to do it on their own. So thinking we may just keep collecting and eating until Spring when we decide to incubate I guess..

 

[jordanfmly]

there is only one rooster and one female to this enclosure.

 

[dc3085]

I was just using coturnix as an example. The only cage raised quail that occasionally goes broody are buttons but that is happening less every day. No cage raised quail can be relied on to incubate the times they try they don't even know how and quit. Wasn't kidding at all when I said 1/1,000,000 it isn't an outrageous guess at how often they incubate with success. When you buy birds or eggs you must realize that you are not getting real bobwhites or whatever you are getting dometics, domestic quail aren't genetically the same as wild one in many ways because they've been line bred to highlight specific traits. They are so far removed from each other that domestic coturnix breeding with wild cots in europe are considered hybrids. That should tell you a lot right there.

Here is some comparison between domestic and wild cots.

These are regarding domestic coturnix hybridizing with wild birds.

http://www.ibg.uu.se/digitalAssets/177/177016_3huisman-jisca-arbete.pdf
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0009451

 

[lukem5]

Seriously the chances of most domestic quail breeds going broody would be insane if anyone bothered to check, like one in a million or who knows maybe far more. I've seen two examples of domestic coturnix incubating their own eggs in all the time I've been keeping and researching quail.

Much less than 1 in a million... There is a thread that was posted just yesterday about a cotty that is raising 12 chicks from 17 eggs she went broody on.

 

[Fat Daddy]

I dont have a clue as the actual %.... But hens teeth are a lot more common..... There is a Wendy, I believe from the UK, that has one that hatches a clutch now and again. There is a breeder in Canada too, but I dont remember his name. It does seem to be more common outside the US for some reason.... Not sure why, maybe the stock, maybe husbandry.... Either way, I would'nt expect to see one.... I know a lot of breeders and have raised a few myself and never seen one do more than hoard eggs a few days and lose interest......