Backyard Poultry Forum

I just interested how many eggs do quails lay and how often they get broody how many eggs they usually sit on???? I always ask at the feed store and the kids that work there dont know what there talking about lol

_________________
RIR's 2 Roosters, 3 Hens...

Hi,

If you are talking about jap quails i think they are a non broody breed. here is some information on them:

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/l ... nese-quail

Cheers

Christian

_________________
Interested in Plymouth Rocks, Breeder of Light Barred Standard

I had a fellow buy some quails off me the other day, he was convinced he could make them go broody. If he can make them go broody, I'm buying them back!!!

They can lay quite a few eggs. I used to have a breeding pen of 10 with 7-8 female birds. They would lay anywhere from 40 - 60 eggs a week.

_________________
Huney

There's only a very fine eggshell between genius and insanity!!

I only ever had one jap quail hatch a batch of eggs, but her most of her babies died mysteriously, i was so bummed. she was in a massive aviary though, with heaps of ground cover

_________________
Never follow a Hippy to a second location

I have successfully bred many little jap quails over the years. Here's what I have learnt:

they need to be in an aviary where the birds above aren't destructive of their nesting
they need cover and to feel safe
they need their own food and water
don't mess with them when they start laying, female quails lay many eggs then herd them all together into a safe corner then sit on them, they can lay them all over the aviary then roll them into one corner.
they need small wire to keep the babies in and safe
when the babies hatch they need water with stones in it so the bubs don't drown
they also need egg and biscuit mix (available from pet stores) with some small (finch) seed which the babies can eat, mother quails don't feed their babies they are like chickens the babies are self sufficient as soon as they hatch.
if you are in a cold area where the rain may affect the aviary they are housed in you will need to cover the avairy at night and when it is raining or cold.

they certainly aren't broody things, they are seasonal layers when food is at a plenty and usually when it is warm.

_________________
"Frog Song" Windera, our little slice of heaven.
http://www.mysmallfarm.com

you sure your not talking about king quails? i know a few people that call them japs.

japanese quail are very easy to breeds as long as the have a good high protein feed (25-30% protein) i find that 2-4 females per male works best, if more then one male per pen then 4 females per male. putting new males in a pen that already has males does NOT work, they may fight to the death.

also dont put then on sand, i tried this and i spent a lot of time getting dried poo balls off there feet they will also lay there eggs anywhere and usually dont use a nest.

regards

youri.

No Youri I meant Jap, I've king quails now and have bred them in the same manner in the past, its the same principal for both quails.

_________________
"Frog Song" Windera, our little slice of heaven.
http://www.mysmallfarm.com

What Frawley said.


.........although, an incubator is so much more efficient!

_________________
Breeder of Blue Laced Gold and Silver Wyandottes.

I hope it is OK to revive an old topic. I have new King Quail and they now have 12 eggs and have just decided to sit. Is that too many? I can't imagine such tiny birds managing to keep that many warm. Would it be better to take some out and put them in the incubator?

_________________
Liz
3 labradors, 2 moggies, 23 fish tanks, 2 ponds and 25 chooks.... this weeks tally

Hi All, Just thought i'd share since I was so excited!! My jap quail hen Fat-Brown went broody and just hatched 6 chicks.

I've only had quail over the past year, so don't know a great deal about them but had heard that they don't go broody. I hatched Fat-Brown in an incubator and she was hand raised so pretty tame for a quail. At 8 months old she had been laying daily for most of her life with hap-hazzard eggs left around the coop as quails do. Then one day she started to build a nest and lay her eggs (mostly) in it, as did the other hens in the coop. I collected the eggs each day but noticed her spending more and more time near the nest, but still running around mostly like normal, so I left her some eggs and sure enough a few days later she started to sit on 13 of them. You could tell she really didn't want to be sitting there, not like a broody chook. She would get up every chance she got, probably 10+ times a day but always went back. The other hens kept laying into her nest so I fenced it off so she was in there by her self.

Usually when I go to check on her she gets off the nest and runs off thinking i've put food in her dish, but this morning she sat on the nest and growled at me, which was new. I checked underneath and there was one little chick. By the time I got home from work this afternoon she had left the nest and had moved 5 chicks with her. All the remaining eggs were cold, I was expecting her to wait around on the nest for a day or 2 like a broody chicken does but no, any eggs that are late to hatch were goners.

I did find a 6th chick dead outside the fencing, I forgot how much those little things wander. The other quails had killed it, so i've picked up Fat-Brown and her babies and moved them into a box in the house. She didn't seem to mind being moved at all.

Fat-Brown

Yes, the babies are tiny aren't they!

Lovely pics, thanks for the update.

I have moved the thread into the dedicated forum but there is still a copy in Breeding.

Just to add, I put the remaining eggs (the ones my broody quail left behind when 6 chicks hatched) into my incubator even though they had been cold throughout the day, and 3 more chicks hatched 2 days later. I put them under the hen with the other chicks and she never knew any different, so now she has 8 chicks. They only just fit under her at the moment so not sure how they will go when they get a bit bigger.

Well done!

And another update, 1 week as a mother and my quail hen has started laying eggs again. She is still looking after the chicks but if she's laying I don't imagine she will stick around much longer.

She's doing an ok job, she feeds the chicks and tries to sit on them to keep them warm, but she does forget about them fairly often and will go off and do her own thing for a while before rediscovering them later. Most of the chicks no longer fit under her so I bring them in at night and they huddle next to her.