speng5
Chirping
- Mar 6, 2024
- 20
- 29
- 59
So I originally had started my outdoor pen with 14 birds, 11 hens and 3 roosters. I culled one roo that was the meanest and that left me with 11 hen and 2 roosters. Some of you may have seen I posted a few days ago about getting my first eggs around this time also. For the sake of the timeline my quail were born the last week of February I believe, making them about 7 weeks old last week and going into their 8th week now. I have an idea which of the girls have laid but I cannot be sure of course. Anyway, last week I got 3 eggs in as many days, the last of which being sunday morning. Here we are on wednesday, no eggs this week 
Also worth noting, is I am seeing more feathers on the bottom of my pens. More than just typically fall out it looks like, and these are different feathers. Longer ones it seems. The hens do not seem to be overly stressed and when I handle them they do not have any patchiness or bald spots, no bald heads and no bald backs. But the feathers on the bottom of the pen certainly are coming from somewhere and seem to be increasing in number.
Is it possible that at this age (going into their 8th week) the remaining two roosters (one or both) are becoming markedly more aggressive? I know some breeding/chasing/pecking is tolerable for the hens, and of course is necessary for getting fertile eggs. Would the sudden stoppage of egg production be due to stress of the aggressive roosters? How long before egg laying becomes regularly productive? At 7-8 weeks now the laying was very slight/sporadic to begin with but now is non existent. For background info I am in the upper midwest where hours of sunlight currently are at about 13.5-14 hours a day.
I apologize for throwing out so many questions at once lol but I am hoping someone with more experience (these are my first quail) can offer some advice or input!
Thanks everyone who gave this a read!
Also worth noting, is I am seeing more feathers on the bottom of my pens. More than just typically fall out it looks like, and these are different feathers. Longer ones it seems. The hens do not seem to be overly stressed and when I handle them they do not have any patchiness or bald spots, no bald heads and no bald backs. But the feathers on the bottom of the pen certainly are coming from somewhere and seem to be increasing in number.
Is it possible that at this age (going into their 8th week) the remaining two roosters (one or both) are becoming markedly more aggressive? I know some breeding/chasing/pecking is tolerable for the hens, and of course is necessary for getting fertile eggs. Would the sudden stoppage of egg production be due to stress of the aggressive roosters? How long before egg laying becomes regularly productive? At 7-8 weeks now the laying was very slight/sporadic to begin with but now is non existent. For background info I am in the upper midwest where hours of sunlight currently are at about 13.5-14 hours a day.
I apologize for throwing out so many questions at once lol but I am hoping someone with more experience (these are my first quail) can offer some advice or input!
Thanks everyone who gave this a read!
