Are my quails nesting?

[TinyRaptorMomma]

Hi everyone! We are new to owning quails, and new to the forum. We absolutely love our babies! We have two Coturnix quails, one male and one female. Our research shows that Coturnix are not usually particularly broody, but we appear to have a male making nests out of their Aspen Wood Chip Bedding, a female constantly laying in these nests, and now they appear to be taking turns sitting on the single egg that we are currently leaving in their cage. Is this actually nesting or brooding behavior, or is this something else? The male appears to be much more broody and nest oriented than our female btw. They are definitely a mating pair.

 

[Binki]

Hi everyone! We are new to owning quails, and new to the forum. We absolutely love our babies! We have two Coturnix quails, one male and one female. Our research shows that Coturnix are not usually particularly broody, but we appear to have a male making nests out of their Aspen Wood Chip Bedding, a female constantly laying in these nests, and now they appear to be taking turns sitting on the single egg that we are currently leaving in their cage. Is this actually nesting or brooding behavior, or is this something else? The male appears to be much more broody and nest oriented than our female btw. They are definitely a mating pair.

Awwww :3 they can go broody, but it's rare, rarer still is the male participating I think?

They typically wait til they have laid a clutch of several before starting incubation by sitting on it, I had to mark the initial eggs when my broody quail was incubating 13 and her or other hens kept trying to add to the pile

Removed the new ones so they could all be covered

Also, coturnix quail are usually grouped with one male and several females, this is mainly because (in my opinion) he can tend to overmate with just a few girls resulting in damage/eventual bleeding/scalping if it got really bad with a particular girl.

Some males are more gentle and less active in their mating duties and I wouldn't see a problem with keeping a pair as long as she wasn't overmated Your quail sound more like how button quail act! ^^

 

[TinyRaptorMomma]

Awwww :3 they can go broody, but it's rare, rarer still is the male participating I think?

They typically wait til they have laid a clutch of several before starting incubation by sitting on it, I had to mark the initial eggs when my broody quail was incubating 13 and her or other hens kept trying to add to the pile

Removed the new ones so they could all be covered

Also, coturnix quail are usually grouped with one male and several females, this is mainly because (in my opinion) he can tend to overmate with just a few girls resulting in damage/eventual bleeding/scalping if it got really bad with a particular girl.

Some males are more gentle and less active in their mating duties and I wouldn't see a problem with keeping a pair as long as she wasn't overmated Your quail sound more like how button quail act! ^^

That's what we thought xD They're very funny. The female eventually ignored the egg and buried it under bedding so I removed it. The male is still making what appear to be nests though, so we may see if they will be truly broody or not. So far they are adorable. They spend a good deal of time next to each other and snuggling.

We are going to get a few more females. These are two that we recently got from someone who couldn't keep them anymore. So far she doesn't seem to be over mated. He gives her space arena she has lots of places to get away from him if she needs to.

We have a button quail too, and she is very funny. We will be bringing home some companions for her when we go to the bird show next weekend

 

[JaeG]

We have a male who builds a nest for his girls. It's very sweet. But no matter how many eggs I have let build up in the nest no one has ever been inclined to sit on them. I think a more natural, spacious enclosure with many hiding places is more conducive to brooding behaviour. That won't happen in our current backyard but maybe one day.