My coturnix hens are not laying eggs

[ClownCockatrice]

Hello I'm a new first time keeper of coturnix quail, I've been doing extensive research for months on end and manage to pick up a sweet deal at my local reptile show of buy 4 get 1 free. All five quail were bought around early March and were all healthy and were a mix of different morphs of normal to jumbo, as the weeks go by the quails started growing bigger and bigger and were getting more territorial so I bought a avituvin rabbit hutch for them and played quail noise to see how many roosters I have only to find out I have a ratio of 3 males and two females, the hutch has feeder dish ,waterer, a grit dish, and a tub for sand baths, two of the more aggressive roosters have been placed in a holding cage, while my more timid rooster is with the hens, the quails are almost 2 months old and the hens haven't laid any eggs even though I gave them snacks and feed filled with calcium.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Mine normally start laying around seven weeks, so eight weeks is still fairly young. They need 12-14 hours of light exposure as well, give them a couple weeks for their system to kick in. Also having too many males around can stress the hens out and delay egg production so separating those boys is a good idea as well. You might also want to try vent sexing just to make sure they are girls, just because they haven’t crowed doesn’t guarantee they aren’t male.

 

[Nabiki]

Your male to female ratio is off. Even if you only have one male with your two hens, that's still too many males. I would remove all of the males or get two or three more hens for your one boy. Any cause of stress can stop your hens from laying.

That being said, here are some common things that keep quail hens from laying:
1 - not enough light. They need 14-16 hours of light per day to lay. Some hens may lay with less, but you will get your best egg production with this.
2 - too many males. If there are not enough hens per male, the hens are likely to get overbred. At best this causes stress and baldness, at worst, can lead to injury or death for the hen.
3 - predators. This will keep your hens from being comfortable enough to lay.
4 - improper diet. Not enough calcium or not enough protein in their diet may cause irregular laying, irregular eggs, egg bound, etc.

 

[Daniel Grey]

Hello I'm a new first time keeper of coturnix quail, I've been doing extensive research for months on end and manage to pick up a sweet deal at my local reptile show of buy 4 get 1 free. All five quail were bought around early March and were all healthy and were a mix of different morphs of normal to jumbo, as the weeks go by the quails started growing bigger and bigger and were getting more territorial so I bought a avituvin rabbit hutch for them and played quail noise to see how many roosters I have only to find out I have a ratio of 3 males and two females, the hutch has feeder dish ,waterer, a grit dish, and a tub for sand baths, two of the more aggressive roosters have been placed in a holding cage, while my more timid rooster is with the hens, the quails are almost 2 months old and the hens haven't laid any eggs even though I gave them snacks and feed filled with calcium.

I got quail for the first time about a year ago, and I had no eggs for at least one or two months. However, when at last I got eggs, it was just one a day for at least a month (this is with 6 females). Eventually, I was getting 5-6 eggs per day at the hight of summer (these were with outdoor birds in a run) so perhaps you just need to wait and give them more sunlight. Also, make sure there are lots of "hiding places" as they will lay there.

 

[ClownCockatrice]

Your male to female ratio is off. Even if you only have one male with your two hens, that's still too many males. I would remove all of the males or get two or three more hens for your one boy. Any cause of stress can stop your hens from laying.

That being said, here are some common things that keep quail hens from laying:
1 - not enough light. They need 14-16 hours of light per day to lay. Some hens may lay with less, but you will get your best egg production with this.
2 - too many males. If there are not enough hens per male, the hens are likely to get overbred. At best this causes stress and baldness, at worst, can lead to injury or death for the hen.
3 - predators. This will keep your hens from being comfortable enough to lay.
4 - improper diet. Not enough calcium or not enough protein in their diet may cause irregular laying, irregular eggs, egg bound, etc.

I forgot to mention the birds are in my bedroom and and I think their light cycle might be disturbed by my reptiles light time, so by the time my basking light turn off it immediately get the quails attention.,
I'll try removoing the extra male from the hens, I also gave them hay from my job as nesting material and something for them to play with.
Diet could play a factor, they get game bird feed, gamefowl layer feed along with some meal worm a bit of fruit and veggies as a treat

 

[ClownCockatrice]

Mine normally start laying around seven weeks, so eight weeks is still fairly young. They need 12-14 hours of light exposure as well, give them a couple weeks for their system to kick in. Also having too many males around can stress the hens out and delay egg production so separating those boys is a good idea as well. You might also want to try vent sexing just to make sure they are girls, just because they haven’t crowed doesn’t guarantee they aren’t male.

I'll trying separating the last male and vent sex them all just in case,