Button Quail Brooding question

[Starfighterace]

I have a pair of Chinese Button Quail. She has layed an egg every day. How many does she lay before she should start brooding? I know she might not ever do so, but I don't want to leave a bunch of eggs in the cage if she isn't going to. I have 7 in there now, and 5 more stored in a box nearby. They did eat one or two when I didn't pay attention and removed them. Now they seem to ignore them until she is ready to lay one.

With the daylight decreasing, I figured she would stop on her own, but it's a daily event.

[tinysparrow]

hi Starfighterace! this is a good question! i have three female button quails, and they lay eggs daily. two of them sit on the eggs, and one kicks hers around like soccer balls! the two that sit well on their eggs were sat on by their mother as chicks, (they are sisters), and the one who kicks them around was incubator hatched. i am not sure if there is a correlation, but i have often wondered! of course i have no male, so no button babies for me right now, but maybe in the future i will get one

i found with my buttons that it took them a while to feel comfortable sitting on their eggs. they were all very young when i got them. how old is your hen?

[Starfighterace]

Hi Tinysparrow! I don't know how old she is. I am guessing less than a year. I got her from a pet shop.

She has 14 eggs and she has sat for a few min at a time. The male will run over her and just won't leave her alone whe she does. Just before she lays, she will sit on the eggs, fuss about adding dried grass, arrages them, and sits until she lays. Takes about 10 min. then the male will run around her, over her, and thru her until she gets up. Maybe she was incubaor hatched. But I'm hoping otherwise.

[tinysparrow]

Hi Tinysparrow! I don't know how old she is. I am guessing less than a year. I got her from a pet shop.

She has 14 eggs and she has sat for a few min at a time. The male will run over her and just won't leave her alone whe she does. Just before she lays, she will sit on the eggs, fuss about adding dried grass, arrages them, and sits until she lays. Takes about 10 min. then the male will run around her, over her, and thru her until she gets up. Maybe she was incubaor hatched. But I'm hoping otherwise.

sorry to hear that the male is so disruptive. the breeder who i got my buttons from here in Ontario (i mean, the pair of sisters who had their mom "sit" on them, versus putting them in an incubator) provided a LOT of hiding spaces for the hen. she had lots of cedar branches around the nesting site, so the hen could rest and not have lots of birds bothering her. when i went to her aviary to see the buttons for the first time, it took them a while to come out of the nesting area, because it was so densely covered with branches!

you could try this too. she had a corner with branches that were tied to the side of her aviary walls. so they were tied pointed downwards, so the birds would wander in and out of the cedar branches to hide and lay their eggs. she was very successful and the pair produced a lot of babies for her i also provide branches for my buttons to hide in. i find its nice for them to be able to get away from the other birds.

[Starfighterace]

Great idea! I'll try it.

[Snow finch]

I had two pair on my avairy floor and they would lay eggs all over the place non stop. And one day I noticed a hen sitting on a nest she made behind a small log. As long as she was not bothered she seemed to do fine she hatched two chicks out of what seemed to be a mountain of eggs. I was still very happy with them.

[Zebrafincher]

I'm not sure if this is true, but I read somewhere that some Quails have completely given up parental care because their eggs were taken away by people all the time.

[lonchura_boi]

the notion that quail have given up the instinct to brood is completely false. if given the right environment all quail species will raise their own young, regardless as to how they themselves have been raised. the trick is making them feel comfortable. if they feel secure and have a choice of suitable nest sites they will go broody. avoid nest inspections and give them as much peace and quiet as possible when they do as they are prone to abandon a nest if they are disturbed too often