Quail questions

[flap]

Hi everyone
we have two chinese painted quails in one of our aviaries, only had them for a few weeks. This afternoon cleaning the cage I noticed the female has laid 4 eggs in one corner. there is no nest, and she isn't sitting. We certainly were not expecting them to lay as we don't even know if they have mated. Given there is no nest, is it likely to be infertile eggs? or do they sometimes not build a nest? is there a way of knowing if the egss are fertile? would they tolerate the eggs being picked to check? I started googling but so far found just basic information which does not address my questions.
Thank you for any information.

[Pete Sara]

Well. four hey they can lay up to ten, if they are in a general area in the corner thats fine, they will move them to a corner or covered area, all their nest is just a scrape in the sand most times with a bit on twigs or left over nesting material around it. have seen some with alot of nesting material that could put any finch to shame, they take about 3 weeks to hatch once incubation has started...pete

[spanna]

agree with pete. i have a hen that builds a nest almost as big as the diamond firetails she is in with (slight exageration, but its HUGE!!) and another that barely even had a scrape in the ground. with the chinese painted quails (more commonly called king quails here in aus) there is no way to check fertility that im aware of.

just wait n see!

[flap]

I have been reading on internet that the hens don't often sit, and people use incubators??? has that been your experience? what percentage sit?

[spanna]

most king quails are great breeders flab, wouldnt worry about it too much. as is usually best (and definitely hardest) just let them do their thing for a while and see what happens

[Diane]

I agree the hardest thing is to wait and let them do their thing.
I had 8 eggs in one nest, four hatched out and I now have only one baby left So be prepared for some losses, I know others will say they had loads hatched out and grow on, but thats my experience so far.
From my reading there is a high mortality rate.
The parent birds I have are wonderful even throwing items worth eating in front of the chicks.

I now have another eight eggs in the main aviary and the parents of the chick already have three eggs in the nest.

[Jayburd]

Well. four hey they can lay up to ten, if they are in a general area in the corner thats fine, they will move them to a corner or covered area, all their nest is just a scrape in the sand most times with a bit on twigs or left over nesting material around it. have seen some with alot of nesting material that could put any finch to shame, they take about 3 weeks to hatch once incubation has started...pete

I had a single hen lay 20 and hatch 19! reared them all perfectly.

King Quails will just make a scrape on the ground, no real nest to speak of, though sometimes you'll find a hen that does make one.

[Jayburd]

oh, and all of the hens I have ver had sit well. I think people in the US use incubators, but since we're cut off from there (import wise) we don't have too many problems.
Often also they lay their eggs anywhere around the floor, then roll them into a nesting spot later.

[flap]

Hi everyone, thank you for the replies. I feel better now, as everything I read online suggested that they are not good parents and eggs not likely to hatch. so will let them to their thing and see what happens. With the mortality rate, any idea what it is due to?
We'd better put solid barrier to bottom of mesh around safety door section to stop tiny runaways if it comes to that. Thank you for the reassurance!

[Jayburd]

yep, solid barriers are a good idea. They can jump up to 30cm from when they hatch! amazing little athletes.

Mortality can be due to parental inexperience, cold, or being killed by the male wanting to breed again.