If you’d like to encourage your Coturnix quail hens to go broody and sit on eggs until they hatch, I have 8 actionable tips that actually WORK! Implement them all or only a few and just-hatched quail chicks could be in your near future. Here is how to encourage natural quail breeding and hatching by coaxing quails to sit on eggs:
Get Quails to sit on eggs
It is possible to provide the environment and circumstances Coturnix quail need to hatch and raise their own broods of chicks. Let’s jump right in to what works:
Encouraging Broodiness in Quail Hens
It is believed that a quail hen who hatched from a broody hen herself is more likely to one day sit on her own eggs. This may be true, since thousands of years of domestication has selectively bred broodiness out of Coturnix quail lines. But natural instincts are strong and I have some known ways to spark broodiness in hens, even if she was incubator hatched!
Take Advantage of the Natural Breeding Season
Wild quail tend to breed through the months of April, May, and June. A quail hen may have resumed laying eggs in late February or March but she is unlikely to go broody and sit on eggs until the days begin to reach 80°F with long daylight hours. It is extremely unlikely for quail hens to go broody in fall through winter. April through July are the best months to attempt to encourage a quail hen to nest. If you live in a cooler climate, April may be too early and you may find it possible to get hens to nest through August. June is considered ideal in most US states. (The word June means “young”, a great historical indicator of when animal breeding and births were most successful.)
Provide a Natural Habitat
Quail hens who don’t feel secure and hidden will never sit on eggs. Giving your quail a more woodsy, grassland-like habitat is generally all it takes to spark broodiness in some of the hens. If you have not yet build your quail coop, consider beginning with a walk-in aviary or ground pen coop. Keepers who use these generally report that at least one of their hens hatches and raises her own chicks.
Provide the Proper Hides
Again, quail hens will not nest unless she feels like she and her eggs are hidden from predators. She needs plenty of hiding spots. You can build simple wooden quail hides or purchase some. But what quail really prefer is natural grasses with long leaves that droop and provide a lot of cover. The wispy, broad grass leaves that arch over your quail hen’s heads as they tunnel around them will contribute to broodiness because the quail feel that shelter – one of their primary basic needs – is met, and they can move on to the secondary need of reproduction.
Offer Clean Dry Straw
Coturnix quail LOVE straw! They climb over it, tunnel through it, scratch in it for grains still sticking to the leftover grain heads, and just generally enjoy this material. Quail hens find it especially tempting to build nests in. You don’t need much; two handfuls for now, removed and refreshed weekly is enough. Straw bales can be purchased from local feed stores or you can use alfalfa hay, timothy hay, and other dried grasses sold in pet stores for small animals. (Afflinks)
Provide Natural Enrichment
If your quail are in an aviary, ground pen, or tractor, providing them with ample bits of nature-based enrichment helps. They enjoy landscaping rocks about the size of American footballs or medium size mixing bowls in their enclosure to climb over or hide behind. They appreciate pine needles and dry fallen leaves lightly sprinkled in over their sand or mulch litter. Growing potted grasses and herbs are another addition that quails appreciate.
Tip: Place a sturdy rock that is 6+ inches tall and longer than 6 inches in length, about 6 inches away from the most secure corner of the aviary. The rock must be 6+ inches tall so the other quails cannot see the hen when she’s behind it. (The goal is to create a small, private area slightly larger than a quail hen’s body.) Inside the gap between the rock and the aviary wall, place a bit of dry straw. This nook will be discovered by quail hens and if it is up against a solid wood board where she feels well hidden, she is likely to create a nest there.
Employ Feeding Tricks
In the wild, quail experience a natural drop in their protein intake over the winter as insects die off and tender green weeds are scarce. In the spring, protein is abundant and the well-fed quail find it possible to nest. You can mimic this cycle and trigger a hen’s natural broodiness. Over winter, do NOT feed any dried meal worms at all. You may even opt to put the covey on a slightly lower percent protein feed crumble, such as 18% instead of 20%.
In the spring when she resumes laying, increase the percent protein in the feed crumbles and offer a few dried meal worms (about 2 worms per bird per day). You can also offer sprouted seeds, wheat grass, or sprouted sunflower seed greens to increase the protein, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients the hens receive. This practice can help encourage one of the hens to sit. Once a hen is sitting on eggs, stop giving meal worms. Too much protein is not good for quails and males consuming too much protein can become aggressive.
House 1 Male & 1 Female Together
While the best practice for collecting fertile hatching eggs is to have 1 male to every 3-5 quail hens, none of the hens are likely to go broody. Placing 1 male and 1 female in a coop with straw and natural enrichments is more likely to result in the female going broody. This is our number one tip because it creates a broody quail hen around 75% of the time! I suspect it has to do with the hen opting to nest as a way to avoid over-breeding by the male. Remember, the quail hen still needs safe places to hide and she will appreciate some straw (at least 2 cups) for nesting.
If you’ve had a Coturnix quail pair together for over 7 days and the female appears to be battered by over-mating and is not sitting, the attempt has failed. The hen needs the relief of a large covey and that male may be too aggressive to be a good breeder. You can try a different hen and rooster pair if you’d like.
Can 1 Male with 2 Hens Work?
It might. If the male’s attention is evenly divided between two hens, the hens may tolerate it and neither one will become broody. If one hen becomes broody, the other hen may become battered by the male’s undivided attention. (Males will regularly mate hens until they are sitting.) I sincerely believe the 1 male to 1 female ratio works to produce broodiness because nesting is the best way to get the male to slow his mating.
Don’t Disturb Sitting Hens
It is so exciting when one of the quail hens goes broody! Once you realize she’s sitting, be extremely careful to not disturb her. Let her believe she is hidden and cannot be seen. Do NOT clean out the coop. Give food and water as far away from her as you can. If she is nesting in the dust bathing bowl, add another full of clean sand as far away from her as possible. It is VERY EASY to upset a sitting quail hen and have her abandon the nest. My first broody quail was scared off her nest by me simply lifting up the hide to ensure the unmoving body I saw (hers) was still alive. She never returned to her nest in that hide, the eggs cooled, and did not hatch.
Number of Eggs
A Coturnix quail hen will usually sit on 6 to 10 eggs. The eggs need her warmth so she should not have more in her nest than what her small body covers. If she is repeatedly kicking the same egg out of the nest, she may have sensed it is rotten and it is okay to dispose of it yourself. Do not pile the eggs up under her in an attempt to get her to hatch more. Hatch rate is expected to be around 70-80% under a broody quail hen but can be as high as 100% when she’s sitting on less than 10 eggs. Hatch rates can drop to 10% if she’s attempting to sit on a pile.
What to do When Quail Chicks Hatch
The quail hen will sit for 17 to 20 days on the nest before chicks hatch. Most chicks will hatch after 18 days of incubation but there may be some stragglers who need up to 20 days. Once they hatch, it is best to remove the male(s) from the coop to ensure they don’t kill the chicks. You may want to remove all the adult quail to a different coop if they are being kept in a cage but this is not necessary in a roomy aviary. A first-time father can be re-introduced once the chicks are 7+ days old. If he proves gentle with this hatch, he may be trusted later to stay in the pen with his newly hatched chicks. If he shows aggression, remove him until the chicks are 3-4 weeks old. You should only allow non-aggressive males to breed.
Be Prepared to Care for Chicks
Coturnix quail chicks are going to need powdered feed for the first 2 weeks of life. They will also need a quail chick waterer in the coop with them for the first week until they learn to drink from nipple waterers. It is wise to be prepared with a chick warming plate, incandescent bulb heat lamp, and brooder just in case a chick – or the entire hatch – is abandoned.
What Is the Fastest Method?
If you really want to have a quail hen hatch her own chicks, here is what I believe to be the fastest method to encourage broodiness:
- Place 1 male and 1 female in a small coop (minimum 4 square feet) by themselves.
- Provide clean dry straw, a hide box, and one potted grass plant with lots of droopy leaves, purchased from a local nursery. (Place the plastic nursery pot in a saucer to help keep it watered.) Use a rock to create a nesting nook if you don’t have a hide box.
- Give the quail pair 4 dried meal worms per day and watch them carefully for 7 days. Remove the male and treat the hen’s wounds if she is battered by the male. If she is beginning to sit in a corner on top of straw or litter, do not disturb her. Feed and water as far away as you can.
Remember, this technique works best in the spring and summer when the quail experience their natural breeding season (May & June) . A quail hen needs a minimum of 14 hours of exposure to light in order to lay eggs. She may not go broody until exposed to 15 hours of light, which is typical for the month of June. (The longest day of the year at the summer solstice is generally 15 hours and 20 minutes of sunlight at Boston, MA latitude.) You can use supplemental lighting to increase the number of hours exposed.
Did It Work for You?
Please let us know in the comments below what techniques you employed and if you were successful at encouraging the quails to sit on eggs!
You Might Also Enjoy Reading:
How Much Do Coturnix Quail Chicks Eat?
Coturnix Quail Chick Care Guide (with brooder pics)
Homemade Natural Scratch for Coturnix Quail (wholesome grains + seeds)
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