Why did my Quail Stop Laying?
I am writing this on the first day of Fall. The Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, when day and night are equal in length. After today (Sept. 22) our nights will continue to get longer, and our days will get shorter, as we head toward winter.
Why is this such a big deal for your quail, you may ask?
Well this time of year my email and DMs are flooded with the same question every day…
Why did my quail stop laying?
Or with younger birds it sounds like, “why haven’t my quail started laying yet?”
Well here is something most folks don’t realize. Quail and Chickens (like all birds) are seasonal layers, and will slow down or cease egg production once the daylight hours dip below about 13 hours per day.
It doesn’t matter if you are in Florida or Maine, it is not the temperature, it is the hours of light.
If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, at the beginning of September, we will need to make sure our birds are getting around 13-14 hours of light per day if we want them to lay into the fall and winter.
At our house, we supplement the light they get by having a light turn on for them in the evening for a couple of hours after it gets dark out. This keeps our quail laying year round.
Now you can absolutely give them this break if you like. No need to supplement light, and they will pick up laying again around mid-April.
For our chickens, we do a hybrid of these two options. We let them cease egg production naturally this time of year. They also will start to molt their old feathers then, and regrow fresh ones for the winter. And then once their molt is done, we turn on supplemental lights for them in December and they start laying again by January.
It is totally up to you and your egg needs on what plan of action you want to take. Just know that the quail will not lay or lay very much right now, without a couple hours of supplemental light.
If they have already stopped laying, it will take about 2 weeks of this “light therapy” to start them back up again. If they have started to molt, they will not lay until their molt is done and their fresh feathers are regrown (growing feathers takes a lot of energy! none left for egg laying.)
So decide now if supplemental lighting is something you would like to do.
There is no right or wrong decision, just what is right for you and your quail keeping journey.
The rule of thumb for lighting is, if it is bright enough for you to read a book in their coop, then your light is bright enough.
Some Christmas lights on a timer set to come on for a couple hours in the evening should do the trick!
**Just make sure you do not leave a light on them all night long, because animals do need dark night-time hours or else you will disrupt their circadian rhythm and that is NOT good for them.
As always please reach out if you have any questions at all!
And if you are looking for quail or hatching eggs that we can ship right to your local post office to start your own quail journey, we’ve got you covered! Just click the link below to order and for all the info.
