To maximise egg production in Coturnix coturnix Quails from 5 weeks of age through peak and sustained lay, lighting must be managed as a structured, consistent program – not left to chance
From 5 weeks of age, just prior to sexual maturity (first eggs typically appear at 6–8 weeks), gradually increase total day length to 15 – 16 hours per day. Extend light slowly, no more than 60 minutes per week, using timer-controlled supplemental lighting. Maintain moderate, even intensity at bird level (approximately 10 – 15 lux) – excessively bright lighting can trigger stress and aggression
Combine natural daylight with artificial lighting strategically. As natural day length changes seasonally, artificial lighting must be adjusted so total daily exposure stay on 16 hours. During transitional periods, light may need to be added both before sunrise and after sunset to “cap” the day length at a consistent 15 – 16 hours without overshooting as daylight expands.
Key principles for maximum production:
Maintain a consistent 15 – 16 hours total light (natural + artificial)
Never exceed 16 hours per day
Provide at least 8 hours of uninterrupted darkness for proper rest and hormonal balance
Never reduce day length once birds are in production, as this can trigger a drop in lay or induce molt
Adjust lighting gradually as seasons change
Use reliable timers to prevent sudden fluctuations
A stable, well-managed photoperiod stimulates ovarian development, supports early peak production, and sustains annual outputs of approximately 200–300 eggs per hen. Consistency in timing, intensity, and seasonal adjustment is the foundation of long-term, high-level performance
Alternatively, if you prefer, you can leave your quails to follow the natural seasons, but expect seasonal drops in laying during shorter winter days.
I hatch between 30 and 40 eggs every week and keep meticulous records (ex scientist) and hatching percentage at present is about 78% (chicks alive at 3 days of age of eggs placed). This is for all eggs placed over at least a 12 month period. It also includes some batches from much older birds as well as batches of very young birds, as I may sometimes collect eggs from these before they are either sold or slaughtered. Very young and very old birds obviously have lower egg viability and hence affect the records. It is not uncommon to get 90%+ hatchings from the commercial flocks. My records also include hatchings from Male lines and Female lines, Breeding Parent Stock, where I have lower Male to Female ratios and different ages in the same cages, where hatching percentages are not always that good
I must emphasise that these results are obtained by using very good commercial incubators and hatchers (FIEM) and it is not possible to achieve these results over an extended period with most of the cheap equipment on offer nowadays. Even with my equipment, the monitors in the incubators and hatchers are not always 100 % accurate and I have seperate calibrated thermometers and wet bulb thermometers to compare all the time, making sure settings are actually achieved inside the machines.
Quail Eggs are much more sensitive / difficult to hatch compared to chicken, or most other specie, eggs
The ideal settings for my conditions for Coturnix coturnix are :
Day 1 to day 14 – RH (%) – 60
Day 1 to day 14 – Temperature (C) – 37.7
Day 15 to hatch – RH (%) – 80
Day 15 to hatch – Temperature (C) – 37.5
The following hatching conditions I have found over the years are giving the best hatching and survival rates for Coturnix coturnix quails
I collect eggs for up to 3 days, depending on how many I want to incubate, then class them for hatching.
1. Do not clean or wash the eggs at all
2. Remove any odd colours and shapes of eggs
3. Candle all eggs for fine cracks and discard cracked eggs
4. Weigh the eggs and only incubate eggs that are between 12 and 15 grams. Smaller eggs result in weaker chicks, while larger eggs (15 g plus) is not preferred since it becomes too large for the hens. The incidence of double yolks are not always detectable and is more frequent in larger eggs. I select hens for about 280 – 300 g body mass and do not breed from larger birds. This is the most economical bird and eggs size.
5. Incubators are set at 37.7 Celsius and 60% (RH) Humidity. Hatchers are set at 37.5 C and 80 % (RH) Humidity. I monitor and adjust incubators and hatchers for both these two parameters with independent monitors as incubator measuring and displays are not always that accurate, even with my FIEM commercial, sophisticated and well proven machines. I use calibrated thermometers and wet bulb thermometers. Preheat incubators and hatchers for a couple of hours before setting.
I am always trying to simulate nature during incubation and hatching and therefore keep the inside of the machines dark, as if under a hen. Furthermore there are some research published lately suggesting to have better hatching results if the incubators and hatchers are switched off for about 30 minutes every day, again simulating the hen getting up to eat. I have not tried it, but will experiment with this soon.
Keep hatchers and incubators in an environment as close as possible to the setting parameters. Also avoid fluctuations in conditions and make sure there are no drafts, but it should be very well ventilated.
6. Coturnix coturnix eggs are incubated for 14 days (37.7 Celsius and 60 % (RH) Humidity) while automatically turned every 2 hours. Then they go into the hatcher (37.5 C and 80 % (RH) Humidity) until hatching at about 17 days. I leave the chicks undisturbed for 24 – 36 hours after the first chick hatched and then move all the hatched chicks to the brooders and stop hatching. I do not assist any chicks that struggle to hatch, or still in the eggs.
HATCHING TIMES
I use the same incubation and hatching parameters for many other species as well. All are moved to the hatchers 3 days prior to hatching and are just left in the incubators until 3 days before hatching, whatever time that may be.
A good example of a Pharoah Breed of Coturnix coturnix quail
The quails that I mentioned, Coturnix coturnix, all have some commercial value somewhere in the world for hunting, eggs, meat and research purposes, whereas Button and Chinese quails are purely decorative and known by a different name everywhere. All quails are called different names in different parts of the world and as soon as money gets involved, the facts are starting to be distorted, but we cannot create species at will. Hence there is no such species of animal as a Coturnix japonica. Mediterranean quails, Coturnix coturnix, roam freely in the Mediterranean. I have an estate in the Po Valley in Italy where Coturnix coturnix are abundant still today. The “problem” with Coturnix coturnix is that it is such an adaptable animal in captivity with such great production capacities and very short generation intervals that it is being favoured all over the world by researchers and commercial producers alike. These Mediterranean birds migrate over to North Africa every year and the Egyptian Pharaohs have caught and domesticated them many hundreds of years ago. Some time later the Japanese Emperors purchased some from the Pharaohs for their song apparently – which is just another nonsense as Coturnix coturnix does not have any singing sound and would probably be the last bird you would acquired for such. Because of the special qualities of Coturnix coturnix they were and are being kept in every corner of the world and as such various mutations happened over the years and combined with selective breeding, new breeds have evolved (Tibetans, Golden Italians, Whites, Etc, Etc), but no new species has sprung up from somewhere. As an example the latest meat Ross and Cobb chickens are different breeds, but still Gallus gallus, not a new species. Similarly Jumbo, White, Golden Italian, Tibetans, Common quails, call them what you like, are different BREEDS, but not different SPECIES – still Coturnix coturnix. Similarly an Alsation, Bulldog, Greyhound and Chihauhau are all different breeds of dogs and not different species of animals and all are Canis lupus https://backyardfarmer.co.nz/quails/
As soon as money gets involved people make all sorts of claims for personal benefit
Do not believe everything you read on Wikepedia either
In New Zealand, the problem is that as result of legislation, no new Coturnix coturnix have entered the country for many decades, resulting that ALL Coturnix coturnix in NZ being related, inbred and mongrels with poor production capacities compared to birds in other parts of the world (Maybe we must apply for a Coturnix newzealandia nomenclature for an exceptionally poor example of the species) The problem with the breed in New Zealand is that there is no overseeing controlling body that monitors matters and every person with a male and a female call themselves “breeders”, whereas they are just multipliers doing more harm than good to the species. As a qualified geneticist (retired) I am, as a hobby, trying to breed a better Coturnix coturnix in New Zealand and have achieved good results over the 10 years that I lived in New Zealand
There is no such species of animal as a Coturnix japonica or Japanese Quails
The following hatching conditions I have found over the years are giving the best hatching and survival rates for Coturnix coturnix quails
I collect eggs for up to 3 days, depending on how many I want to incubate, then class them for hatching.
1. Do not clean or wash the eggs at all
2. Remove any odd colours and shapes of eggs
3. Candle all eggs for fine cracks and discard cracked eggs
4. Weigh the eggs and only incubate eggs that are between 12 and 15 grams. Smaller eggs result in weaker chicks, while larger eggs (15 g plus) is not preferred since it becomes too large for the hens. The incidence of double yolks are not always detectable and is more frequent in larger eggs. I select hens for about 280 – 300 g body mass and do not breed from larger birds. This is the most economical bird and eggs size.
5. Incubators are set at 37.7 Celsius and 45 degrees Humidity. Hatchers are set at 37.5 C and 80 % Humidity. I monitor and adjust incubators and hatchers for both these two parameters with independent monitors as incubator measuring and displays are not always that accurate, even with my commercial, sophisticated and well proven machines. Notice the independent thermometers and wet bulb thermometers through the front windows of the machines. Preheat incubators and hatchers for a couple of hours before setting.
I am always trying to simulate nature during incubation and hatching and therefore keep the inside of the machines dark, as if under a hen. Furthermore there are some research published lately suggesting to have better hatching results if the incubators and hatchers are switched off for about 30 minutes every day, again simulating the hen getting up to eat. I have not tried it, but will experiment with this soon.
Keep hatchers and incubators in an environment as close as possible to the setting parameters. Also avoid fluctuations in conditions and make sure there are no drafts, but it should be very well ventilated.
6. Coturnix coturnix eggs are incubated for 14 days (37.7 Celsius and 45 degrees Humidity) while automatically turned every 2 hours. Then they go into the hatcher (37.5 C and 80 % Humidity) until hatching at about 17 days. I leave the chicks undisturbed for 24 – 36 hours after the first chick hatched and then move all the hatched chicks to the brooders and stop hatching. I do not assist any chicks that struggle to hatch, or still in the eggs.
HATCHING TIMES
I use the same incubation and hatching parameters for many other species as well. All are moved to the hatchers 3 days prior to hatching and are just left in the incubators until 3 days before hatching, whatever time that may be.
A question that I often get is “How do I sex my quails?”
The easiest is that the male quails crow and the females do not. Should your quails be well housed and fed, the males will start crowing at about 3 weeks of age. I catch the crowing males and place them in a different brooder and come the time that they can go out to the breeding cages, or be sold, at 6 – 7 weeks of age, they are all sexed. Mature male quails only crow when sexually active during the breeding season and not so much when molting and not producing. Secondly the Pharoah colour and Italian colour can be feather sexed in that the males have brown feathers on the chest where the females have black spotted chests. The problem comes with the Tibetan colour and White colour where you cannot feather sex them as males and females look alike. All birds can be vent sexed though. The cloaca opening in the female is larger and more plump. In the males the cloaca opening is more tight and they also have a red swollen gland on the top end of the cloaca opening and when pressed a white substance appears, which is lubricant and not semen. The females do not have this gland. This gland in the males is also very depressed when not in the breeding cycle and it is more difficult to distinguish then.
Italian Coturnix coturnix Male with brown feathers on the chest
Italian Coturnix coturnix Female with black spotted chest feathers
Pharoah Coturnix coturnix Male with brown chest feathers
Pharoah Coturnix coturnix Female with black spotted chest feathers
Tibetan Coturnix coturnix – Males and Females look alike
White Coturnix coturnix – Males and Females look alike
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