Baby quail! Just hatched this morning, three more eggs have pipped :D you can see a pip on that pale egg.
Can you believe these guys came out of eggs that size? Must have been so claustrophobic.

Tilly was humping Cleetus today, it was too funny. I’ve seen her riding around on the quails’ backs before but didn’t realise she was trying to get it on.

I’m going past the petshop tomorrow, I might get her a boyfriend…

By the way I know I got her to tame her but I felt such a monster keeping her in a small cage indoors all the time that I just let her live in the aviary. She speaks fluent quail, partridge and sparrow now but seems to struggle with chicken and starling. She rolls the eggs that the quail lay, she sits in the rabbit hutch with Alors, she climbs in the blackcurrent bush, she flies about. It makes my heart a lot happier seeing her outdoors enjoying herself (and trying to mate quail…?) than being cooped up with me in the studio.

Here’s a video of Zoot having a dustbath and the quails doing what quails do best - mating. Constantly. They are the RANDIEST little birds I have ever come across.

“‘Allo, I’m yer big bruv!”

We went to visit Hugh today, my original quail supplier, who also loaned me the original Brinsea Octagon 80 incy. This time he was using it but had a brand new R-Com 50 he said I could borrow, and also gave me nine quail eggs and a GOOSE egg. (Mum likes geese so it’s okay.) He said his quail hatch was really bad recently though so not to expect much, I’ve put a few of my own eggs in seeing as a lot of his were cracked or broken. The goose egg is in fine condition though… Just think! A goose!

After that we went on an adventure to find a local game breeder. When we arrived it was… Sort of like a dream. Beautiful house nestled in trees with huge beautiful pheasant pens laid out in front of it. He had four huge runs filled with reeves pheasants and a huge run with about seven GORGEOUS peafowl in. He didn’t have quail as his cat had just eaten 50 (in one night!) but he ended up giving me 15 reeves pheasant eggs because I made such a fuss about how beautiful they were.

To add the cherry on top I decided to steal a few of Alors’ eggs from her “nest” and try and hatch them. So… Hopefully in a months time I should have a goose, some quail, several pheasants and a butt load of partridges!

Also if you look closely in this photo you can see my brand new beautiful wonderful and very healthy barbu d’anvers chick, who has furry feet. Too sweet.

Gotta get some vinegar and start pickling!

Continuing on my trend of bad luck with quail hatches, one of the three chicks that hatched had a weird crick in its neck. It keeps it’s head twisted at a 90deg angle to its body although it can turn it upright (a bit like gobbles in that episode of south park). I think it might have been a vit E deficiency in the parents? Also known as crazy chick disease.

It seems fine! Eats, drinks, poops. And the last mutant chick that hatched grew up into a (sort of) normal quail.

edit: I know I seem crazy, it wasn’t just looking at me I promise. It runs around with its head twisted like this.

Someone drew on my jar of pickled quail eggs…

Egg aficionados! I need your help. Is the egg in the middle:
A) a weird mutant quail egg
B) a rabbitxchicken egg
C) a red-legged partridge egg
The top is a normal quail egg and the bottom is a normal chicken egg

We found 16 quail eggs and 5 chicken eggs today! What a great Easter; I’d better get pickling.

Freaking feast! Seven quail eggs and four chicken eggs collected today. Thank you ladies!