Monday, August 02, 2010

Monday 2nd August 2010 - weather: overcast with light rain

QUAIL DIARY

After my earlier posting, the weather started to become quite grim. Excuse me mother nature, where did the summer go??

Anyhow, just a quick post really with a quail update. As you know, we have 11 birdies, and it turned out that we had 6 gals and 5 lads. Way to much testosterone, so numbers had to be reduced. The first boy went tonight. Gingernut is now languishing in our deep freeze. Hubby did the did quickly with as little distress as possible. He was a plump lad with big breasts and quite a bit of fat on him, which should keep him moist when we cook him. We have decided that the small white and the scruffy brown boy will join him over the next couple of days. The children agree that as our numbers are now down, we should buy a few more ladies, so I will contact our original supplier and get another half a dozen.

The other story is regarding one of our brown range gals. She has been bonked and bonked by the lads and had become completely exhausted. We also noticed that she tends to gather the eggs up and sit on them, dare I say, broody. So, she has come into the house into the first aid cage to rest. She laid an egg on the first evening, and sat tightly on it, so I snuck another 2 under her and she has sat on them all day. I moved her off tonight, and marked the eggs so we know which ones are the old ones in case she lays any more, and also so I can tell which way is up so I can make sure they are turned. The eggs were all warm, and she sat back on them again. So, we shall wait and see. They may come to nothing....she may get bored....but we might end up with 3 chickadees.

Oh, just to add, so you don't think we neglected our birdies whilst off galavanting in France, our neighbour came in and tended to them for us, and gathered 50 eggs in the one week. She really enjoyed looking after them and has keenly offered to do it for us whenever we are away. I hoped she would keep the eggs and use them, but she gave half of them back to me!! I think a quiche for dinner tomorrow.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It would be so cool if she managed to hatch them!

You have the same number of hens as me but I have NEVER had 50 eggs in a week - I'm lucky if I get half that...bah!

Emma Jane said...

Nope, she lost interest and chucked them all out. They were very cold when I checked so I think she gave up. Put her back in the quail house, and she was set upon immediately by all the lads! She is obviously a very sexy, fertile quail in quail world. Alas, another 2 boys will bite the big one tonight and head for the freezer.

Anonymous said...

I need more girls too. We have to hire a car and drive a couple of hours to find any up here so I think I am just going to order an r-com mini and try and hatch my own because it's not much more expensive when you add it all up. Of course, whether or not they're fertile/will survive remains to be seen!