Okay maybe not, but they are very pretty looking.
These went into the incubator last week and will be day seven (candling day) tomorrow.
In which we are all ill (again)
Lurgy seems to have struck our family once more. Even the dog has a dribbly nose. The rest of us either have hacking coughs and luminous green snot (the grubs) or heads full of gunk, pain and ears that no longer function.
We are now down to 25 Quail. They went outside in their new abode at the weekend and we split them into two groups, the once that were biggest and even in one, and the smaller ones in another pen.
Within a couple of days many of the smaller ones had caught up to the size of the bigger ones. They grow so fast.
This little chap didn’t make it though. The man and I (as well as our next door neighbour) had been looking at him for a couple days and trying to decide what to do, since he is clearly not right. Yesterday when feeding them i discovered nature had taken its course and little chap was dead.
In chicken news five of the kids went to their new home on Saturday and are settling in well. You can really see the difference in the faster growing commercial breeds compared with the slow growing pure breeds now. They are nearly twice the size!
Busy Busy Busy
We have taken advantage of the weather today and mostly been outside. Everyone is tired now. The grubs, the puppy, and even the chickens who got to have a practice at being proper free rangers. They are now all lying on the floor of their coop looking worn out.
Harry is definitely trying to go broody. I caught her in the nest box half a dozen times today. Once pecking at an RIR and once sitting on two other RIR’s while they tried to lay. She then went and stood by the run of the kids fluffing her feathers up and trying to beck peck them (the brahmas got a bit scared and stayed in the coop – must take some pictures of these guys the boy brahma is so gangly and they are so lovely) the older kids just pecked back at her till she flounced off on disgust at the youth of today. 100 flowers potted up into tubs, platers and baskets. Shallots, beetroot, chinese raddish, more salad, globe raddish, chantaney carrots, and purple dwarf beans in. Chelsea buns made and devoured, and i’ve put my name on the waiting list for an allotment.
Next Eggs Ordered
Just ordered six Cotswold Legbar eggs and six Arucanas. Both of these breeds lay different colour eggs. One blue, one pastel shades, turquoise, peach, pink and olive! Should add some colour to the egg run.
Then They Were Two
The quail start turning two weeks old tomorrow. I am astonished just how quickly they grow and feather. They have doubled in size have all their wing feathers in and some are up to 80% feathered already.
Whilst I knew they had three weeks brooding, instead of six. Reach POL and table weight at 6-8 weeks, I am really surprised at how fast they change (everytime I top up their water).
Smoked Salmon and Prawn Pirozhki
Ingredients:
for the pastry:
175g white spelt flour
75g butter
75g cheddar cheese grated
1 large egg
For the filling:
200g smoked salmon chopped
100g prawns chopped
1 tbsp capers chopped
150ml sour cream
1tsp dried dill
Heat oven to 220 degrees C
Put flour with a pinch of salt in a food processor, add butter and pulse until butter is rubbed in. Add 50g of the chees, and crack the egg into the bowl, turn the mixer on and process until you get a pastry. Wrap pastry and rest in fridge for ten minutes.
In a bowl mix the salmon, prawns, capers, dill and soured cream together with a little black pepper.
Roll out the pastry until it is about 2-3mm thick. Cut 8cm circles out of the pastry, roll up the ends and repeat 9you should get about 25 circles).
Take a pastry circle, using a little water moisten the edges. Place one teaspoon of mixture in the base and then press the edges together firmly. Place on a baking sheet.
Repeat until all the pastry discs are full. Place the baking sheet in the fridge for ten minutes.
Brush each pastry with a little milk, and sprinkle the remaining cheese over teh pastries. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden. Serve with salad, sour cream and chive dip, or take on a picnic.
Final Quail Count
Started with 71 eggs.
34 hatched (four with assistance)
1 chick died after hatching
6 culled (two splay, four with non functioning feet and legs – assisted hatch)
3 bad eggs
4 dead in shell
1 oddity
29 eggs still in incubator when it was switched off. With chickens i would crack and check all of these eggs. I am not going to with the quail just because there are so many of them.
Warning some of the following photos are of the chicks that didn’t quite make it. Judging by the assisted hatchings my guess is that these also had problems.
I don’t usually assist with a hatch as it is a very risky business and you can do a lot more harm than good. Also if a chick can’t get itself out of its egg then the chances of it being a healthy thriving bird are very low indeed.
Adventures in Quail
Two of the quail chicks have splay legs. One is really bad with legs almost at right angles, the other is bad but not quite as bad, though the second chick also has a hole in his abdomen where his yoke sac is protruding. Which does not bode well.
With chicken chicks you brace the splay legged chicks with vet wrap and with a few sessions of helping them get back on their feet and find their balance, working to build up their leg muscles they are usually okay. I have now discovered this does not work for quail. Both chicks where braced, both chicks went down hill fairly quickly after bracing and both had to be culled.
leaving them with splay leg isn’t really an option as it gets worse the longer they are left. In future I now know the kindest (though hardest) thing to do will be to cull straight away.
Chicken Wars
Spent a bit of time in a flap today. Whilst collecting eggs from the nest box, I noticed blood on one egg, and blood on one side of the nest box, along with a cracked egg shell.
Initially I thought something quite nasty was going on with one of the birds. Though watching them in the run they all looked perky. Then I spotted blood on Hermione’s beak, and that Harry had blood all over her comb.
Hermione and Harry are from our first hatch, and will be three this year. Harry has a tendency to go broody when it warms up, which means she hogs the nest box, gets twitchy and irritating. Hermione doesn’t stand for that kind of behavior. And gets cross about the nest box. We will have to keep an eye on her and try and discourage her broody tendencies.
What do you feed a quail?
There seems to be some debate about this on the internet. I have read posts where people claimed to feed their quail chicken food, cat food, budgie food, millet, Game bird starter, and quail food.
The chap i bought my hatching eggs from says turkey starter which is higher in protein than chicken feed, is ideal for quail especially if you want them to grow well. However the layers pellets i buy for my hens is 16% and the only turkey starter i could find didn’t say. I rang another chap with an extensive quail information website, who makes and sells his own quail food though he had never heard of quail needing more protein than hens and that his quail food had 13% protein.
I found several manufactures that sold a game bird starter (between 25%-28%) but none that did mail order or had stockists closer than a five hour drive, the only one i could get was medicated which is not something i want in a feed.
Eventually i found a feed manufacturer who not only makes quail starter crumbs, but a quail layer pellet as well. Only problem with the starter is that it is only available by the tonne. Which might be a bit much for a backyard flock keeper. Eventually i found an online supplier of the quail layers pellets, so i have a back of that, a giant tub of mealworms (to up the protein a little) and some chicken treats (they sell all kinds of different chicken feeds too).
Now to decided what to hatch next. More quail or more chickens.