Well it is day 16 and there are Chinese Painted Quail eggs in the hatching box. "They are like popcorn on day 16" I was told, well all I can say is hmph!!!
I know that it could, realistically, be tomorrow or even Thursday that they spring into the world as only a quail does, but I am getting impatient!
Will update you when (or if) something happens!!!
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
New Life.
It is 6am and I am listening to new life announce itself with pride. Overnight I we have gained two Serama chicks. Well one hatched just before bed and one hatched at some point in the past hour or so. Peering into the incubator I see that another is about to join us. I was lucky enough to witness the first chick hatch while Sleepy was playing on Battlefield 3.
I find myself wondering, what on earth it must think is going on, with all that gunfire and cussing coming from the adjoining room.
This tiny chick is a prime example of fight of the fittest. You only have to look at the way that it pounces from its protective shell to see that it is oh so very keen to start the great adventure called life. I had been hearing the little blighter all day, in fact its peep was so strong that I started to think that a young bird had somehow gotten into the house and found myself looking for it - only for Sleepy to tell me that it was coming from the Polyhatch.
Right now, I am enjoying the 'quiet' of the early hours. The road outside is busy, but the noise is insignificant. The only thing I can hear this morning is the sound of life. I hear the cracking that tells me that these wonderful creatures, who were just yolk and white only 20 days ago, are ready to burst forth. This is soon followed by the piecing sound to announce their presence.
This really is an amazing experience. How can he sleep through it?
Saturday, 22 October 2011
Wailing Quail - as promised
Sorry, I thought I had published this already.
This is the noise that our quail make sometimes for hours at a time. To me it seems reminisent of squeaky brakes on a bike :/
We are expecting our first duck on Monday so, hopefully if all goes well, I will be posting on Tuesday with pics.
This is the noise that our quail make sometimes for hours at a time. To me it seems reminisent of squeaky brakes on a bike :/
We are expecting our first duck on Monday so, hopefully if all goes well, I will be posting on Tuesday with pics.
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Wailing Quail!!!
A week ago today we hatched off our first ever batch of quail.
They were the most amazing hatchers. Unlike chicks who tend to take 12 plus hours to show their little faces, quail just seem to go POP and they are out of their shells. Not only this, but they are also up and running (not walking but running) within 30 minutes, some instantly!
They don't waste any time in getting around and eating and drinking and they are steady on their feet in just a hour or so; it normally takes a chick a day to become completely steady on their feet. These little bundles of joy come out of their eggs looking so fragile and small that you are worried about transferring them to their brooder - until you see them move. They are nimble and agile and, quite frankly suicidal! I have given up trying to pick them up.
Picking them up seems far too risky to their 'fragile' little bodies as they just run. Yup, as soon as you get them off of the ground they run out of your hand. Of course this is no different to how they behave in the brooder, they run everywhere and you often find yourself laughing as although they are very talented sprinters, stopping is not a skill they have been blessed with. They allow their surroundings to work as their braking system.
Right, why did I choose to call this post 'Wailing Quail'? Well, we have two little buggers who sit under the light calling to it for hours at a time! I mean, I am entirely unsure when they find time to breathe between "peep, peep, PEEP, PEEP, PEEP!" It is very frustrating. Try concentrating on say updating a website or a blog with that going off in the background.
Our front room has become the hatchery and brooding area since the temperatures have dropped and our front room is directly nextdoor to our bedroom! The electric hen that we have is not suitable for quail or other very small birds so they are under a lightbulb. This presents us with the problem that they are in, what they think is, daylight 24/7/ which means that peeping goes on 24/7 for stretches (so far) of up to four hours at a time! You can imagine how I am feeling at the moment - apart from tired! Although saying that I am sitting here waiting for the little wotsit to start so that I can video the evidence and, low and behold, it is silent! I will post the evidence as soon as it has been documented - I can't see it will be too far behing this post to be honest, but you never know.
The Quail Killer is already limbering up in a bid to silence the culprits on a more permanant basis, but you can rest assured that this is not now and will never be allowed. He has been told that if he want silence in the front room he must build my shiny new insulated hatchery and quail shed with avairy attached!
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| The first Texan A&M to hatch. |
They were the most amazing hatchers. Unlike chicks who tend to take 12 plus hours to show their little faces, quail just seem to go POP and they are out of their shells. Not only this, but they are also up and running (not walking but running) within 30 minutes, some instantly!
They don't waste any time in getting around and eating and drinking and they are steady on their feet in just a hour or so; it normally takes a chick a day to become completely steady on their feet. These little bundles of joy come out of their eggs looking so fragile and small that you are worried about transferring them to their brooder - until you see them move. They are nimble and agile and, quite frankly suicidal! I have given up trying to pick them up.
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| A few minutes old |
Right, why did I choose to call this post 'Wailing Quail'? Well, we have two little buggers who sit under the light calling to it for hours at a time! I mean, I am entirely unsure when they find time to breathe between "peep, peep, PEEP, PEEP, PEEP!" It is very frustrating. Try concentrating on say updating a website or a blog with that going off in the background.
Our front room has become the hatchery and brooding area since the temperatures have dropped and our front room is directly nextdoor to our bedroom! The electric hen that we have is not suitable for quail or other very small birds so they are under a lightbulb. This presents us with the problem that they are in, what they think is, daylight 24/7/ which means that peeping goes on 24/7 for stretches (so far) of up to four hours at a time! You can imagine how I am feeling at the moment - apart from tired! Although saying that I am sitting here waiting for the little wotsit to start so that I can video the evidence and, low and behold, it is silent! I will post the evidence as soon as it has been documented - I can't see it will be too far behing this post to be honest, but you never know.
The Quail Killer is already limbering up in a bid to silence the culprits on a more permanant basis, but you can rest assured that this is not now and will never be allowed. He has been told that if he want silence in the front room he must build my shiny new insulated hatchery and quail shed with avairy attached!
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
Goodbye My Mate...
I hope that you remember our miniture black silkie from my last post. Well I am afraid to say that she passed on yesterday. She was a special little hen who let absolutely nothing phase her and even stood up to the bullies in the pen.
She will be missed, not only my me, but also by Cybil her little friend who was glued to her side at all time and now wonders around the pen looking lost. I am sure she will recover though. She has many other friends to choose from.
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| Rest in Peace My Little Friend |
She will be missed, not only my me, but also by Cybil her little friend who was glued to her side at all time and now wonders around the pen looking lost. I am sure she will recover though. She has many other friends to choose from.
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Catch-up Part II
Right, we have talked about the Polands and Sarge's sudden urge to rule the world. Now I think we should introduce you to the other breeds we plan to raise come spring.
We have bantam silkies waiting to mature. None of these have been named as of yet, as we would like to see their personalities come through when they have their own run and that is still a couple of months away!
We have bantam silkies waiting to mature. None of these have been named as of yet, as we would like to see their personalities come through when they have their own run and that is still a couple of months away!
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| The white bird in this picture is ours and now has beautiful gold flecks all the way through her feathers. |
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| Our red cockerel. |
I Love silkies. I plan to have a few hens in spring as they will be my main method of incubating eggs. Having seen the difference between the chicks we hatch and the chicks Rockiy hatched this year there is no comparison. A broody hen is a gem indeed.
We will also be breeding these beautiful birds. I plan to breed the bantam and the large fowl, but we are going to take our time to find the right large fowl birds. As I said in the last post we have two gorgeous partridge silkies of which at least one is a hen, so we have a start. We also have a miniture hen who is just beautiful, and again we plan to wait to find the right breeding stock.
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| Our Miniture Silkie Hen |
Next are the Cochin, We have three hens and a cockerel. The cockerel was a gift from a friend and the hens were Birthday Boy's gift this year!
Goliath is a beautiful Splash Cockerel. Needs work to make him a bit tamer, but he has great potential. Then we have Sybil who has had problems with growing back feathers and will not be used for breeding but will be kept for egg laying. We also have two other hens a white and a blue. They are such a wonderful breed their shape and size is gorgeous! Pictures to follow soon...
Catch-up
Wow! It has been a long time since I last posted. Well I plan to post more often again now I will have some time over the winter. We have been so busy with chickens; hatching them, growing them on and selling them. Oh and not selling them too ;).
We still have the five trouble makers roaming the garden (when not on lockdown), but we now also have a few others ... We have expanded the group of five to seven. Rocky went broody and raised two little girls so they are now a permanant part of the flock.
Then we have our breeding stock of Polands for Spring. The demand has been so high that we have had to increase form four to seven and plan to get another hen as soon as we can find the right colour.
We have Alwyn who is a smooth feathered chamois, then we have his girls Havisham - pure white frizzle, Cruella - silver laced frizzle and the new girl when we get her.
We also have Boris (named after his hair-do) and his girls Morganna, Marion and a creole hen yet to be named.
These are my babies and they are treated as such. Boris - who is rather skitsy - is slowly starting to allow me to touch him, but only when he is in the mood. Morganna is no where near tame as of yet, but she will come round. Havisham has such an amazing hair-do that she can never see where she is going so we are trying to get her used to scissors (not an easy task, they just seem to know that they are dangerous!!!) so that we can give her a hair cut.
Right what's next? Oh yes, what other birds do we have. Well for the time being I am raising a couple of partridge silkies and an appenzeller in the hope that at least one will be able to go in with Alwyn every now and then to cross breed and give the Polish girls a break.
Sarge has fully matured into a beautiful and very good-at-his-job cockerel - and boy do we know about it :( He decided a couple of weeks back to show me who was boss and failed epicly. He is now in permanant grumpy mode. Every now and then he wonders up to me, feeling frisky with a run full of girls not playing the game and takes his stress out on me. He has realised that he has spurs and is fairly good at using them I have to say. I have been known to squeal very loudly as he charges me ready for the kill! He has on two occasions now felt contact with my shoe in a bid to keep him off of my legs! It seems to have worked he has not even tried to challenge me in ten or more days.
I will up-date again in a day or two with pictures of the other birds we plan to use for breeding in Spring and I will also tell you all about my Serama!
We still have the five trouble makers roaming the garden (when not on lockdown), but we now also have a few others ... We have expanded the group of five to seven. Rocky went broody and raised two little girls so they are now a permanant part of the flock.
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| The chicks as they were at week one and still with Mum. |
Then we have our breeding stock of Polands for Spring. The demand has been so high that we have had to increase form four to seven and plan to get another hen as soon as we can find the right colour.
We have Alwyn who is a smooth feathered chamois, then we have his girls Havisham - pure white frizzle, Cruella - silver laced frizzle and the new girl when we get her.
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| Havisham |
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| Cruella |
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| Alwyn |
We also have Boris (named after his hair-do) and his girls Morganna, Marion and a creole hen yet to be named.
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| Marion |
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| Boris |
These are my babies and they are treated as such. Boris - who is rather skitsy - is slowly starting to allow me to touch him, but only when he is in the mood. Morganna is no where near tame as of yet, but she will come round. Havisham has such an amazing hair-do that she can never see where she is going so we are trying to get her used to scissors (not an easy task, they just seem to know that they are dangerous!!!) so that we can give her a hair cut.
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| This beauty doesn't have a name yet, we are waiting for her full colours to show themselves. |
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| Morganna |
Sarge has fully matured into a beautiful and very good-at-his-job cockerel - and boy do we know about it :( He decided a couple of weeks back to show me who was boss and failed epicly. He is now in permanant grumpy mode. Every now and then he wonders up to me, feeling frisky with a run full of girls not playing the game and takes his stress out on me. He has realised that he has spurs and is fairly good at using them I have to say. I have been known to squeal very loudly as he charges me ready for the kill! He has on two occasions now felt contact with my shoe in a bid to keep him off of my legs! It seems to have worked he has not even tried to challenge me in ten or more days.
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| Sarge on patrol |
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