Chasing Chickens

It's Fall, and that means it's time to chase some chickens!

And pet some white asses

And paint some pumpkins

Pick some wildflowers

Then dump them in mama's hair

Say we're strange and beautiful

And thank the world for delicious moments, especially those made from figs.

Quail Update. We've Gone Free Range!

This Sunday morning my neighbor came and softly knocked on the front door at 8:27 in the morning.  I was in the kitchen making smoothies for the kids, not sure if I had really heard a knock or my imagination.  Still in my pajamas I answered the door.
"Sorry to bother you so early, but I think one of your quails got out and is in our back yard."



uh oh.
So I dressed and headed over there with a butterfly net.  Her husband had started chasing it around the brush and wood behind their yard.
I handed him the net and he snatched him up.
Luckily we have such cool neighbors who don't mind that their suburban dream house turns out to be next to the Beverly Hillbillies.

I plopped him back in his pen.

That's not the first time one has escaped.  Since we added the free range addition, one or two gets out almost every day by passing around the tunnel ramp.  But usually they just hang out next to the pen, trying to figure out how to get back in.  They are communal birds and don't stray from the flock.

It's pretty silly actually.

Oh except this guy above, who Nala spotted living in our garage a couple days ago, eating bird seed.  When I finally found him, he flew into our other neighbor's front yard.  At 10am in the morning I tiptoed around the front of their house, net in hand.  I felt like Elmer Fudd.  "Shh, I'm hunting quail."  

I nabbed him before anyone drove by wondering what the hell I was doing.













The quails grace us with an average of 10 eggs a day.  I haven't had to buy any chicken eggs since they started laying.  You can sub three of them for one chicken egg in recipes.

My mom's Romanian cousin cured her asthma by taking 4 raw quail eggs for 49 days.

We love the silly little creatures.  It's been great raising them this year as we've been able to keep them safe from the predators.  We've seen a red fox, a raccoon, and a big black snake.  But nothing has succeeded in penetrating our defenses this year.

We recycle the egg shells and manure into our compost.  Really we're just a goat away from living on a farm.

Here's a cute series of a mama rotating her eggs.

Happy Birthday Quails

Chubby hands and a tiny blond quail that's less than a day old.

They start by cracking a tiny hole in the egg.  Then they slowly chisel their way around the circumference until they can pop the top off like a jewelry box.

This one couldn't seem to get out.  So I tried to help him by picking off some of the shell.  As I'm writing this, he still hasn't hatched yet.  I'm a little nervous to help too much and hurt him.  So I put him back in the incubator and added a wet sock to turn up the humidity.  That should make he shell softer.

As soon as they pop out they start to grow, and you can't imagine them fitting inside one of those little eggs.

We incubated around 60 eggs, and so far around 36 have hatched.  They're impossible to count or name!

They kid take such good care of them.  Can you see the playground we built above? And here's their rocket ship:

Then Kaio said they need astronaut suits.  I'm not sure how that's going to work!

We had a little photo op with the different varieties.  Here's a white one.

This one looks like a Tuxedo.

Happy birthday baby quails!  We're making you a worm cake to celebrate.