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We lost a bird to a little juvenile possum. Not a cage security issue, exactly - we left the door open. It luckily got only one bird, and sort of luckily it was one of the younger birds that I was still trying to figure out as to whether it's a male and/or a more permanent covey member. The...

I'm just going to rant for a moment about Tidbit and quail roo in general: I get why chicken keepers want to keep a rooster. There's something rather touching about the way a good rooster cares for his flock - he so obviously looks out for danger, calls his hens for food, and seems to even seek...

It's getting close to time to name the new covey members. We're still paring down (I think we have 23 birds in 24 sqft) and honestly? I'm surprised they haven't started murdering each other from being crowded. I think having it super cluttered but with a lot of usable space has been helpful -...

The bird on the very right...I think might be a hen. If it's not, then it might be a contender for one of the roo spots - it's been super friendly and sweet. No roo specific behaviors, though, so maybe it's just a sweet hen. It's also a decent picture of what the cage looks like from the inside.

This right here is why I switched to digging up yard dirt for the quail instead of buying sand. That's just a roaster pan full of quail enjoying their new dirt.

A solemn day. The Husband is sending the first batch of extra males to freezer camp today. I still find it distasteful despite having dispatched and processed birds, but it's something that has to be done for the good of the covey. We currently have several males who are auditioning for our 2nd...

And a funny post in which I indulge my anthropomorphization of my birds... I do love how silly my favorites are - Pudding reminds me of a proper Victorian schoolmarm, very severe and haughty. No one messes with her. Mousse is a softer lady, more timid and sweet compared to Pudding - though they...

I wish the juveniles would find their feet already. Then I could make real decisions as to whom to keep vs whom to get rid of - the roos would finally be obvious with their crowing and mating, the hens would start showing their true personalities... We're thinking to keep some chunky hens who...

Flan has decided to become broody again, seemingly at random. Sigh. Dang hen. It's so hot right now that we could honestly just incubate the eggs outside and probably get a good hatch if it wasn't for the night-time drop in temp. She's the one who gets to come inside and greet the new chicks...

I still love and appreciate Tidbit. He has two flaws: One, he's not a very big male. He's not especially runty, but he's probably on the smaller end of average. Two, he sounds like a chain-smoking velociraptor when he crows. It's not even 'Co-turn-NIX' it's like 'CRUHH-REEHHH.' Luckily, he...

A few of the juveniles are crowing now. They're 6 weeks old, having mostly hatched on April 1st. I know that statistically I have 15 males, but unfortunately we've only found 5 so far, so somewhere in my main and auxiliary cages we have 10 more boys. This is a problem. We also have 30 chicks...

Tiramisu is inside with us while we try to see if we can keep him as a house bird. He was being kept alone today in the bachelor cage (which is a large dog crate divided in half with wire) in the bottom half because he was tormenting the juvenile males. So far he's just been stressed out, but...

Also, 30 new chicks! Most do seem like Tidbit's as we have a lot of darker or gray chicks. Honestly, I think I feel the same way about Tidbit as others do about their good chicken roos. He's just such a good boy. Tiramisu, on the other hand, had to join the bachelor cage. He's already...

Update on the birds we gave to my MIL. She loves them and they seem reasonably healthy in her care, though their beaks were pretty overgrown. We put in a couple of rocks for them to be able to file their beaks down and recommended she feed crushed egg shell as well as oyster shell since she's...

This morning we have quail eggs hatching, so we'll have to prep the brooder soon. 35 eggs made it to pipping! I think Tidbit is the sire for most of these, but we'll know soon. Also saw Tidbit mate with Pudding this morning. A lot of roos will...loom? over a hen if they're interested in mating...

Ugh. Just a short update: Our 31 chicks are now (mostly) 4 weeks old, so we've had to separate them out of the grow out cage since it's like...8 sq ft. There's now ~15 in the grow out, ~20 in the main cage, and ~5 in the bachelor bin (a large plastic dog crate that we separated into upper and...

...this - it's the roo's call that was specially bred for in Japan prior to World War...two, I think. It's also a point to note that they don't sing *while* laying, only afterwards. Letting the other hens know - Why?? Another hen isn't going to do anything but lay another egg in the nest, which...

I've been re-reading Shadrach's articles about roosters and it's been making me think about my quail roos. I know my covey isn't kept in a perfectly natural environment, but I've definitely noticed some interesting behaviors from my roos. I've written a post talking about my theories, but I'll...

I realized I haven't really updated on a couple of things, so noting them now: We gave my MIL a small flock of five - a roo and four hens. They've warmed up to her and now approach her for treats - interesting because I chose birds that I didn't want for breeding, which is to say she got all...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/quail-double-yolk-egg-topsy-warning-pictures.1618190/