I have been raising poultry for 48+ years and this has become a first for me... I have a large chicken run with 2 coops in it the smaller red coop is for my older girls who are set in their ways and will only go into the Cluckingham palace to sleep and lay their eggs, the other girls go in to a much larger shed turned into a chicken coop called the egg plantation to sleep and lay eggs. In this large run there's around 100 birds living in a 100x30 run, this run has toys, trees and a wet muddy pond area. It is visited by wild turkey, rabbits and quail.
I sell eggs to customers from my home and always collecting the eggs several times a day, I have been collecting the eggs over the last few days and have been getting these really small eggs and they look like normal eggs just small. I had broke one open to see what was going on but it looked like a normal egg inside.
As I am collecting these eggs I have this amazing red sexlink named Silly Sally, she has been on a mission to hatch out some baby chicks and never leaves her box. I went back out again to check eggs I reached up under Sally to get the eggs and felt 2 small birds, I started to pull my hand out slowly trying to figure out what was going on. I decided to raise Silly Sally up a bit to look under her and I was floored to see 2 full sized quail, 4 quail eggs and Sally's sneaking other chicken eggs under her.
I was confused with the whole thing, what and how should I handle this? Thinking that quail might carry other diseases is this safe? I put wormer in the water and freshened up the bust baths and nesting boxes. I figured Silly Sally wants a family and she doesn't care if she has to take care of the quail too, she is more then happy to warm up the quail moms and tend to the eggs. I have to put on a glove to check her eggs as she is very protective and will bite hard. She has both quail up under her just a talking away as a mommy would for the night.
Sally and the quail stayed in the nesting boxes for several weeks the quail ended up hatching 9 little quail and shortly after that Silly Sally hatched her stolen egg babies who are crested. The quail still hang around by the coop and when Silly Sally calls her kids they seem to pay attention to her. This is just amazing how two different things can come together to raise babies.
I sell eggs to customers from my home and always collecting the eggs several times a day, I have been collecting the eggs over the last few days and have been getting these really small eggs and they look like normal eggs just small. I had broke one open to see what was going on but it looked like a normal egg inside.
As I am collecting these eggs I have this amazing red sexlink named Silly Sally, she has been on a mission to hatch out some baby chicks and never leaves her box. I went back out again to check eggs I reached up under Sally to get the eggs and felt 2 small birds, I started to pull my hand out slowly trying to figure out what was going on. I decided to raise Silly Sally up a bit to look under her and I was floored to see 2 full sized quail, 4 quail eggs and Sally's sneaking other chicken eggs under her.
I was confused with the whole thing, what and how should I handle this? Thinking that quail might carry other diseases is this safe? I put wormer in the water and freshened up the bust baths and nesting boxes. I figured Silly Sally wants a family and she doesn't care if she has to take care of the quail too, she is more then happy to warm up the quail moms and tend to the eggs. I have to put on a glove to check her eggs as she is very protective and will bite hard. She has both quail up under her just a talking away as a mommy would for the night.
Sally and the quail stayed in the nesting boxes for several weeks the quail ended up hatching 9 little quail and shortly after that Silly Sally hatched her stolen egg babies who are crested. The quail still hang around by the coop and when Silly Sally calls her kids they seem to pay attention to her. This is just amazing how two different things can come together to raise babies.
