Culled my first quail. Debrief thread.

[CrazyQuailLady]

You all seem so brave, I think because of the USA being so different to UK its slightly different here
You are never too far from a slaughter house, that would process ant animal even chickens
Although they would think you are crazy!
We don't need to kill anything, the farmers may hunt foxes but usually done with a shot gun
I guess there are a lot of small holdings in the USA that have to be self sufficient and do it all themselves
Hunting is a hobby in the USA like fishing is here

We just don't have that many animals to hunt!!
Pheasants are a sport, but not really a challenge
Fox hunting was done with horses and dogs but now banned
Deer hunting on some private estates in Scotland but only for the rich!
Rabbit hunting is possibly the most popular and accessible

We had a local farmer shot down a hand glider that was scaring his cattle( got prison)
I'm hoping keeping chickens will toughen me up a bit to life and death

Yeah I think where you live does play a huge part in how you deal with all this. I too live where it is not typical of someone to just kill their food in the backyard. Fishing is definitely more "acceptable" here than hunting though in my opinion it's the same deal. An animal dies.

By the way, your comment about newborns being murdered by spinal cord cutting really got to me. I was trying to shove that image out of my mind ahh! It sounds so horrible

 

[CrazyQuailLady]

D

Woke up to about 50 quail in the living room this morning...*facepalm*

Did you lay all the eggs on your mattress and incubate them yourself?

 

[Dragons4u]

I doubt that, but sounds like a brooder malfunction or large animal intervention.
Hopefully they were found alive and not living impaired.

 

[subhanalah]

D
Did you lay all the eggs on your mattress and incubate them yourself?

there was a quail jail break...or rather...A quail break.

Could you imagine the mess if someone tried what you suggest? Eeeek!

 

[CrazyQuailLady]

Completely off topic but I'm reminded of a story. Several years ago I was having one of those days where the world seems to be aligned against you...nothing was going right. About 2:00 I gave up and thought 'forget this I'm going hunting'. It was way too early in the afternoon for deer to be moving but I needed quiet time. About 3:00 I found a spot under a low hanging cedar tree on the edge of a wheat field. It was a beautiful day, no wind, 65 degrees, and downright pleasant. I crawled under the tree into the cedar cave of sorts, balled up my jacket and laid down. I slept like a rock for an unknown amount of time. I was gently woken from the REM stages of under bush ground napping by the rustling of leaves. I opened my eyes and much to my dismay I was literally nose to nose with the great Beelzebub himself. My perimeter had been breached and my demise was imminent! I woke up nose to nose with an armadillo who was going about his day doing armadillo things and rooted his way up to literally 6" from my face. Waking up to see a scaly head and beady eyes peering at me I shrieked like a woman and pawed furiously at my attacker. Sharing my surprise he jumped 4 feet into the air doing backflips as I pawed and clawed for my life. He hit the ground running and disappeared into the brush leaving me panting with my heart beating out of my chest. After a couple minutes I finally looked around then started laughing uncontrollably. I couldn't quit. I woke up twice that night cracking up. Oddly enough I never saw a deer...suppose they were off I the sticks laughing at me as well.

Hah funnily enough it's the middle of the night here, I'm still half asleep and what you wrote sounds to me like a dream sequence. It would be so surreal! I imagine drifting off back to sleep and dreaming about what actually did happen to you, except maybe instead of armadillo it would be wombat lol. It sounds like you're really in tune with nature

 

[CrazyQuailLady]

there was a quail jail break...or rather...A quail break.

Could you imagine the mess if someone tried what you suggest? Eeeek!

Haha yeah... I certainly wouldn't try to incubate that way... No not me! Never! (Side way glance) Bahaha

Seriously though I hope you find all those escaped quail and get them back into the warmth and have them all dried up. And I hope the quail break doesn't mean the rest of the pipped eggs dry out before they can hatch too.

 

[Dragons4u]

I fell to sleep deer hunting one time and woke up to brush breaking right beside me. I just waited as some thing went through the bush I was setting in the middle of and out pops a red fox, not even five feet away.
It just looked at me, sat down and cleaned itself. After a couple minutes it ran off down the fence row. Then kaboom, kaboom, two shot gun blasts and a whole lot of screaming cuss words from some body.
Lol, the farmer that owned the neighboring property was trying to remove his chicken problem. I walked way down to where he was and got the scoop.
The fox had been eating his chickens and eggs, and, he missed it. Gave me permission to go on his property if I took care of his problem next time I saw it.
Never did see that fox again.
Edit to include...
The fox in the bush didn't scare me, but a couple shotgun blasts and someone screaming and cussing sure did. Lol

 

[CrazyQuailLady]

I fell to sleep deer hunting one time and woke up to brush breaking right beside me. I just waited as some thing went through the bush I was setting in the middle of and out pops a red fox, not even five feet away.
It just looked at me, sat down and cleaned itself. After a couple minutes it ran off down the fence row. Then kaboom, kaboom, two shot gun blasts and a whole lot of screaming cuss words from some body.
Lol, the farmer that owned the neighboring property was trying to remove his chicken problem. I walked way down to where he was and got the scoop.
The fox had been eating his chickens and eggs, and, he missed it. Gave me permission to go on his property if I took care of his problem next time I saw it.
Never did see that fox again.
Edit to include...
The fox in the bush didn't scare me, but a couple shotgun blasts and someone screaming and cussing sure did. Lol

I guess the farmer's happy now it's gone

 

[Dragons4u]

That's the thing, four years later, he's still losing chickens and eggs. I "just haven't seen it."
Of course, there's a lot he could do to predator proof his chicken run and coop. Shotgun shells are cheaper I guess.

 

[subhanalah]

Haha yeah... I certainly wouldn't try to incubate that way... No not me! Never! (Side way glance) Bahaha

Seriously though I hope you find all those escaped quail and get them back into the warmth and have them all dried up. And I hope the quail break doesn't mean the rest of the pipped eggs dry out before they can hatch too.

these are subadult quail! No eggs for another week or two lol.