Quail Mansion

Today was a very exciting day because we were finally able to pick up two friends for our little rescue quail. He has been going from strength to strength as evidenced by his increasingly loud and persistent crowing every morning. It began at 5am and he was still going strong two hours later when both my husband and I gave up trying to sleep. Hopefully having two ladies to look after will stop him making such a racket at ungodly hours of the night!

We drove across to Williston with our little feathery friend in his carrier. He didn’t like the car but, in my sleep deprived brain, this seemed a fitting response to being rudely awoken by a belligerent quail for the last few days. The breeder was a young chap who told me he would have more females available in the next couple of weeks. Ideally, our little man should have between 2-5 girls so I said I would keep in touch and be back once the chicks were old enough to be sexed. The two female quails have very different colourings which surprised me. One was a beautiful pastel grey which is stunning.

When we got home, I set up Quail Mansions. Over the past two years, Quail Mansions has been a hospital coop and a broody coop. Thus thoroughly tested by Trixie and Cirrus and their respective chicks, it was time to reclaim the coop for its original purpose. I put out a thick layer of bedding and a new wicker house to make them cosy as they settle into their new home. The two girls were quite difficult to catch but they seemed to settle into their new home quite quickly. The little grey one is very shy and hid in the wicker house.

But the next job was to work out names. After much discussion, we thought it would be fun to give them all names beginning with Q. This seemed like an amazing idea until we realised that we couldn’t think of many names beginning with Q! Between us, we named our little rescue quail, Quentin. For good measure, we have him a second name of Quimby after the goofy mayor in The Simpsons. So that left the girls. I decided to call the outgoing girl Quinn and the shy one, Queenie.

Later on, I went out to check on them. They were all hiding in the wicker house, nestled up together. With the approaching dark clouds, I thought it would be a good idea to cover up the coop and spent a few minutes wrestling a tarpaulin over it. Quentin took offense at this disturbance and came dashing out of the house to see what was happening. As I double checked that the tarpaulin covered the coop properly I spotted something blue in the wicker house. Upon closer inspection, I found an egg! I couldn’t believe it!

Over the next few days, they will hopefully settle into a routine together and I will definitely be regularly checking for eggs!