Patter of Quail Feet

After spending several days trying to find some quail to keep Queenie company, I found a breeder in Twemlow. He had a clutch of chicks that were three or four weeks old. These were too young to go in with Queenie but happily, he had some older quails who would be perfect. We drove into the middle of nowhere and found a lovely farm full of chickens and quail.

It was so exciting to see the variety of breeds he had at the farm including Vorverks, silkies, lavender pekins and polish chickens. Sorely tempted was an understatement! But I couldn’t bring them all home. For one thing, they wouldn’t fit into the car, for another, I think my husband would file for divorce if I came home with fifty chickens. Tearing myself away from the chickens, we headed to the quail coops. He had a lovely mix of older quail chicks. Fortunately, you can sex a quail at around four weeks so I was confident that we wouldn’t end up with lots of boys. It was difficult but I chose two girls, a gorgeous brown speckled one and one that could be Quinn’s twin. I dithered a bit about the third one – would it be better to get another girl? Or should I get a boy as he would stop any fighting between Queenie and the new girls? In the end, I went for a boy that looked like a mini Quentin Quimby. Taking them back home in the carrier was so exciting!

Back at home, I put the new quails in with Queenie. She didn’t seem particularly impressed or happy with the new arrivals. Now the difficult bit was to choose names! I wanted to stick with the Q names ideally. My husband proposed Qwerty for the boy which I thought was hilarious and immediately agreed to. The girls were more difficult. I did some Googling and discovered two names that I liked, Quinta and Quetzilla. Quetzilla means beautiful feathers which I thought would be perfect for the dark brown speckled female.

Just before bed, I headed outside to check on them all. Queenie was still rather miffed about Qwerty, Quinta and Quetzilla. Hopefully, she’ll settle down and accept her new friends over the next few days.