:56 Seconds of Pure Passion And For What???

This is my first chicken film, and has all those horrible hand-held sounds that I despise so much in home videos. But anyway, the real story here is what happened after this was filmed. I became so excited about this rare and beautiful footage that I gave not a thought to my worldly responsibilities and focused only on my art. I went back into the house and forgot all about the farm and all of it's little boarders. Kevin came home from work, and we went outside to admire our feathered daughters. We were gazing at Loretta when all of the sudden a tiny bird shot right out from under a fern behind her.
"A quail" Kevin observed.
He was correct. In the heat of cinematography, I had forgotten all about the quail and left the coop door open! En Vogue escaped! They were peeping around, sticking close by the chickens. They were pecking at the earth, seeing the blue sky for the first time in what felt like decades, and letting the breeze stir their feathers. They did not fly for the nearest eagle claw or into the highest branch as I would have imagined they would. Instead, they stuck around like diva's at a music video shoot. Kevin thought we could just heard them into the coop like we usually do with the chickens, but in my mind I was already on the phone with Topher, apologizing for essentially ushering his favorite band to their death beds. However, I stayed calm, followed Kevin's lead, and together we walked them right into the coop!
Clearly, they love it there. It is their home, they feel safe there, and they want to stay. But I wish we could let them out more often now that I have seen them in the wild. Never have they looked as noble and free, never before have their little plume's stood so tall. The risk is too great, even though I know the rewards are big.

PS. No, don't worry about it chickens, we didn't like that cardoon anyway.

Quail House

Topher builds a deluxe apartment for En Vogue. Sorry, no Chickens allowed in this clubhouse.

Movin' On Up

So here's a long over-due update (soon to be followed by photos) on the Fancy Acre Quail Family (or as we refer to them : En Vogue). For the last few months they have been living in what began as a the cutest little tidy tin house in our basement/garage. Oh it was a happy home with happy times - lit by a glowing balmy orange ball that never stopped showering warmth upon them, filled with wall to wall wood pellets, clean drinking water and more food then they could have ever dreamed of consuming - it was basically like Las Vegas - without the gambling (they were too young anyway). But anyway. Nic made them the cutest berry box houses that they slept in and they really seemed happy to be away from the farm store where the children were poking them and such. Soon (and quickly) the three members of En Vogue began to grow and make the cutest sounds ever - they had such respect for their elders and loved when we came around and whistled softly to them - they even whistled back! Despite their awkward adolescent insecurities, they soon began to wear their little quail hats and looked stunning in brown. That was until the day they figured out how to party...and when I say party - I mean PARTAY. ummm. what a mess! they were throwing poop on the walls and their berry boxes were upside down and their water was constantly filled with more - guess what - POOP and they looked like they had been doing lines of Angel Dust all night when we checked in on them in the morning. Insanity. Well this had to end. We turned the warm glowing ball off to prepare them for the harsh reality and they knew something was about to change. We were serious. They were grounded. In the mean time I spent last Saturday afternoon painstakingly building their new home out of freshly sawn cedar shake and 2x4's and installed it within the coop that their chicken siblings have been occupying for a few weeks now...Then, last night, in a covert night operation involving headlamps, hay and a station wagon, we escorted these teen party princesses to their new deluxxe apartment in the sky...where this morning, according to Jenny, they have been running around with the chickens gossiping about this-a-one and that-a-one and making fun of Tammy whose hair is really out of control in the morning.

A note about raising Quail...(from Wikipedia)

I actually first posted a big long paragraph about quail from Wikipedia. I decided maybe I should edit it for those with ADD. so here goes. I cut the riff-raff and selected some key words and edited the article...everything else has been deleted for your convenience...

here are some key words:

three ways
adult chicks
If you are only interested in...
*young cocks*. (i didnt say it, wikipedia did)
day-old chicks

and the meat:

it is impossible to sex them before they are at least two weeks of age. (good to know) At this age, most males will start to show their distinctive color differences. The males have reddish breast feathers and the females are speckled and grayish. Separate the cocks and hens as soon as you can determine their sex.

Because of their small size, Coturnix can be kept in small pens. Plan on a square foot of space per bird. When startled, quail tend to fly straight up and can gain enough upward momentum to break their necks when they hit the top of the cage. If your cages are high enough to allow flight, make the tops of burlap, nylon netting, or canvas, otherwise you will be removing dead birds as they smash themselves on the solid cage tops.

Cages can be raised or rest on the ground. Many quail breeders favor raised cages because they are easier to keep clean. The droppings fall through to the ground and can be raked up and removed to the compost heap without disturbing the birds. In raised cages, the birds will never be standing in manure and the eggs will remain clean.

A nesting or brooding box is necessary if you want to get eggs. This should be a solid box with a small opening for the hens to enter and leave by and a large door for you to collect eggs and change bedding. You should be able to get into the nesting box from outside the cage. You can keep 40 birds in a cage three feet by three feet by seven feet. The nest box should be 16 inches by three feet by three feet.

Always provide the birds with fresh, clean water. Very young chicks can easily fall into water and drown, (NIC!!!) so take this into consideration when selecting water dishes. Special waterers made for small birds can be purchased. These containers have small openings for the birds to get at the water but too small for them to fall in and drown. Study the ready-made water containers and you should be able to duplicate them with a little ingenuity and some empty milk jugs.

You can supplement your hen’s diet with chopped greens from the kitchen. Food scraps that you would normally put in the compost pile can be processed through the Coturnix hens first. Chop leaves and other vegetable scraps fine enough for the birds to eat easily and there will be almost no waste.

The added bonus of raising quail is their pleasing voices. They are not raucous and shrill like chickens and listening to them coo and whistle to one another can be very soothing after a stressful day. Your quail cock birds will never wake you from a sound sleep by crowing loudly under your bedroom window.