Quails in the Food Bowl and Lots of Plums too!
Doesn't time just fly! The quail chicks are already off the heat lamp (they're inside anyway) and getting big quail feathers.
From the first little spiny feathers...
...to near on full body feathering, in days!
As you can probably tell, they practically live in the food bowl. At one point all 11 would sleep in it at night. They're a bit big for that now. They make a chick pile in the corner of the cage instead.
Enjoy some more quail chick spam, courtesy of @izzdawn, because her camera is much better than mine. She may also have been practising her editing skills on them.
The plum tree has had a bountiful year and we're struggling to keep up with eating them fresh. We have shared a few with others, but they're so good, it's not been easy to pick out the nicest looking ones and give them away (too good to share!) Those who have had some always exclaim how lovely they are. There's no comparison with the flavour of fruit when it's picked ripe from the tree!
I've been preparing the sun damaged and over ripe ones for freezing with the help of @izzydawn. She prepared lunch for us then joined me to help out while it was cooking.
Her sister has a cold so she made chicken soup to make her feel better and today she's supplying her with lemon water. I'd like to take credit for raising such a caring girl... so I will! Until she has an off day...
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@danclarke came around last night and clipped our girls' feathers. I'd never actually seen it before. Much less involved than I thought it'd be. Those plums look fantastic, do you do jam?
I was surprised how simple it was too!
Not really a user of jam, so can't be bothered with the process of making it. Every time we end up with a jar of it (usually a gift) it gets a couple of uses before we discover it's turning a different colour.
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It's a pretty full-on sugar hit. Having a good stash would earn prepper cred; but if you have the tree; there's no real need :)
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Woah, quail grow that fast? Are you raising them for meat or for eggs? How long does it take for each?
I hope our plums do well this year. Last year they were really bitter, but I may have just eaten them too soon.
They're in the fruit enclosure to keep pests down. It was built to keep the wild birds from getting the fruit, but it keeps the insectivores out too. They only live two to three years, so I hatch a few replacements each year. They are like chickens in that you don't want too many males to females, so I do cull the males for food and we boil the eggs up. So I guess you'd call them pest control with extra benefits. :D
The first year we had the plums I tried eating them as soon as they turned purple. They were really sour!
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Replied last night when I was tired and remembered this morning you asked about development too!
https://steemit.com/homesteading/@minismallholding/some-basics-on-keeping-japanese-corturnix-quail
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Oh stop it... too cute!!!
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Food bowls are clearly nests with a convenient food supply 🤣
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It's like utopia!
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Quails are awesome!
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