Hey there! Welcome back to the farm!
About 2 weeks ago, we finally got ahold of the farm addition that we’ve been talking about and hoping for since spring of 2021. It was then, while in Wisconsin visiting our future child’s intended godfather, that we ate quail for the first time. We’ve wanted to add quail to our little homestead ever since! They are somewhat hard to come by in our neck of the woods, though. So when I saw the little hand written sign listing them and a few other types of poultry as available on the community cork board in the feed store, I jumped at the chance.
Mr L has built them an adorable little house. He will be building 2 more of these boxes this coming weekend - the goal is to keep a total of about 10 quail in each box, with 2 males (cocks) to 8 or so females (hens). I believe his plan is to attach the 3 boxes to an A-frame, so that the quail are not directly over each other, primarily for ease of cleaning. (I will update this with a new photo when the whole thing is assembled!)
The little birdies have been delightful to watch. In nature they are ground birds, preferring to hide under shrubs and in clumps of grass. They clearly enjoy how close their hutch is to the ground. Initially they were fearful of every moving thing, but over the last several days they have grown accustomed to the activity of this farm. I can tell they’re relaxing because they don’t run and hop and flap into their hidey-hole cubby every time they see me anymore.
All in all, we are glad to have them. We look forward to them eventually laying eggs that we can hatch into more quail, and thereby becoming productive, contributing members of the farm.
Has anyone ever stumbled upon a wild quail? They scare the crap out of me EVERY time! They wait until you’re basically on top of them and then they burst out from underfoot and fly away with a frtrtrtrtrtrtrt noise.
