11 Jun
Here’s a link to the Victory Egg Garden, a chicken tractor that sits over a raised bed. Your hens work and fertilize the soil in a raised bed, then you move them along to a new site and plant the old site.
So combine your chickens with gardening, and forget about those compost bins!
10 Jun
It's a big world for a little quail.
You’ll all no doubt recall the little quail who found me on May 8 (See my May 9 post). Well, Penny has made a home for herself here, despite her eating habits. Continue reading to learn more about that!
Medical News
Penny is doing quite well, and her feathers on her back are growing in nicely! She was treated for a liver infection, and I think we’ve got that under control.The vet said that the lump on her back was her spine, which is twisted, probably due to malnourishment as a chick.
Note: I had a bit of an aspiration pneumonia scare while giving her meds from a syringe. I ended up soaking the meds into a tiny bit of feed, letting it dry, then seeing that she ate it all before feeding her more.
Penny contemplates the world from three stories up. The feather loss on her rump is quite clear in this shot, taken right after I got her (or after she found me).
DIRT!!
Given her behaviors (scratching furiously and fluffing her feathers and wings repeatedly while sitting down), I figured she wanted to dust. Then one day, while looking out the window, she spied the dirt in my potted basil plant and took a dive into it!
So I took the hint and headed out to find dirt. I didn’t want potting soil – too many additives – so I headed into Schauer’s Hardware in River Forest and asked for dirt, not potting soil, just dirt. The guy behind the counter said, “Oh, you want topsoil? Well, we have a 40-lb bag in the back.”
“No,” I said, “that’s too much. I have a pet quail, and I want it so she can take a dustbath.”
It took a bit for that to register, but the look was priceless. “Aww, that’s the cutest thing I’ve ever heard! We’re gonna put it on Facebook!”
I guess cute has its moments. They sent me home with a free partially opened bag of topsoil. I made the quail a dirt box. Penny was elated.
You can see that Penny's feathers are growing in nicely.
I’ll have the greens salad, please.
Penny is becoming quite the connoisseur of houseplants. I looked over one day to find her under the peace lily. She had snipped off a whole leaf, and it lay between her feet, a large verdant trophy. She looked up at me as if to say, “Honest, Mom, it just fell off.” I’ve moved the peace lily to higher ground and bought a cage for my little salad connoisseur, but the prayer plant also came under fire. (Good thing the dieffenbachia is out of reach – it’s toxic to birds.)
Penny's quail condo with dirt box veranda
So I got the hint and bought her parsley. She was elated. Then the fatal error occurred – I gave her Romaine lettuce. It’s now her favorite. If I dare put parsley in her dish, I get a look that’s somewhere between disdain and ennui, but closer to disdain. Romaine earns me the quail version of the happy dance, which is endlessly entertaining. Seriously. I have friends over, and we watch it and crack up laughing. Needless to say, I don’t have cable.
World’s Luckiest Quail Gives Back
Since she now had a cage, a dirt box and topsoil, and greens salad, Penny decided to give back. She was quite antsy for about an hour one afternoon, then suddenly quieted down. I looked over a few minutes later, and there lay a lovely little speckled egg! I’m saving them until I get a dozen. Maybe that will give me a decent omelette.
Quail eggs with chicken egg for size
9 May
My new office assistant
On Friday I got a call about a chicken that was found in a forest preserve. I asked the person how big, what it looked like, what size the comb was. “Well, it’s brown with markings, and it doesn’t have a comb.”
Hmmm… I decided that was not a chicken! When he brought the bird over, and it was a lovely little Japanese coturnix quail hen!
About Coturnix
The word coturnix is Latin, and the Spanish word for quail is codorniz, which is derived by regular sound change (sorry, I had to work in linguistics!). Japanese coturnix quail are not indigenous to the United States, so wildlife rescues will not take them.
I used to hatch them when I was growing up. Incubation takes 17 days, and the chicks hatch all at once – you lift the incubator lid, and it looks like black and tan popcorn! The chicks have black and tan “racing stripes” – very appropriate since the babies are very fast and very high energy! They will sometimes trample each other, so they need ample room in a brooder box. Weak or slow chicks should be removed from the box that holds the lively ones until they are “up to speed.”
Coturnix are raised for their eggs and meat, which are considered gourmet. You can read more about coturnix here and see pictures of eggs and babies here and here.
Back to the Quail…
Her back end had the feathers torn off, as if she’d been run over by a mower or caught by a dog. The skin was fine, and the feathers were growing back. As I was carrying her in, tucked against my chest, she started making these little contented quail noises. She was cooing!
I examined her away from the parakeets to prevent spread of disease and noticed that her eyes were rheumy looking and irritated; she had been scratching them. I put antibiotic ophthalmic ointment on them and washed my hands thoroughly. She was not lice infested and was eating and drinking well, so I put her in my bird carrying cage.
The little quail loves to snuggle in my arm as I work on the computer!
She loves to snuggle in the crook of my arms as I work at the computer and make little happy quail noises! We’re going for a vet check-up on Wednesday.
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