Firstly, last Thursday, on a routine visit by the Chicken Guru to check over the four quail eggs that had not hatched and were about to be ditched, we discovered one had in fact hatched after all. However, the chick had strayed into the adjoining nest box and been left there and we found it cold, still and seemingly dead. But, whilst the Guru took the other three eggs away to check why they hadn't hatched I noticed the tiniest of twitches. So, just like an episode of Casualty or ER, it was emergency action stations as the little scrap was scooped up by the Guru and held in cupped hands for warm whilst he gently blew on it to try and get its body temperature back up. And it worked! After about half an hour of us resuscitating it between us, we had a little survivor on our hands! It's now been fostered with the Chicken Guru because he has a) a hot lamp and b) a young daughter who wanted the quail if they hatched. Sadly, none of the other eggs made it: two were bad and one had a fully-developed chick but it hadn't been strong enough to make it out of the egg. I've called our solitary quail Anthony.
Whilst the Guru was here, we 'candled' the two hen's eggs with a torch and discovered one of them had partially developed but was now dead, but the other seemed to contain a live chick. So it was just a matter of waiting to see what happened.
Sure enough, Saturday morning, the good egg had a couple of small pieces of shell flaked off it and 'peeping' sounds coming from inside it. By the end of the day, Amelia (seemingly) had pecked shell off in a circle all the way around the egg and a tiny beak was showing through. Sunday morning dawned on a gorgeous fluffy little chick in the nest box with Amelia.
Despite some concerns as to whether Olga Kiev and the cockerel, Dinner, would accept the chick, all seems to be going well. The two of them have been hanging round the nest box/roosting chamber and coop since the quail was born and I wasn't sure whether their intentions towards to chick(s) were entirely honourable, but Amelia brought the chick out into the coop yesterday afternoon, and again today without disaster, so all looks to be well. The other two are still hanging around close to the coop and haven't been into the main garden at all. The cockerel is really quite protective of Amelia and the chick and doesn't approve of me getting too close - he's torn between guarding Amelia and chick and guarding Olga, which is quite funny to watch. Amelia has been showing the chick how to find food in the feeder and how to grub around in the dirt for interesting things today and it's been lovely to watch. I'm going soft in my old age!
Here are Anthony Quail (top) and Amelia with her new chick - as yet unnamed - bottom.
No comments:
Post a Comment