Growing Chicks

The little chicks that joined us from Melbourne have grown a lot! A few weeks ago they needed a hot water bottle, but now they have more feathers they are keeping each other warm. They stay inside during the day, but are starting to have some play time outside when it is warm enough.

30 November

20 December

Bye little quail

We cared for him the best we could, and did the research, so we were doing the right things, but unfortunately the quail died late tonight after 36 hours in our care.
With something so tiny it is hard to see anything obvious that went wrong.
I'm not sure that I will get used to the death that comes with having animals. I find it very hard.

Quail

Today while mowing for hay, Tom disrupted a family of quail. He managed to find one chick chirping in the unmown grass, so in a box next to my ever growing cheeping chicks, I now have a very tiny quail.
It is very shy, but I got a slightly blurry photo so you can see how small it is. It would not be more than 5 cm long. It was very cold and floppy when Tom got it home, but with a hot water bottle and some chicken crumbles, it has sparked up.
I'm hopeful that some of the chicks managed to avoid the mower and were reunited with their mum.
With some TLC, I hope this little bird will survive.

Chicks update

I was checking the chicks this morning, and to my surprise, two more eggs have little holes and cheeping chicks inside. I am home alone, so it is taking me a lot of self restraint to not sit in the hen house and watch them pop out of their shells!
The two oldest ones are now only a week old, but have started to get little feathers on their wings and are starting to lose their beautiful fluffy down!

First feathers

Peek-a-boo!

Another Chick!

Tonight, 3 days after the other two, we had another chick hatch. I got some photos of its progress, and still marvel at the fact that such a beautiful fluffy chick emerges from a tiny little shell that began at only 35 grams!
I know it looks dead in the photo, but it is just finding its feet and is happily chirping away.