Operation Chicken

A few months ago, we raised some baby chicks from a school in Melbourne. As we already have chickens, these ones were to go to Tom's parents. However, due to the chickens being hand raised and very friendly, I soon missed them!
So, this week, Tom did a chicken swap for me! A bantam chook and the 4 chicks raised by Henrietta and Molly were changed over for the 3 Isa Brown hand raised chickens!
I've loved watching my little "cheepers" grow.

Shared parenting

Although Henrietta has been brooding her chicks, Molly has stepped up in the last week and is now also brooding the chicks. Despite being a week older than the chicks from Melbourne they are smaller due to being bantams.

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.