Blork's baby blues...

Meanwhile, while Spock's one surviving chick struggled on, Blork hatched seven new babies. The weather was good at first, and we thought this lot would do better than all the others who'd had to contend with the wettest, coldest Spring we'd had in years. But it was not to be. The rain came back, and one morning I came home to find five weak and freezing babies, desperately trying to catch up to their mother, who had come over for seeds and mealworms.  The sixth was dead, and the seventh had disappeared. Three fell over, and couldn't get up - one was barely able to move. I hastily gathered up Blork and two wet chicks and put them into our small cage, where she settled down to eat. I went back for the other three - and one was dead. I took the last two up to the house - one was in a very bad way and I doubted he would survive. I gave them to the kids to hold by the heater, and rushed back down to the garden to check on the others with their mum. Alas, in the time I'd taken to get to the house, one was dead. It was so quick - but it seems that once they get cold, they weaken incredibly fast. The one was huddled underneath their mother. Incredibly, both the chicks we warmed in the house recovered, and were put into the small cage. They all made it through the night, and are now about 3 weeks old.

Blork's brood - before the bad weather hit...

Happy mum providing a bit of cover

Spock's sad saga

Sometimes raising quail can be slightly traumatic - especially if you are soft-hearted and prone to worrying about hatchlings as if they were your own kids...
Spock finally hatched three little babies - one of which was all white (pale yellow). This one, naturally, was the kids' favourite - and the first to die. It lasted about four days, looking healthy - until one day it just wasn't healthy any more, and faded away. We don't know why. Natural selection - but the grief was strong as we all really wanted some variation in colour - all bar two of our birds are the standard Coturnix light brown patterning (Pharoah markings, I think) and well nigh impossible to tell apart! The remaining two seemed strong and happy - one was much bigger than the other, and we feared for the smaller one. Spock was a slightly indifferent mother, and refused to share her mealworms - whenever we gave her some she would scoff them immediately and never offer them to her chicks. Every other mother quail has given most of the mealworms to her babies...
Snowpea's four chicks - now about 8 weeks old  - formed a gang of four and terrorised Spock's two little ones. On one occasion I rescued the smaller hatchling which had been grabbed by the neck by one of the older gang, who was shaking it violently, while the others pecked at it. Horrid. None of the adult birds took much notice of the two babies - only the immature birds seemed to hunt them. The little one really struggled - whenever it got cold it collapsed on the ground, unable to move. Spock never seemed particularly concerned, and we kept finding it, cold and feebly chirping. We'd put it in a small cage with Spock overnight, and it would recover. This happened twice. Eventually Spock seemed to abandon any pretense at mothering. 

Spock - a beautiful girl, but lacking the mothering instinct!

 A few days later the smaller chick died, very suddenly - after having survived numerous near-death experiences. More grief.
Sadly, we have no photos of either of the two little ones...but there is one chick remaining - of which more will be told later!

The kids had a funeral for the little chick...

Brooding...

Spock's eggs still have not hatched...
How long should we wait before giving up??
We have built shelters over Melon and over Blork, so we currently have three girls sitting, comfortably sheltered from the wild weather and relentless rain. Naturally, after building the shelters, today we actually have some sunshine - albeit intermittently - and all the birds are sun-bathing, stretched out luxuriously in the warmth. The mums-to-be rush out from under cover, take a hurried dust bath, and return to their eggs. More rain due this afternoon.
Of Snowpea's brood of four, at least one is definitely a male, and another looks decidedly female - but then, until she started laying, we thought Spock was a boy.
We will give her another two or three days, and then break an egg to check what is happening.

Broody girls saga continues

Well, today Spock's eggs are due to hatch,, if all things are equal. When I went to check this morning Blork's nest was waterlogged and her eggs cold... She is not under shelter and we had over 17mm of rain last night! Poor old thing - I suspect her eggs may not make it. We will take a few and break them today to check progress, but I am certain this cycle of warming and cooling cannot be good.

However, back to Spock. She was off her eggs when I came into the garden, but they were still warm, so I fed her and assumed she would return as she usually does. I came back to the garden a couple of hours later, and she was off again, flying around in little leaps and hops, which is unusual behaviour for her. I wondered if her babies had hatched, and she was scared of them (anything is possible!) so I went to check. No hatching - but Melon was sitting on them! She left the nest as I bent down to look at her, and Spock came up immediately. Melon rushed at her and drove her away, returning to the eggs. Extraordinary behaviour. Spock hunted for a few worms in the waterlogged soil, but every time she came near the nest Melon fluffed up and gave a harsh, aggressive call, and Spock retreated. I kept telling myself "don't interfere" but Spock is thin and tired and has been devotedly sitting for nearly three weeks - it just didn't seem fair for Melon to take over at the last minute. I also worried that if the eggs hatch on schedule, Melon will get a shock (after sitting for such a short time her "broody hormones" cannot be ready to deal with chicks) and she will abandon the babies... So I shooed her off and Spock returned immediately. When I left Spock was angrily calling and attempting to protect her nest against repeated feints by Melon, who was remarkably persistent.
Melon was the quail who sat on the nest WITH Snowpea, when Snowpea hatched her second brood, and co-parented the chicks. Definitely an unusual bird.

Has anyone had experience of anything like this??? We'd love to hear from you if you have!

Broody girls update

Well, Greenpea seemed to completely lose interest in her eggs today, so we took them all. It was depressing seeing the little clutch lying there cold and abandoned. She hasn't been back to the nest since. We opened some of the eggs - the little blot that shows they are fertile has got a bit bigger, but that's all.  We were dreading finding a tiny chick - but she'd only been half-sitting a few days...
Hopefully she will sit again in a few weeks; more successfully this time!
We have worked out that the birds who have raised chicks, and are sitting now, are all of an older generation than Greenpea and Chickpea - so they may simply be too young.

Too many broody girls!

The season of burgeoning new life...

Help! It looks very much as if one broody quail sets off all the others - but some are better natural mothers... Last week we discovered three separate nests - not including Spock, whose chicks are due to hatch in the next couple of days. Each new nest had around 10 eggs in it...

Blork's very neat nest in the middle of a patch of chives

We watched them for a while, and Greenpea, Chickpea and Blork all settled in and looked to be sitting. However, they didn't quite have it worked out. Greenpea's nest was the most exposed to the wild Spring weather, so we built a shelter over her - as we've done for many others previously. She'd only just started sitting that day, and the shelter construction seemed to worry her. It took her a long time to return to her nest, but eventually she seemed to have settled again.

Greenpea's nest under newly constructed shelter

 Our three sitters, however, were all off their nests the next morning - and the eggs were stone cold. After their morning meal, they all returned to sitting. The next day - no-one was on their nest in the morning - and the eggs were cold again. After some discussion, we removed all Chickpea's eggs. Of the three, she was the only one who did not sit for most of the day, and seemed a bit half-hearted about the process.

Blork sitting - spreading to cover 10 eggs!

Greenpea and Blork appeared to be a bit more determined.
Now, unfortunately, we are worried about the effect from sitting all day, and leaving the eggs to cool overnight, which is what Greenpea appears to be doing.

 

Fog calling for his girls!

Chickpea had a few days looking a bit distracted and out-of-sorts - but she never went near her nest again, so we think she wasn't really ready to sit. Hopefully she will lay more and go broody properly later in the summer.

Blork has settled fully and - apart from being driven off her nest occasionally by Apricot - is doing well. We are very uncertain about Greenpea though. Should we take her eggs? Should we leave her alone and assume she will work it out? Does continual heating and cooling stop embryos developing - or cause birth defects? Does anyone know?

"Who, me?" Apricot being scolded for disturbing Blork...

If you have enjoyed this blog and would like to share your experiences with quail, we'd love to hear from you! Please leave a comment, and we look forward to learning more about other people's adventures with these lovely little birds.

Day 15...growing up and leaving home

Snowpea enjoying some child-free time...

At around two weeks, Snowpea completely lost interest in her little ones, leaving them to fend for themselves.
They now sleep huddled together in the nesting box, and forage through the garden showing absolutely no need of their mother... Snowpea eats as if she is making up for long weeks of starvation - which I think she is.

Tug-o-war (the worm won!)

They are still tiny, with scrawny feathers, looking particularly scruffy and unkempt. One at least is developing a clearly spotted breast - hopefully she is female! Three are very quick, finding insects and seeds very easily - the fourth seems a bit 'head-in-the-clouds' and wanders vaguely, occasionally peeping loudly when it looks up and discovers the others are miles away. It doesn't really care whether they respond or not, and we rarely see it hunting insects - it's a definite dreamer. When we offer meal-worms it is always the last to realise what is happening.

Please let our four little chicks all be girls!

"Has anyone seen my friends?"

Another few weeks and we should know which are males and which are females. They are all have  the classic Coturnix markings - we were hoping for some variety, but no such luck. We will have to use leg bands again, to tell them apart.
If you have enjoyed this blog and would like to share your experiences with quail, we'd love to hear from you! Please leave a comment, and we look forward to learning more about other people's adventures with these lovely little birds.