We have three little quails. They are tiny, not much bigger than a 10p piece and a lot lighter! Two hatched overnight on Tuesday and one on Wednesday morning. They took about 24 hours from first pipping to complete hatch. Although the end bit which is when they chip around the top of the egg happens quite quickly as the last one had only a small chip in the shell when I first looked at it and was completely out an hour later. I watched it come out, it fell out backwards onto its back, feet in the air and just laid there for a while. It was probably quite a surprise for it though having been happily ensconced in a shell suddenly to find itself out in the big wide open world.
I don’t think anything is going to come from the eggs that the buff abandoned. I popped them into the incubator just in case but they should have hatched yesterday. She had now decided to get in with another broody and is remaining put.
I found some eggs under the shed so this seems to be where they are currently laying.
Hadrian does not appear to have suffered any lasting damage from his escapades. He seems to be using his front leg more, so hopefully that was nothing more than a sprain.
Horrace has firmly bonded with the goats and is not far behind them wherever they go. I think he should be renamed Samson, as since he has been shorn he is definitely a changed character. He is even tucking into the bread and chips that the goats get fed (which is the school left overs minus the meat which the dogs get).
Black Knees has a scabby nose, and this could be something called Orf. It is highly contagious, by humans too so we need to make sure we handle her with gloves on to ensure that we don’t end up with scabby bits too. Hopefully it should just run its course but next time we’re at the vets it is worth checking.
The floorboards are down in the spare room now and the first stage of the rewiring is almost complete. It also means that we can look forward (if that is the right phrase) to hiring in a sander to sand and varnish the floorboards later this summer. The carpets are too grimy to keep and we’re not in a position to buy any new ones, but luckily the floorboards are good enough to keep bare so that is what we will do.