The speckled shells on the Quail eggs made it quite difficult to spot when an egg was starting to hatch and on a few occasions the chicks seemed to appear suddenly out of thin air. One moment there would be just eggs in the incubator, but five minutes later there would be a new chick. They also seemed to be able to hatch and then reassemble the empty shell so that it was actually quite difficult to see which egg the chick had come out of.
The newly hatched Quail chicks are so very tiny and cute. They are up and feeding in no time and are lively little critters. When picked up as shown in the photo above they have a frightening habit of jumping out of your hands - I swear that they have spring loaded legs. I've learnt my lesson and now cup my hands when picking them up so that they can't make a bid for freedom.
In the meantime all the other chicks are thriving. Chirpy, Sooty, Sweep and Blondie have been moved out into a hen house in the garden and are loving the extra space. Pinky, Perky, Coco and Nano have been moved out into the chicken run in the greenhouse and have settled in very well. The "senior" hens are enjoying the sunny weather and are "laying like machine guns" (a phrase an old Cornish friend of ours used to use).
Lovely to see how the chicks are growing. They must be keeping you very busy. I've just been for a look at you Bee blog too and found it all very interesting. I do hope the are surviving the colder weather after those few really warm days we had.
ReplyDeleteAnne x