So spring is trying to arrive, but intermittent snow storms (12 inches at a time) are trying to slow it down. All the quail except 1 of 2 Texas A&M made it through the winter. I have been keeping them in a section of the rabbit cage I built. It allowed me to have a single heated water source and provided them some protection from the elements. Suppose to warm up next week so I plan to move them back to the breeder cages and see if I can get them started laying again. It was interesting that after only 2 days of being in the larger cage and no lights they stopped laying entirely. Hopefully they remember how! 🙂 I plan to order some eggs online and hatch them to rebuild the flock, but that will have to wait until I feel like the eggs will stay warm enough during shipping.
Other backyard quail farm happenings:
Chickens: my wife applied to the city for a special use permit to have chickens and we were approved. Secretly I think she hopes this will replace the quail, but I don’t have the heart to tell her. Really the quail are little trouble (less than what I think the chickens will be) and since I can not have a rooster according to the city I am not able to hatch chicken eggs to refresh the flock. I will be setting up a brooder this weekend and hopefully getting chicks next week from the feed store. I am looking to get White Leghorns. Everything says they are good egg layers and lay large white eggs, the kids will never know – shhhhh!
Rabbits: the bunnies made it through the winter as well. Keeping their water unfrozen proved a challenge. The heated bottles I bought were only good down to about 25 degrees. But I currently have the two original bunnies (1 male, 1 female, both flemish giant, new zealand mix) and two of the does first litter does. I breed the original doe a month ago thinking it would be warming by now, she had a litter of 5 over the weekend. The other two does are not from this buck and are now old enough to be moms, so I have breed them as well this week. We will see how they do over the next month.
Garden: the seeds have been started indoors for a variety of items: cabbage, broccoli, kale, tomatoes, peppers. If the snow ever clears I will harden of the cold tolerant plants and hopefully get something in the ground soon. Also, I planted garlic for the first time this past fall. Looking forward to see if that comes back up and makes for a harvest.