Winter on the homestead

Now that Christmas and New Years have sadly passed perhaps things can begin to slow down a bit?  To me winter is a time of rest (perhaps not relaxation), the garden is layng dormant, hidden below layers of snow, the hens nearly cease to lay eggs, the horses and dogs grow fat and lazy.

Merry and Joe - taking advantage of the last
 bit of daylight

While daily chores don't cease, in fact supplying fresh water becomes a bit more of a challenge due to freezing temperatures, the work load is lessened.  The meat chickens are in the freezer, turkeys have long been processed and consumed!  No more baby chicks to attend to, weeds to be pulled, or seeds started.  Yard work is non existent, the pasture clearing and improvement project is on hold, no fencing is being installed.  There is the occasional snowstorm to contend with, clearing the driveway, pathways, and a clearing to the critters, but it is never too difficult.  But with the sort days where darkness comes far too quickly and the ever plunging temperatures outdoors the planning can begin!!
       

Quail - a great homestead bird

Coturnix japonica, the Japanese quail, also known as coturnix quail, are tiny eating machines.  A full grown bird is small, weighing in around 3.5 - 5 ounces.  Thanks to selective breeding the jumbo strain can get up much bugger!  These little birds start laying eggs at only 6-8 weeks of age, unlike chickens which usually begin to lay around 24 weeks of age.  

We've attempted to rear quail on several attempts, for the purpose of meat, and eggs.  The early attempts were twarted by several unfortunate events; a pet rat that got loose and killed off the quail, a hole in the quail pen resulting in loose quail and a hungry hawk.  A box of quail that didn't survive the ride home from the auction.  Attempt number four consisted for us hatching quail, ending up with five, that were all males and our fifth attempt has been much better!  We hatched out 18 quail a little over six weeks ago.  We lost two early on and now have 16, healthy, presumably happy little birds.

The eggs were purchased from e-bay (a great source for hatching eggs!  I'll have more on purchasing eggs in a later post.) and incubated in my Little Giant styrofoam incubator.  I believe we have three or four color types running together.

The intent is to select the biggest and best quail, retain them and hatch the resulting eggs.  With the occasional addition of new blood we are hoping to have a nice little convey that will keep us in meat and eggs.  Admittedly I'm already planning Christmas dinner, this year it'll feature fresh, roasted quail.