Well, except for the roofing. But it’s done enough, and the quail can move in!
Since Loki’s future wives are not yet hatched, I moved Cinna and his girls inside so I could move Cinna’s coop to a new, more central location. I wasn’t sure how tame Cinna and the girls actually were, since I haven’t tried to catch them since they were chicks, but they were so nice. They stood still and just let me pick them up without any fuss at all.
They’d been working really hard at composting the dirt from their former coop into lovely, rich earth, full of bugs and earthworms, and I didn’t want to deprive them of winning the rewards of their labor, so I put them temporarily into one of my cold frames. And then we dug out the dirt from their old coop and put it into the new one.
Nice, lovely composted dirt! Despite having had quails living (and pooping) on it for around half a year, it didn’t smell. I would have loved to put it into my garden, but I gave it back to them, worms and all.
I need to add some plants and little logs and things for them. The green you see is just a few edible weeds I “planted” for them. Which of course, they promptly dug out!
The nest box area also has their food and water.
They were quite enamored of their nest area, and spent quite a bit of time inside, arranging their hay.
And then they all took a nap. The two little females snuggled up together, and Cinna on guard beside them.
After the nap, they left me a tip.
I hadn’t named the two females, because I couldn’t tell them apart. They are identical in looks. But having spent considerable time recently watching them, I’ve learned that they are quite different in personality. I’ve named them Mary and Martha, because they remind me of those Biblical sisters. Martha always vigorously doing what needs to be done (in this case digging for worms and uprooting plants), while Mary is contend to sit and learn.
I also gave them some alfalfa seeds I had sprouted. That was a big hit. I’ll definitely continue doing that on a regular basis.
I have one more quail coop to build, and then I’ll have the big coop with the green roof empty and available for my future Serama chickens. Now that I have this awesome incubator and brooder, I honestly want to hatch ALL THE EGGS.
I wonder if I could fit an emu egg in it? 😉
Out of Eden 