Well I invested in an incubator as none of my hens were broody and low and behold a few days after setting the eggs Dotty went broody!
She is very determined and loves nothing more than to raise chicks, be that chicken, turkey or ........... well I hadn't tried her with quail so why not.
As usual she was a perfect broody sitting tight on her clutch of 9 eggs and leaving the nest only to do the essentials. When the hatch day arrived I checked things were alright but unfortunately one chick had hatched and it looked as it she had squashed it.
When I checked the other eggs 2 more were damaged so I decided to take them off her and straight in to the incubator.
I quickly replaced the quail eggs with 3 bantam eggs and 2 newly hatched bantam chicks. She accepted them and then a further 3 the next day so she was happy.
Two quail eggs soon started to hatch and then three more the next day. One of the first chicks to hatch had splayed leg so hubby had to help put a hobble on it which is a job and a half. The next day its legs were strong enough to hold it up without the plaster hobble.
The last egg still hadn't hatched on the third day but it had been cheeping for 3 days so I decided to give it a hand. It didn't have enough room in the shell to break its way out so would have died so I am glad to say it is now fluffed up and racing around with the others.
They are like bumble bees and try to fly from day 2 which is so funny to watch. Amazing to think that in 7 to 8 weeks any females can be laying eggs of her own!
I am looking forward to seeing what colours I get as Dad is a Rosetta quail and the Mums are a mixture of Italian/golden and Japanese.