The Quail Barn has neighbors that include the Holey Cow, Norman, 14 busy hens and an little boy attacking rooster named Road Runner... The Legend of Earl – a tale of survival
Agriculture, family, and faith are three of the greatest assets you can provide for your children. We have experienced all three in various degrees since July 5, 2021. Our Great Aunt has raised “Georgia Giant” Bobwhite Quail
for many years. When the children were toddlers, she would deliver delicious toddler sized eggs for the boys. They love them and will eat them boiled or mini sunny side up. That love of quail eggs led our family to explore the quail business. We started out with tiny, thumb sized quail hatched on July 4th. They were 31 of the cutest little things, until they weren’t…
If you are interested at all in raising very delicate, tiny baby quail, please make sure that you do your research about how to raise them up! The first day they would huddle in a little ball and looked like a happy family. The next morning, we had a cousin over and there was some “rough handling” of 2 quail and they didn’t make it. Over the next 2 days the number dwindled to 7- yes only 7 out of 31 were still alive. We had to call Aunt Faye and ask what we were doing wrong! They had food and water and they were on the back porch- safe. She asked about how close the heat lamp was… oops!… we didn’t have an answer because we didn’t have a heat lamp. We got one that day and got it attached to the side of the brooding box. Some of the stresses of the past few days reduced 7 down to 4 surviving baby quail in a week’s time. Aunt Faye knew we had learned a lot about quail rearing with the ole “trial and error” method. She had kept 9 baby quail to raise up to add to her flock. Seven of those were still living – a bit better survival rate. She gave them to us because they were similar ages to the 4 remaining quail at our house. They were all thriving after day 1. The boys loved to check on them to see what they were doing…. The saving heat from the lamp is a great tool to regulate the temperature - unless it is too close for comfort. Apparently in the quest to get a closer look the heat lamp was knocked into the box by a little boy -who will remain unnamed. All of the quail got too hot and died… or so we thought. Now it is time to introduce you to “Earl.” We thought all of the quail had perished in the heat but Earl didn’t have to die and actually survived by hiding under his fallen friends. Earl had found a way to survive and was then relocated to a glass terrarium with special attention given daily. Earl was the single quail that was our family friend until December. YES, we managed to keep a quail alive for MONTHS! With this record of success- our Great Aunt Faye and her family’s travel goals motivated her to turn over their quail business to our family. Our new flock is 2 generations and just started laying eggs again on February 5. We will be raising baby quail from the eggs that the boys don’t eat- with the goal of getting them flight trained or offering them as meat birds. These “Georgia Giants” are about 1 lb each in 6-8 weeks. I invite you to look closely in this pen for the hen with a green zip tie on her leg. Meet “Earline” – I guess we learned about naming them too early as it would be inappropriate for her to keep that rooster name. She almost escaped when getting checked in – she flew across the fairgrounds and was reunited with her family under the bleachers- NEVER a dull moment! She had FUN at the Hardee County Fair and won Best of Show in her class!
