Pages

Wednesday 20 May 2009

Oh no, not again!

I can't believe it - another Quail dead.  We have been keeping them inside but the male likes to have a fly around - stretch his wings so to speak.  So we put him in the run during the day for a couple of hours thinking he'd be fine as long as we brought him in by nightfall.  

Three hours later we found him dead.  A friend of mine suggested a stoat the likely culprit and that it would have been able to get in through the chicken wire!

So now we only have 2.  A sad day.

We need a very big rethink on how to house our quails...............sounds like an opportunity for a design project!  Back to the drawing board................

Promise to try to post something more cheerful next time.

6 comments:

globeonmytable said...

Oh dear! There must be a quail farmer out there who knows and blogs about how to keep them safe.

Carol said...

Well I think the remaining 2 will have to be kept inside until we design an everything-proof run. The hardest thing is that my daughter put of alot of effort into hatching, raising and caring from them. It is very upsetting - but then again it is a painful part of life and learning isn't it.

Carolyn said...

How terrible. It must be sitting there, lying in wait...either that or it has the house bugged.
Concrete base and aviary mesh is the only way. Just such a nightmare. Either that, or get a dog/cat...known to keep most unpleasant beasties away!
Get some more eggs Rhiannon...don't give up!

Carol said...

I can't believe we'd gone for so long without any problems and now all of this! I think we thought we had it sorted. I feel so bad for the quails - feel as if we didn't do our best for them. Especially Quasar (todays victim). Feel so stupid putting him out there now but I don't think we were expecting an attack in broad daylight when we were around anyway! Thinking about getting a ferral cat (Rhiannon is allergic to cats so no good in the house) as well as a major rebuild on the run.

Big mamma frog said...

Sorry to hear that you've lost another. When one of our chickens was attacked I did loads of research on the poultry pages on the web and it seems that ferrets are often the culprits - there are large wild populations now. They are able to get through quite small holes and are voracious killers. I suppose as carolyn suggested - concrete base (or a few paving slabs) and some finer metal mesh might be the only way. Thinking of you guys...

Carol said...

Thanks BMF. A friend of mine says it could have been a stoat. Her cats catch alot of them and apparently although they look cute they have teeth like razors and are voracious predators. I guess all this wildlife is a hazard of the countryside! Anyway we're a bit wiser now so hopefully we can avert more tragedy.

Hope you guys are OK. My ds2 still misses your ds1.....dare I suggest pen friends......or something...?