I Have Quail Eggs!

About six and a half weeks ago I purchased 15 Coturnix quail. They were the cutest things as chicks; they had the coloring of a chipmunk and the chirp of a baby chicken. In just a few short weeks they began to feather in and try to fly. I wish I had video-even my wife thought that was cute! Shortly there after I was able to color sex them based on the plumage of their breast. Males have olive coloring and females have speckled coloring. I was pleased to find that my ration was 9 females to 6 males.

Today after I got home from work I glanced in their cage to find two eggs! I reached in to grab the eggs to find that their shells were strong and durable. I brought them inside and placed them on a paper towel with a quarter in between for comparison. I find the coloration of the eggs particularly interesting and beautiful. The neat thing about quail eggs is that their coloration will change. It's possible to get solid colored eggs also. From what I have been told, I can expect the size of the eggs to increase to roughly 2/3 the size of a large chicken egg.

I plan to fry these eggs up within the next few days, however, I am holding out for more so I won't have to share two eggs with my sons and wife...I want to taste them, at least!

Because the males and females are related, I will be unable to breed the males to the females. One of the next few weekends will bring the chore of turning the males into table fare. In early fall I plan on purchasing quail eggs from another breeder to hatch out and begin to perpetuate a flock. As I do so, I will blog more about the adventures of raising quail for food.