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We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Chores to Bring You an ANNOUNCEMENT

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    Some days you trudge out to do chores and just put your head down, ignore the cold/wind/rain/heat and just focus on the necessary steps to get 'er done. Other days you go out and take a moment to stand and appreciate/enjoy the beauty around you. Still other days you go out and listen to the quail creating a ruckus and the roosters having a crow-off, reminding the quail who is  really  the boss of the homestead. And then there are days when you go out and find....a long hoped for surprise. On September 12th ~ 150 days ago according to Ms. Googly Pants ~ we drove to the west side of Mobile and bought 10 Buff Orpington pullets, 1 Buff Orpington cockerel, 10 Rhode Island Red pullets, and 1 Easter Egger cockerel (because they were out of Rhode Island Reds cockerels when we got there).  In time we realized we actually had 9 Rhode Island Red pullets and 1 Rhode Island Red cockerel so we shared the Easter Egger with a neighbor. But I digress. We have fed these free-...
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Raising Quail In Ridiculously Cold Weather

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  Let me start with admitting that the words, "Cold" and "Ridiculously Cold" are relative terms.  I freely acknowledge that.  If we lived in Nome, Alaska we would likely be quite happy with the "balmy" winter we are experiencing.  But we do NOT live in Nome, Alaska.  We live on the Southern Gulf Coast 10 miles inland from beautiful,  warm  beaches.   Thus the below-freezing temperatures we have been experiencing over the past 7-10 days is....an adjustment and has required some creativity in how we manage things. In December we decided to go ahead and start a hatch.  When the quail hatch we move them from the incubators into warm brooders with heat plates in the quail shed.       While the shed is not air-tight and fully insulated, we can keep temperatures around 10 degrees higher than the outdoor temperature.  As long as the ambient temperature is over 50 degrees, the heat plates we use can do the job to keep the...
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Quail Housing Part 3: Tractors. An Interesting Hybrid

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    I have covered quail aviaries and cages in Quail Housing Part 1 and Quail Housing Part 2 . Let's move on to tractors, an interesting hybrid of cages and aviaries.   When we first began keeping quail back in the COVID years before we lived NowHere we kept the quail in tractors.  Tractors are small(ish) structures which move from place to place giving quail an abundant supply of fresh grass.  The quail mow down the grass and weeds and this is a good supplement for them.  After we moved from the aviary to cages we began to reconsider tractors.  We had learned a LOT more about quail and the technical aspects of their housing needs ~ particularly the height requirement! ~ from our Quail University/Quail 101 investment.  So this time we built tall tractors.  We tried both an A-frame and a standard rectangular construction.  We knew from keeping chicken tractors one of the most dangerous parts of moving a tractor is chicken feet or l...
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Quail Housing Part 2: Cages

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  Once we decided to stop using aviaries for our quail, Cletus started perusing YouTube Videos (a wealth of information!) for how different people built quail cages.  We both thought "Roll-Out" cages were interesting for the design to allow eggs to "roll out" to the front of the cage where they could be retrieved easily.  We got this idea from Dale's Quails (he sells kits) and Wynola Ranch (they sell prebuilt wire roll-outs).  Cletus was still working an 8 to 5 job at this time, but he got to work after 5 and on weekends to get these built.  Oh my! The first time you build anything is the most challenging, isn't it?  We did not purchase a set of blueprint plans from anyone, or a kit; he simply went to Home Depot, bought the lumber, the wire, and the hardware, and got to work.  It cost more and took longer than we were expecting.  There were some frustrations along the way.  But eventually he got 'er done (he always does; Cletus is AMAZING lik...
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Housing Quail

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  Recently a couple of people have asked me about getting started with some quail.   First, I LOVE questions like this!  If a customer has talked to me and become interested in raising some quail for themselves, I feel as though I am doing something right.  Zack Greene at MyShire Farms  talks about a three-fold purpose to Educate, Inspire, and Enthuse people in the quail world, and we agree with that purpose whole-heartedly.  If you make the time to ask me questions about quail, I am happy to have a conversation and help you find answers. A couple of people have specifically asked me about how to house quail.  Realizing the answer was longer than I could manage in a text I got out, took some pictures, dug up some old pictures, and here we go. The primary options for housing quail are cages and aviaries (with some hybrids along the way). First of all, aviaries.  This is some type of structure which is at least 6 feet tall.  Typically it w...
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Summer....I Mean Winter....Re-Runs

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My friends over at The Steward Family Homestead  had a social media post this weekend about the reality of how working homesteaders dress to get chores done.   I was reminded of something I wrote back in 2013 ~ waaaay before we were doing this as a business! ~ about Country Girl Couture.  For the record, I am a lot less old-fashioned these days, and more likely to be in jeans, shorts, or sweats than a house dress, but for your entertainment.... Country Girl Couture I have become a country girl.  And I am a little (!) old-fashioned.  Most days I am at the house taking care of things here.  A trip to town has become an event.  Since I find slacks and jeans uncomfortable what with the various medical accoutrements, I wear a skirt and blouse or a dress.  Since I have glaring-pasty-white legs, that means stockings.  And since I am a Southern Girl, I put on my small string of pearls that my dear Aunt ...
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The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

Last week I had some medical testing scheduled for Friday (everything came back fine). Cletus asked me to not try to do market as market requires a large chunk of Friday to get baking and prep done. And being up until 2 or 3 am has been known on rare occasions to maybe make me a little less than....sweet and cheerful. After the tests we came home and I was thinking, "All right! That's it!! No more kidney stones/flu/testing and we are back to market EVERY WEEK!!". You know that line about, "Man proposes, God disposes"? Saturday Cletus was out working on the chicken run pushing posts into (very soft) ground. When I heard him come in, I walked out and the look on his face.... He said he had hurt his elbow. Said he heard and felt a pop and it HURT. We debated an urgent care trip, but decided if he could tough it out we would wait until Monday when he could see his Orthopedic doctor. We were able to get in with the doctor today and it turns out Cletus has...
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