Alcester Aviary and Garden Birds

I could be here for ever describing and retelling "My Story" but I will try to make it as short, yet as interesting as possible.

I've kept poultry since May 2006. My first hens were 2 hybrids, a Black Rock and a Rhode Island Red hybrid, the hens are bred for egg laying purposes. Each hen is capable of laying 300 eggs a year. I began to sell my eggs in boxes of 4 for £1.10 a time, I was so thrilled with my income that I also began to sell jams and breads to friends and family. I was constantly trying to find ways to make little extra bits of money.

I had always like Quail, but one day my friend Clare mentioned them on the Omlet Forum and from then on all I can remember is that I exchanged PM'S (Private Messages) and then I think on the same day, I loaded my incubator with quail eggs. I had read in a Poultry magazine that it was possible to hatch Quail from eggs bought in a supermarket. I asked around on a few forums as to if it was correct and low and behold many people had tried it and got the odd 1 or 2 quail. So I bought 2 dozen Tesco's finest quail eggs and 18 days later, I was the proud owner of a trio of Japanese quail. The reason for the Tesco eggs being fertile is that quail often come into lay at around 6 weeks old, this also about the age you can sex them correctly. It takes too much time and too much money to dispatch males that the quail farms chuck everything in all together. So I got lucky. I only really wanted to keep them to sell as a few eggs for eating, so 3 quail was good for me.

Then on the Practical Poultry forum I saw an advert for 7 Italian quail, 1 male and 6 females. "Great" I thought. So I asked Mum and she was a bit cautious but agreed for me to have them. A week and a new quail house later I had the 7 new quail delivered. The Italian's were georgeous compared to my standard Japanese quail.

Then on the Pekin Bantams forum, I saw an advert for 11 Japanese quail, all mutation colours. "Great I though". And you know the story from there!

The 11 Mutation Japanese were a bit of a nightmare, the males vigorously attacked the females, so I split what I believed to be the  males away from the females. However 1 snag, the next day I found a quail egg in the male pen, then another 2 the day after that. I was so pushed for space and they were causing more trouble than good that I passed 4 of them on to a friend who has a smallholding, where they are enjoying the luxury of a large aviary. So my first sale in live birds! It was such an adrenaline rush that from then on, I decided to breed my quail.

I now sell my eggs on ebay and my birds and starter kits privately. After the costs of feeding and keeping I don't make much pocket money, but enough to keep me going.

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