Bunny Prisons, Banana Nut Bread, and Quail

Today I spent the afternoon in the barn trying to keep up with various things that need to be done there.  One, was cleaning out the "bunny prison," so called by the folks at the Home ReSource who sold it to me for $10.  Basically, it's a 6 ft bird cage that can be moved around.   Unfortunately, after housing several chicks, it had an accrual of hay, feed and bird poop that needed to go into the compost pile.  Two trips with the muck cart and I laid a fresh layer of shavings down and put my two sick birds there.  One isn't so sick, but she isn't eating; the other isn't standing up and obviously had some sort of respiratory ailment because she was gasping for breath a few days ago.  This is where I can give antibiotics and various treatments without the other birds drinking medicated water and passing it to their eggs.

Cleaned the horses' pens and gave them scratches before moving the quail to their new home.  Only, the male bird got out.  I quickly closed the barn and chased after him.  Luckily, he didn't figure out how to get away from me entirely and ended up in the chickens' pens.  This is a dreadful mistake as the chickens will eat darn near anything that is smaller than they are.  Luckily, I was able to catch the quail and bring him to his mate in their new cage.  It's an open cage, which enables me to enjoy seeing them.  It'll be easier to see when the female lays eggs.

Speaking of eggs, I put 114 Coturnix quail eggs in the incubator.   Coturnix are a type of Japanese quail.  I put so many eggs in as it is unlikely I will see more than 1/3 hatch out.  Even if I did, they mature quickly and lay eggs.  The extra males can go into freezer camp.

Lastly, tonight I made banana bread.  I had a lot of the ingredients that made sense for me to make banana bread like very ripe bananas, walnuts, and yogurt.  No sense letting that go to waste.