Hey, y’all! Sorry I haven’t been around lately, my aunt passed away followed by two of my dogs and more quail than I care to think about. The quail are doing much better since we moved them outside into an aviary last month. In short, our homestead is now thriving!
Starting on February 16th, our Barred Rock began laying eggs. We’re getting 2-4 eggs from eleven hens so I think that’s pretty good for five month old chickens. There are two roosters and most of the eggs have been fertilized so far, which is great because we have an incubator. Oddly, our hens preposition the roosters, but they usually walk away.
Then last week our quail began laying. Last night we got eight eggs from them and they’re six weeks old today, so that’s super exciting and scary! If we get eight eggs every day then we’ll have 112 quail eggs by the end of this month and I honestly don’t know what we’re going to do with them. Pickling comes to mind!

Also, our rabbit doe, Vanilla, had her second litter. It’s cold here in Alabama so we don’t want to uncover them, but there are at least three. I’ve claimed the little red one as my new pet. Our five month old Chinchilla buck is proving to be a rockstar with the ladies so we’re expecting more babies in the next few weeks.

I’m considering doing a podcast called “What’s in my Bathroom?” talking about our brooding adventures. So far everything has been brooded in our only bathroom which was annoying, but now I kind of enjoy it. Our dog doesn’t even care anymore, so long as he gets all of the attention he requires.
At this very moment, I have eleven Smokey Pearl chicks, two ducklings, and a disturbing number of crickets in my there. At one time I had 160 quail in the bathroom, but we lost several and now they’re happily outside in an aviary. Which I love!
Going forward, I’m hoping to post at least once a week, but we’ll see. It’s spring so there’s a lot going on here at the moment. Our garden is a work in progress, which I’ll share with y’all soon, and we have lots of babies. Arguably too many at this time, but I digress.
Thank y’all so much for visiting! Come back next Sunday for more adventures at the Sunshine Homestead!