Category Archives: Quail – All About

Coturnix coturnix

QUAIL PETS

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As result of many requests for Quails as pets, I have designed and built a Quail Pet House, which comes complete with four Quails ready to start laying eggs.

Quails (Coturnix coturnix) make the perfect pet. Not only are they docile, quiet, inquisitive and clean, but each quail will also give you a delicious egg every day, so they pay for their own upkeep;  how many pets can claim that!  Quails become very tame and by nature are relaxed and adaptable little animals. They are amazingly efficient and incredibly interesting little creatures.

Small incubators for people that are interested in hatching their own quail babies are available, which is an excellent child project that teaches them the basic principles of breeding and rearing, apart from just looking after and enjoying a pet.

This little Quail House ( under 1 x 1 meters) fits into any small area and can stand in a bedroom, in the garage, on the veranda or  under a tree in the garden. They are  strong and built to withstand all weather conditions. Made from tanalised and double oiled wood, this pet house is durable and will last for a long long time. A roof door and easily replaceable floor (extra floor included) makes cleaning an easy and quick task.  Also included is a sand bath and water and food feeders.

The ideal pet accommodation for all needs. The ideal mini aviary.

Seen and Heard at Stadium Markets (Every Sunday)

The markets were successful where the quail eggs were concerned, as I sold out fairly early.  The market for quails as pets with benefits (an egg a day from the hens) is growing and next week I shall have a small quail pet house, big enough for 4 females and one male complete with quails, sand bath, feeder and drinker for sale. The house can be moved from place to place and since the quails are effective pest destroyers (they love worms, grubs, slugs etc) you can keep your lawn or vegetable patch in a healthy condition without using pesticides by letting the Quails “free range” from time to time.

Of the fruit stalls the plums were really eye catching, I did not buy this week because I harvested apples and pears from my own trees this week, but last week’s greengage purchase was a big hit with the kids. The vendor says he will have quinces soon, perhaps by next week.  I am getting my recipes out – quince crumble is high on the agenda!

Food seems to always do well at the markets and the guy who sells pineapple burgers sold out of product before closing time, so he is worth investigating.

Lapis Lazuli

AZURLIS Skin Care : Cruelty free, 100 % natural, 100% vegan DUNEDIN MADE

Being an elderly guy, I am not that much into skin care, but organic stuff always interests me. I went over and had a chat with the  founder and director who was in the stall, and was very impressed with her philosophy regarding the product. The Azurlis® founder Dr Fernanda da Silva Tatley is a Dunedin based molecular medical microbiologist. Raised in Portugal she studied at the University of Cape Town completing a PhD in molecular medical microbiology.  To quote from the website : ‘We are mindful of what we use on our skin, as this is the largest organ of our body and a major contact surface with the environment. Thus, by encouraging environmentally friendly awareness and practices, we are contributing to the sustainability of our unique planet and our own wellbeing. We believe that this is best achieved through adherence to organic certification of food, farming and personal care products.”  Another Dunedin business worthy of support! (I got a free sample and expect to be quite lovely in a few days time ;-)).

Their contact details are in http:/www.azurlis.co, tel. 021 250 1457

Once again I had very little time to wander around but there are many more interesting things to talk about next week .

Pappardelle Verde al ragu d’Anatra – Green hand made pasta with Duck sauce

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We had a couple of friends over for dinner and decided to make Green Pappardelle wit Duck Ragu.

Pappardelle

Pasta is one of those wonderful products where with just two or three ingredients many different products can be created, and it should always be the pasta that is the prominent component of the dish and not so much the sauce. The sauce and the type of paste needs to match in such a way that they both compliment each other. In this case Pappardelle and Duck Ragu is the ideal match

When making fresh pasta you need about 100 g of flour per serving, if you are not having a dish to follow after the pasta as many people do. We however always have the pasta as a first coarse (Primi Piatti) after the Antipasto and before the second coarse (Secondi Piatti), finishing off with a salad, and in this case 60 g flour per serving should suffice.

500 G Plain Flour

5 Eggs lightly beaten

15 – 20 Fresh Spinach leaves

Mix the flour and eggs and knead until smooth. This should be a hard dough, but should it be too difficult to work, add a small bit of water. Leave it covered to rest in the fridge for one hour. Take small quantities (about 50 g) at a time, flatten it out by hand and then roll it out with a pasta machine on the thickest setting. Fold it over, turn it 90 degrees and put through the machine again. Do this a couple of times until the pasta is smooth and homogeneous. Use enough dry flour during this process to avoid stickiness. Lay the pasta sheets out on a floured surface and repeat with the rest until all the dough has been used. On half of each sheet of pasta, lay out the fresh spinach leaves and fold the sheet over to make a sandwich. Now repeat the process of putting it through the pasta machine, folding over, turning 90 degrees and putting it through again, until the pasta and spinach are well mixed and smooth. Once all his is done, put every sheet gradually through a thinner setting of the pasta machine, until the finest setting ( 7 ?) is achieved for each sheet. Remember to use flour to make it all run smoothly.  Cut the pasta sheets with a knife or pizza cutter in about 20 mm strips. The pasta is now ready to cook or dry, for later use. I normally make this in the morning , or day before, and let it dry for use when required. Fresh pasta cooks very quickly (about 5 minutes) and it is very important not to over cook it (Pasta al dente) otherwise it will be soggy.

Make the sauce of choice to suite Pappardelle and once cooked, drain and mix with the sauce in the sauce pan, heat through while mixing gently and serve immediately.

CIAO!!

Smoked Eggs for Brekky = Kruger National Park

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I bought some Manuka Smoked Eggs (scroll down in the link for contact details ) at the Stadium Market on Sunday. I was very eager to taste them but managed to save them for breakfast this morning. The eggs look stunning, one side is dark chocolate and the other almost caramel, much too lovely to break! The vendor, Rachel told me that the best way to eat them was scrambled.

The taste was lovely and smoky and lingered long after the last bite, a taste that took me back 45 years to the Kruger National Park in South Africa. Now breakfast is cooked on gas there but in those days big communal fires were made and my father would happily trot off with his blackened pan and eggs,  and bring back delicious scrambled eggs from the  cooking kitchens. Every one would fetch a few burning logs from the big fire to put in the fire place in front of their hut at night and after barbecuing the family dinner we settled down to listen to the night noises of the animals! You have to admit that that is quite a remote flashback – in time and distance – just because of a bit of scramble egg eaten on a very chilly. wet,  Dunedin morning.

COTURNIX BREEDING PROJECT (MAKING GREAT STRIDES)

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CAN IT GET ANY BETTER?

I am engaged in this project to improve the Coturnix Quail, consequently, I  monitor a lot of production parameters. One of my groups of Italian females has been in production  for 13 weeks now and has laid 100% eggs per day –  637 eggs in thirteen weeks from 7 hens – PHENOMENAL – and they are still going. (I commence recording egg production at 10 weeks of age). Above are photographs of three of the hens in this group as well as the male, which is from another high performance line I have (all the information at my disposal shows that these two lines are not closely related). I have also included a photograph of some of the chicks hatched out of this group, and young males from the same group at 28 days of age (average mass per bird at 28 days of age is 133 g -range between 123 and 165 g). Out of this group of young males I have selected only two outstanding males for future breeding. All the hens from this hatching are obviously going into the production unit.

I am again inviting breeders who would like to participate in this project to contact me. I am prepared to ship one of these young males FREE to a BREEDER in exchange for some offspring, or alternatively, should you have a phenomenal female of two, I would be interested to breed them at my place, again in exchange for offspring.