After putting our lone male Mearns on the Lonely Hearts Register, because of his impeccable US pedigree, we had lots of requests for his services, but we didn’t want to part with him. We finally received an answer from The Netherlands, saying they could provide him with a suitable companion. So, last December, we went to collect his future wife.
We were a bit disappointed when we first saw her as she was really diminutive when compared with our little boy. To give you an idea of the comparative size, our little Mearns who was only just over 4 months old was already bigger than her parents. However, after a lengthy talk with the Dutch breeder, we discovered that there are very few Mearns quail in Europe, and they are quite inbred, leading to a reduction in both size and fertility. Undeterred (in fact we had very little choice in the matter) we brought the Mearns hen home and slowly introduced her to her future mate. Initially neither was particularly interested in the other but soon they took to sitting side by side, separated only by a wire partition. When we thought enough time had passed, we removed the partition and waited with trepidation to see what the reaction would be. Fortunately our ‘Goliath’ took very kindly to the little ‘David’. Once she had settled into her new home she soon started to put on weight and grow and is now a very pretty little hen, and quite unafraid. We’re glad to see that she is now almost the same size as our cock – maybe due to a different diet or simply maturity – and our Mearns cock is really a very handsome boy and quite protective of his mate.
We weren’t sure if the hen would lay at all this year, and if the eggs would be full. However, after a slow start (and 4 broken eggs), she is now laying regularly and we are curious to see how many eggs she’ll lay in a season. So far she has already laid more than we had been led to expect by the textbooks, and it is clear that our little boy is an eager lover since, up to now, all eggs have been full, and we are looking forward to the next stage.
In any case, we are so delighted with these birds that, even if we’d had no eggs at all, we’d still not want to part with them as they are so friendly and beautiful and give us so much satisfaction. That said, although they give us huge pleasure, they are certainly not birds for the beginner or the faint-hearted. The chicks are difficult to rear and failure is more common than success. Nevertheless, we are very happy to have been successful in breeding and raising such delightful birds and look forward to the future of our little family. Their American cousins are currently in the incubator and we’re looking forward to the day they hatch – with all the attendant heartache and nerve-racking tension that entails.
Watch this space for more news!