Small and productive with surprising personality traits

Kaiserin Maggs shares what she has learned on her journey into keeping quail

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I've had chickens for almost my entire life. I love watching their antics and, of course, collecting the eggs. Unfortunately, my garden isn't big enough for the amount of chickens I want, so I went looking online to see what else would be similar. I didn't want birds for meat, only eggs.

And that's where my quail story starts.

I had decided on Jumbo Italian Coturnix as a) they were the biggest quail, b) they were meant to be great layers, and c) they were the only type of quail near me!

I only wanted a few at first. I got in contact with a breeder in Ayr, who dropped off my girls on his way to Carlisle. Five female coturnix, eight weeks old, pretty much fully grown. They had a lovely feathering of light brown feathers and black speckled chests. They were each given a little coloured leg tag and some very posh sounding names. Daphne, Elouise, Francesca, Hyacinth and Violet. (Can you guess the T.V. show?)