I have a flock of very cute Chinese painted quail (or button quail) and they are obviously very happy because they lay lots of eggs! They are just like chickens in that they can lay an egg every day or so and you can tell who laid which egg from the individual markings on them - just like a chook egg! But as cute as they are, they are not as practical as a chook egg. A couple of fried quail eggs on toast is great for the littles but the husband isn't so rapt with his dozen fried fairy eggs on toast! I'm not about to give up the quails and they aren't about to stop laying so over time I have come up with some good ideas for using quail eggs that highlights their uniqueness rather than just adding four or five quail eggs to a recipe to replace one chook egg. Here's what I do... Scotched eggs - bite sized version of the normal version. Hard boil the quails eggs, peel, wrap in sausage meat and bake until cooked. Cut a few in half so your guests realise they'...

I'm fond of eggs. I love the shape of them, the colours, the feel of a freshly laid egg and of course the birds that lay them! One day some one showed me a really cool egg that I hadn't seen before. It was tiny and speckled and so, so so cute! I thought it was laid by a wild bird but it turned out to be laid by a quail! Well - I just had to get me one of those birds! Or nine as it turned out! Here's what happened... Instead of doing the sensible thing and spending weeks researching quails and the many different types, I hit Gumtree and bought a trio for $15 - A bargain really! and so tiny. They are really just heart beats covered in feathers compared to the 3.5 kg chooks in the back yard! I did organise a cage before getting the birds and I did spend a bit of time sorting that out but Quail Owning Tip #1 is to research the type of Quail you are getting and what their eggs look like before you purchase!! I set up an old Guinea pig cage for my new b...