Cold Nights, Red Lights. Drama In The Coop.

The nights have turned cold, every morning a thick blanket of frost covers the waking world. The ground crunches beneath my toes as I walk to the quail house in the mornings. I have to cover up the coop with wool blankets and sheets to keep the heat in from a red thermal heat lamp. It splashes them with a low red light and a steady supply of warmth. The quail are quiet and slow in the cold, they stopped laying a month ago and the males have chilled and stopped being active. I have five upstairs in a large dog kennel and the rest in the coop. They are still fighting, the two warring sides, how Shakespearean of them.

Miss Piggy, Jabberwokey, Tweedle, Sissy and Tweak are the Bad kids. I had them separated when I went to Steemfest, worried there would be a battle while I was gone that @happymoneyman would have to deal with. And they made an epic jail break and quickly dispersed into the others. He called me and told me the news, those little turds. They behaved the entire time I was on my trip and two days after I arrived back home a great altercation happened in the middle of the night. There was mass carnage every where you looked. One of the little bird had gotten scalped and another's eye was almost pecked out. At least half has some small wound.

So five were separated from the rest, charge with inciting a civil war, punished with banishment.

Banishment suits them, they are happy. And the rest are all healed up nicely.

The warm rays of the heat lamp all night extended their days, and like a werewolf to the moon they changed.

Last night I went and checked them before bed, it was late and going to be a really cold night. I wanted to make sure it wasn't too cold. I lifted the sheets to find them having a party. The warmth and mood lighting gotten them all riled up. Not only were they all up, they were running around, hopping, eating, one was stretched out in front of the lights like a bathing beauty. Normally they would be in bed sleeping for hours. I check on them a lot, there has never been one up at night let alone the entire flock getting down and groovy.

One let out a crow and another one was hopping like a little grasshopper. It was a midnight quail rave. I leave them for one night.

It was then I noticed that Thor was going crazy. He was standing as tall as he could go and then bending his head down, making a low throaty sound. Then running with all his might across the coop, proceeding to mount five hens one after another. He was fighting other males then mating. Before my eyes my little bird had turned into a Viking, pillaging and reeking havoc. He couldn't handle the light warm lamp, it was like spring had started early it was stirring all his little alpha male birdy instincts. He was out of control.

I left them to their rave, its a free world.

The next morning I found two eggs in the coop. The light had gotten them to start laying again, I am overjoyed to have quail eggs back in my diet, I thought I was going to have to wait a few months. The quail are so entertaining, I love being their caretakers.

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Big Love❤

Ren