Back To The Quail

We were up early on another chilly morning. Today was our weekly trip to the quail facility in Arivaca to help out with the quail care. I rode over to the visitor center around 7:15 to pick up the truck that we've come to call "Good Old Number 32". It is the Ford F-250 4x4 pickup we've been using on many of our trips around the refuge. It has about 92,000 hard miles on it and has lots of rattles and squeaks but seems to be able to go anywhere. It is also the only vehicle available to us that will go down the road to the quail facility.

I also had to pick up a bag of cardboard sheets that Ellen had cut up for the quail during our quiet visitor center turn yesterday. The are used as flooring and pecking boards in the quail cages. We got off to Arivaca about 7:30.

When we arrived, Paula had already checked the health of the older quail and left it to us to check their feed and flush the water tubes. After that it was time for a road trip.

It was good that we'd taken Good Old 32 this morning since there were 60 bags of quail food waiting to be picked up at the Amado Feed store. Amado is about 25 miles from Arivaca on a twisty two-lane road (a great motorcycle road) so it took us a good two hours to do the trip. There were two pallets of food waiting and the young guys at the feed store put them both in the truck, balancing one pallet on the open tail gate. The truck sank visibly and, even though they said it would be fine, we decided to take only one pallet. This was just as well since each pallet was 30 bags and each bag was 40 pounds. Old 32 is a 3/4 ton truck and one pallet plus us was just about 3/4 ton. When we got back, Paula was waiting and she'd enlisted the help of her husband. We all unloaded the bags, which was a bit of a chore for Ellen and I as we both had rather sore backs already.

Paula had been rebuilding several old brooder cages, which is what the quail are kept in. It is about time to move this year's chicks into the main building and give them a bit more room, so more cages are needed. Our afternoon task was to help fit out these new cages. There were still two of the oldest that needed quite a bit work. They had pairs of bulky fluorescent fixtures on each level that would only get in the way which needed to be removed. They seemed to be integrated with a heater in the center section of each level and there was a lot of wiring. Since the heaters were unnecessary, I suggested removing them, which was quickly agreed to as it gave even more room for the quails. I also suggested just clipping all the wiring and taking it all out, so that is what we did.

Doing the first one was a bit tricky since it wasn't really clear how everything was fastened together. It was a bit of guesswork as to what came off first but we muddled our way through. But once we got one done, we knew the way it was constructed and using a specific order, the rest came off fairly easily, but it took the rest of the afternoon to finish the first set of brooders. I don't know if the other will be done by next week. I expect so.

We left later than usual and got back just before dark by the time I returned the truck and rode back to Speedy. By the time we changed and washed all our clothes (quail dander and grunge), had dinner and cleaned up, we were done. Thank goodness we're off until next Wednesday.