Wednesday, June 15, 2011

quail and families


Recently we found an abandoned quail nest in our backyard (probably our dog's fault). We retrieved these eggs and decided to attempt to hatch and raise them, as it was partly our fault that they were orphaned. For 3 weeks they needed to be kept warm, and to be turned a couple of times a day, to be sure that they would grow and develop normally, and to keep the embryo from sticking to the shell.

I can guarantee that the mother isn't sitting on the nest when she is incubating the eggs thinking to herself: "oh dear I better roll them to keep those embryos from sticking!" Instead, she does it simply because she knows and understands that rolling them and keeping them warm is all that she can do at that point to help them grow.

Likewise, when the quail hatch, the mother will be present but will not assist them in getting out of their shells. The chicks must do it themselves in order to gain the strength they need to survive.

Now I can't imagine that this is easy for any mother, quail or human. Rather, to me, it is a testament to the divine role that mothers have. Even with all of the resources that I had at my disposal, I struggled to do what the mother quail does by instinct, and better than I managed.

Indulge me now as I share another quail anecdote. Recently, my family also had a family of quail, with a bunch of newly hatched chicks, come running into our garage. With our presence there they were terrified and took up refuge under an engine that we had sitting on a pallet. I was curious about them so I went over to peek under at them. As I did so, the father flew out at me to distract me and try to get me to follow him, to draw me away from his family. What an act of bravery, love, and sacrifice, found in a bird.

It was then that I noticed that one of the chicks had gotten separated from the others and was alone outside. I went toward it to attempt to get it back with its family, but I only succeeded in scaring it into the bushes. I decided not to interfere and stood back to watch. The father had taken post on our roof where he was safe and could see. He called to his family and was quickly able to get them all back together and to a safe place, away from me.

He had left the little one alone and scared for a time, because he knew that it was safe. He waited until the danger had passed before bringing him back out into the open.

One final story. One of our eggs, when it was hatching spent eight hours working at it. Eventually I intervened, and discovered he had gimp feet. This didn't stop him though, and when another chick was hatching and had trouble, he pulled himself across the floor to help him, and took him under his wing, though he was not wholly well himself.

Families are incredible. They are the basic social unit found all over in nature and in our world. They are such a blessing and offer us the best opportunity to learn and to grow, whether they are by blood or by adoption.


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