Animal lover Madeleine hatches a quartet of quails from shop eggs

AN animal-loving pupil from Highcliffe School has hatched a quartet of quail chicks from a batch of shop-bought eggs to encourage people think about what they are eating.

Madeleine Woodifield (14), who is a vegan and keen environmentalist, came up with the idea for the experiment after her family rescued some ducklings that had lost their mother on a main road near to their house.

The teenager decided to incubate and hatch some chicks from some quail’s eggs to try change their views on the food industry.

“It all started around Easter when my family rescued two baby ducks from the side of the road,” said Madeleine.

“We looked after them for three weeks before we took them to an animal sanctuary so they could be released back into the wild.

“This gave me the idea to start a social experiment that I hoped would give people the realisation that chicks are the reality of what they are eating when buying any sort of egg.

“Another thing that added to my motivation was when a friend came to me at school and told me that her mum recently opened up and egg that had the remains of a dead baby chicken inside.”

Madeleine used some of her savings to buy an incubator and a humidity reader and she began nurturing a batch of eggs she purchased from the local farm shop, even though she was not sure if anything would hatch.

To her amazement, after 16 days of incubation, a quail chick emerged from one of the eggs whilst she was at school.

“I came back from school and was so excited when I got in and saw that I had actually managed to hatch a chick from one of the eggs” she said.

The next morning a second baby quail followed that was born with a deformed leg which Madeleine was able to nurse back to health after she made a miniature splint that successfully reset the limb.

Another two hatchlings arrived over the next couple of days.

“It was so interesting that some of the eggs that just came from a shop were actually fertilised. I have seen people doing this before with chicken eggs and I am so happy we managed to hatch four chicks of our own” she said.

Madeleine’s mum Fiona said: “I applaud Madeleine and I am so proud of her. She has done such a good job caring for and raising the chicks and we will be keeping them as pets.

“She has ingeniously rigged the heat lamp that we used to care for the ducklings to a garden lamp and positioned it over the chick’s box in order to keep them warm.

“I have to say that she has done this to make everyone think and it has worked. It really made me think about what we eat and where our food comes from especially now with eggs and it is something we all need to consider.”

Looking to the future Madeleine said: “I would love to work in an animal sanctuary one day. The owner of the sanctuary we took the ducklings to is a vegan as well and he offered me a work apprenticeship for when I turn 16 which is really exciting.”