I was going to ask, "scrambled or hard boiled," but I guess the point is moot. ;-) How long did she incubate? I'm guessing ~3 weeks? 17 eggs is a really big clutch for Gambel's. Could you have had 2 hens deposit eggs in the same nest? Birds don't get much cuter than Gambel's chicks. How lucky you are to have had them. Zill

Honestly I don't believe a few gardeners are going to scare off the quail forever. We have lots of gardeners in our neighborhood and the quail just keep on strutting around the neighborhood. Nothing seems to phase them. If you have quail now, you will have quail after the gardeners are done trimming things up. I think that is a guarantee, they are pretty hard to scare off.

The eggs may hatch as early as next Monday........I don't want to miss this as I have never seen a baby hummingbird. The questionn and answer section said the nest is the size of a golf ball, and the eggs are the size of tic-tacs......that she has four nests in this rose bush, and has been there for several years. Very interesting!!!!

If you keep peeking the bird will leave the nest permanently, if it didn�t already Birds are known to abandon nests when disturbed. If they stay you can cause premature fledging of the chicks, which usually results in their demise. Also getting close to nesting area alerts predators.