I tried hatching out quail eggs from an incubator several times mostly unsuccessfully. I did hear that humidity is important. Also I heard you should NOT touch the eggs with your hands or fingers. I had numerous chicks that couldn't make it out of the egg, and also numerous times I tried to help them out of the egg, and they were never healthy. I also had quit a number that hatched, but had deformed legs and couldn't walk right. It was very heartbreaking. I did have 2 occassions where the hen actually did hatch out a couple babies (out of many eggs) and they are the cutest things on earth. I call them bumblebees! Even the other quail in the pen would sit on them to keep them warm. I really enjoyed them. I don't have them anymore and do miss them.

kerrican2001(z9b CA), nonaberrie(sf bay area), sandylighthouse(7), fruithack, teajm_yahoo_com Can you tell me more about fig trees? Ive never noticed them up here in the SF Bay as much as I did in Venice/Santa Monica in LA. Which varieties do well here? Do they grow tall? Can they be pruned so that they grow tall and stay narrow? I have a small front yard that is mandated to have a tree and I just cut down our existing one and am considering putting in a fig tree on both sides of the driveway. ( I started a separate thread in this subforum for it as well)

"I would love this child to be a boy and this boy becomes a man who becomes an excellent and holy Catholic priest." Like the kid doesn't already have enough to deal with? Why wouldn't you wish for the child to be a girl? How about praying that the child becomes an excellent human being? Or if Christian ministry is what you consider the best end result, how about praying that the child becomes an excellent and holy minister - regardless of whether the child is male or female? I think the parents are kinda wacko, and certainly this little game will end as soon as the child is old enough to interact with others outside the family, to learn about his/her body parts as a toddler, etc. Sending the message that gender is the problem is misrepresenting the truth.

Ryan, A really good story. Love comes from the heart, not the DNA. Thanks for sharing...