I had a full grown hen jump and fly away from me while inside the coop, a rather spacious building, and smack her head on the wall and fall down dead. I’d had her for over a year and just nudged her out of my path with my toe, something I’d done plenty of times before.
Birds love to self-destruct. I swear I spend more time talking to my chicken owners about how my physical exam could cause them to DROP DEAD than their illness could. Because birds. Your stories sound perfectly reasonable to me. 
They suck though. I think that’s why they sell birds in a six-pack.
Oh, I was warned that they were stupid and might do something like that. I was also warned to put stones or marbles in their water for the first week so they don’t fall asleep in the water and drown.
On the bright side, here are the first two to hatch of my Falb Fee.
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Why shoes?
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I have seen attempts to x-ray a raptor’s wing, which looked pretty difficult.
It hatched with curled toes. If the toes don’t straighten out, it will have to be culled. Luckily, the shoes did their job, and as of this morning the toes are nice and straight. It’s hopping and running around with the others just fine now.
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Thank you for the explanation! And it case it wasn’t clear: don’t try to hold a raptor for an x-ray without training. 
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I thought hatching was done, but I came home, unplugged the incubator and opened it up to find this. I plugged the incubator back in just in case there are any more late hatchers.
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It didn’t make it. It was getting weaker and weaker, then went to sleep and didn’t wake up. 
That’s the strangest looking 'roo I’ve ever seen.
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Looks normal to me! (of course, I’m not in Australia) Too bad I only get to keep one.
So far the quail are much quieter than chickens, take less space, and while messy, still not as messy as chickens. I think I made a good choice, especially for an urban environment.
Yeah, even without a rooster, which I can’t have in town, the chickens can get pretty chatty. Which is fine with my yard and in general it’s a peaceful sort of background noise. But it can get loud occasionally .
I should recommend Quail to $Wife, who’s mentioned a desire for chickens but there’s concerns about space and zoning since we’re in a townhouse neighborhood. Wait, no I definitely shouldn’t.
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Yes, you should! Fresh quail eggs daily, natural pest control if you have a garden (they love to eat bugs), fertilizer, and meat if you want.
I joke, but I could see doing something like that if we move to a single family. Space would be an issue in our current home: Townhouse, small back yard… And they mow the back yard every month or two when the lawn company gets yelled at enough.
With chickens, honestly we use maybe a half-dozen eggs a week. $Wife does eggs for herself and Noodle a few days a week, and maybe 1-2 in cooking depending on what we’re in the mood for. I have no idea if you could scramble a bunch of quail eggs? (I’m going to assume you’d need more than 2-3 to feed 1 person, 1 small dog.)
Depending on the type of quail, it’s 3-5 quail eggs to one chicken egg. They’re a little harder to crack than chicken eggs, but they have tools for that.
Edit: Anything you can do with a chicken egg you can do with a quail egg. I’m planning on making scotch eggs with some of mine. Chicken eggs are too big, in my opinion. Quail eggs will make them appetizer sized.
I was wondering if you’d get the reference. 
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Good grief these things are fragile.
I got home from work today and went out to check the quail. They were all fine, but low on food so I took their water and feeder containers, washed and filled them. Took them out, gave them to the birds. All 7 were fine. I decide to give them sand in a box to play in, take it out, I didn’t notice anything at the time, but it might have happened by then. I see one bird playing in the sand, and I think there’s not enough in there, so I go get some more sand.
One of the boys is dead next to the feeder, but the weird thing is, he’s stiff, like he’s been dead for a while. He can’t have been dead for more than 20 minutes, tops. I don’t see any obvious injuries, but he had some liquid coming out of his mouth and there’s food on his beak. I took some picture, and it looks like he’s leaking some blood from somewhere behind, but his vent is clean, and I don’t see an obvious source.