Uzura (quail eggs) are a popular food in Japan, as their relatively tiny size makes them perfect for snacking or adding to bento. As a result, you can find them in pretty much any supermarket over here. But it turns out that some shoppers out there aren’t interested in eating the little speckled eggs – they’ve been trying to hatch them instead! When reports first started popping up from netizens claiming to have hatched their own quails, we thought this was just an urban legend, but now a YouTube clip and blog post has appeared, showing different people seemingly hatching actual, live baby quails from supermarket eggs. Join us for some adorable pics and videos!

There’s a rumour going around in Japan that one egg out of every box of quail eggs sold in supermarkets here is fertilised, meaning that with the right equipment, it’s entirely possible to hatch your own baby bird after a little trial and error. Here’s a couple of videos from someone who has claimed to do just that!

Now, those videos are cute and all, but until we actually see the birdie popping out of the egg, we’re not convinced. Luckily blogger Lenosuke has also hatched their own baby bird, and provided pictorial evidence! They bought a bunch of quail eggs and also some Silkie (a breed of chicken) eggs, and carefully numbered each one. Then, they wrapped them up all cosy and placed them in an environment heated to 38 degrees centigrade:

Then, approximately 17 days of incubation later… One of the quail eggs hatched!

▼ I was almost an omelette, you know!

This new discovery has led others in Japan to contemplate bulk-buying quail eggs and attempting to rear their own feathery friends:

https://twitter.com/kanebuntokumatu/status/555864610838835200

▲ “So apparently some quail eggs are sold fertilised… I wanna have my own and hold its fluffy little body in my hand!”

While the chickies are undeniably adorably cute, we don’t recommend trying this unless you’ve got the facilities at home to take care of a little birdie pal for the rest of its natural lifespan.

Source: Naver Matome, Lenosuke.jp
Main Image: screenshot via YouTube
Inset Images: Lenosuke.jp