Quail eggs may sound like an eccentric luxury dish to those who haven’t come across them before, but they are a common sight in Japanese supermarkets, usually found next to the chicken eggs. Their miniature size make them a perfect bite size snack when boiled.

If you’re questioning the wisdom of eating such a small egg, they have a higher ratio of protein and minerals relative to their size compared to chicken eggs, and are also low in calories.

Now that you might be coming around to the idea of the tiny delicacy, get ready to be turned off it again.

An Osaka resident got a surprise when he woke up to the sound of cheeping in the morning. The source of the noise was a little flock of newborn quails which had managed to hatch out of eggs that were already pegged to be eaten.

He had bought a large batch of quail eggs for a family gathering, where he had planned to make hot vit lon, a Vietnamese dish made from boiling fertilized bird eggs. Usually duck, but in this case, quail.

The eggs are left out in the sun to incubate so that the embryo can partially develop. However in this case, the heatwave unexpectedly expediated the process and the quails fully developed and hatched on out to freedom. (Eggs bought in the supermarket are not fertilized so don’t worry about this happening to you...)

The new owner of a collection of baby quails doesn’t seem perturbed at all, but actually overjoyed. He uploaded the video to Twitter and wrote how cute the newborn chicks are.

This will probably seem quite hypocritical to our vegetarian readers since he was planning to eat them just several hours before, but the quails had a lucky escape and probably enjoyed the fawning that their surprise arrival inspired.

Specialised keepers have now taken over the care of the chicks, so a happy ending thanks to the heatwave, at least for these birds...