Dr. Balaban spent 12 years perfecting the chicken-to-quail brain transplant. He is establishing his new lab and soon will be teaching graduate students in Montreal how to perform the surgery.

This quail chick supposedly hatched from a grocery store egg. Image from the video "Introducing Albert" by Alwyn Wils, additional editing by National Geographic's Scott Snider.

Enlarge . Friends: The newborn quail with one of Miss Aspin's baby chickens ‘She’s quite small but she’s a really good mum and stays broody and doesn’t get bored of her chicks.

The 13 king quail chicks were three-days-old and the 'size of bumblebees' when they hatched. Bernard let the quails fluff up in the incubator for a few days and transferred them to a small heated pen.