From late November to early March emus begging dating and making babies. If you find it odd that they mate in winter remember they are indigenous to Australia so it is summer for them. Flips flops, Mai Tai's, and long walks on the beach are the ...
What to do, what to do?
In the last week, our emu Loca has laid two more eggs, bringing our total to four. Here they are with a chicken eggs for size comparison. She has chosen the area between the goat dogloos as her nest and that puts the eggs in ...
Emu Mayhem
A little back story: Chica has been on the outs with the other three emus since we moved here almost a year ago. For whatever reason, she started displaying mating behavior quite early. That set her apart from the others and resulted in her being ...
Louis has a boo-boo.
Louis, the sweetest of our four emus, has an injury. I noticed it a few days ago. It is a large hematoma and feather loss on his back. He seems to be acting perfectly normal despite his injury. Well, as perfectly normal as an emu is capable of ...
Chica and Loca. Free at last!
Chica and Loca are growing so fast. We have been letting them have supervised visits outside with Stuart and Louis. Maybe it is wishful thinking but they appear to have picked their partner. Loca seems to hang close to Stuart and Chica seems smitten ...
An emu’s work…
is never done. Our ever vigilant guard emu Stuart patrols the property tirelessly keeping intruders at bay. Lately his work not only includes keeping troublemakers out but in as well. We have a little white Icelandic hen with wanderlust. Most days ...
The Circle of Life
There is a saying about raising animals that goes like this, "If you are going to have livestock, you are going to have dead stock." We have been relatively lucky in that we have had very few losses but luck was not on our side this morning. When I ...
Yesterday
Yesterday was a busy day. It started out with a visit by our farrier Michelle. She was here to work on Jack and Diana's feet. She brought along an equine dentist who also examined the donkey's teeth. I don't have any pictures of him because, to be ...
They can’t resist Black and Decker
The animals were busy enjoying an afternoon treat of hen scratch. It was barnyard bliss, all creatures great and small enjoying the sunny day. Then Stuart spotted it. All shiny and orange, it was irresistible. He had to have it and Louis had to ...
Elvis has left the building…
Little Elvis, the emu that hatched while many of you followed along, left yesterday for his new home with a new family. He was taken home to Redding, CA to join Shelley and her family and all of her animals. Video from January 10, 2012: At ...
We told them they were getting girlfriends…
If you have been following us for awhile, you will know that Stuart and Louis, our emu boys could benefit from having girlfriends. We tried to procure some girl emus for several months and finally decided to hatch the boys some girlfriends. We only ...
They acted like pigs.
Today was the day we would pick up our pigs. I bought a pair of baby American Guinea Hogs, a critically endangered breed of pig. We are always excited at the Buck 'n Run to get animals on the endangered list. It is fun and rewarding to help the ...
Best done solo
There are certain jobs around the ranch that are best done solo. Unfortunately, there are few chores around the ranch that can be done solo. I just finished cleaning the goat shed and Icelandic coop with the help of 23 chickens, 2 goats, and 2 emus, ...
On Frozen Pond
We had what the news reporters refer to as a "hard freeze" last night with temperatures dipping into the mid twenties and staying there until 9:00 a.m. I was dreading going out to feed and release the animals from their various compounds around the ...
Emu Overload
With three emu babies in the house it is hard to get much done. One of the girls I bought is a real nut job; in fact, I call her Loca. I cannot be out of the room for 10 seconds before she starts having a tantrum, throwing herself into the bars on ...
Update (Day 51 of 51) Emu Baby!
Copied from Main blog page! I came downstairs at 5:50 this morning and as I was turning on the lights I heard a sound like a glass breaking. I looked in the incubator and saw this: Egg "B" had pipped! I spent the next seven hours ...
Egg “B” hatched today!
I came downstairs at 5:50 this morning and as I was turning on the lights I heard a sound like a glass breaking. I looked in the incubator and saw this: Egg "B" had pipped! I spent the next seven hours in front of the incubator ...
Egg “B” Update (Day 49 of ?)
We have reached the hatching phase with egg "B." I moved it from the incubator to the hatcher. When I bought the two emu chicks, I also bought a spare Hovabator incubator from the seller that he had been using to incubate and hatch the ...
I replaced the dud emu eggs…
With emu chicks! I decided to replace the non fertile emu eggs and found some for slae on eBay. To my shock and surprise the seller was a stone's throw from my house! I bid on and won two of his auctions for two emu eggs each. He ...
Emu Egg “B” (Update Day 44 of 51)
My emu baby is still alive and kicking. I have been taking the egg out of the incubator and tapping on it with a metal rod and talking to it as suggested. It responds to the tapping and talking. Tonight I asked Michael to whistle the tune our emus ...