I did every test I could find online to determine the viability of an emu egg at this stage of incubation. I tried the float test, sounding, and the cooling test. All indicated that there was not a live chick in Egg "C." I got the courage up just ...
Near catastrophe today! (Video!)
There was more hatch drama for me. I took the last two emu eggs out of the incubator to weigh them. I sat them down on my desk. While I was weighing egg "C" egg "B" looked like it moved a little. I went to the other room and called Michael in to take ...
Sad Update. No emu in egg “A”
My nose, which is like that of a bloodhound, suspected a rotten egg in the emu incubator. Michael couldn't smell it but I sure could, so we put it in a ziplock bag and cracked it open. Just rotten egg in there, no emu embryo at all. It looks as if ...
My life in the fishbowl.
When we first moved to this five acre property, a neighbor referred to us as "living in the fishbowl." She made the statement in response to my comment about everyone telling us city people what we were doing wrong. It's now been fifteen months that ...
Incubation Update (Day 35 of 54)
While you wait for the hatch here's a picture my grandaughter took of the boys a couple of days ago. Egg Starting Weight Current Weight Amount Lost Percentage A ...
Incubation Update (Day 28 of 54)
It is weigh-in day for the emu eggs. They are almost exactly halfway through their incubation process and on target for proper weight loss. On Day 28 they should have lost 7.5% +/- 1.2%. That puts all three eggs in the correct range! I am getting ...
Incubation Update (Day 21 of 54)
At one third of the way into incubation all three emu eggs are exactly where they should be in terms of weight lose. They have each lost about 5%, one third of the 15% they are expected to lose by hatch time. We are cautiously ...
Dogloos. They’re not just for dogs anymore!
Let me start out by saying I am a sap when it comes to animals. If I am hungry, I assume they are hungry. If I am bored, I assume they are bored. If I am cold, I assume they are cold. Don't even get me started about them having fur or feather coats. ...
Incubation Update (Day 14 of 54)
Today was weigh-in day for Emu Eggs A, B, and C. I was nervous about this one. I had no reason to be because as of today, each egg has lost approximately 3.5% of it's pre-incubation weight! I am taking that to mean that each egg has a chick ...
Buck makes a visit.
Neighbor Nikki called a couple of days ago. Her Percheron draft horse, Buck, was not paying attention while working with her in their round pen. Could she bring him up to our house and use our round pen? Are you kidding me? "Yes, that would be ...
Incubation Update (Day 12 of 54)
Because of the thickness of the egg shells and the dark color, emu eggs cannot be candled without sophisticated equipment. I don't have such equipment so I weigh the eggs. An incubating egg should lose 12 - 15% of it's starting weight by the time it ...
Here I go again…
I realize that I go on and on about how much I enjoy mornings but you'll have to bear with me again. In a few days I expect it will get colder and I might just enjoy my mornings a bit less. But, for now, it is still the best time of day. Why is that? ...
We’re Incubating Emu Eggs!
Stuart and Louis, our sweet emu boys need at least one girlfriend, possibly one for each of them. Raising emus as babies allows them to bond with humans resulting in friendly, non-aggressive emus, for the most part. In the emu world males are ...
Asses.
Jack, our mammoth donkey is a bit of a lazy ass. I't perfectly o.k. to call him an ass. Webster Dictionary: Ass: any of several hardy gregarious African or Asian perissodactyl mammals (genus Equus) smaller than the horse and having long ...
The Get-Rich-Quick Chickens!
Today six Cream Legbar hatching eggs sold on eBay for $455.00! That's $75.00 per egg folks! I am the owner of two pairs of Cream Legbars, chickens who apparently lay golden eggs! As soon as they start laying I should be rolling in dough! Man, I knew ...
The Great Escape… part deux.
There was another brazen daytime escape yesterday at the Buck 'n Run Ranch. Two emus, known only as Stuart and Louis, lured the goat girls to the back pasture. Using the girls as decoys, the emu boys scaled a chicken wire barrier ...
Coop Progress. I am a chicken breeder now!
The new coop is almost complete. We are calling it The Jail because it looks like a jail. We are going to make the windows look like bars and I will paint a Jail sign. The green netting will come down soon so we can finalize the ...
The Misadventures of Louis
Don't let this cute face fool you. Louis has been a bad boy for two days. To re-cap: The white arrow in the next picture indicates our property line. Behind us is where Kay and Shannon live with their llamas. See it way back in ...
Icelandic Chickens Could Escape Alcatraz
If you already have Icelandics you know this already. If not, here's a little known factoid. Not a true fact because it has not been proven scientifically but anecdotally by myself and my friends who also raise Icelandics. They can and will break out ...
Outbreak of Emu Fever! (Video!)
We have been looking for a female emu since finding out both of ours are males. I located someone selling a couple of juvenile emus two hours away from home. I paid for DNA testing on the two emus and, when the owner got the results and found out ...