Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The Emu Invasion









We have a pair of Emu chicks.  Actually, Logan has a pair of emu chicks in the house. Well, after that sentence I'm not really sure what else I should write about them.

I guess a bit of an explanation might be in order. The year after we moved here from Guatemala, in September of 2004 we took the boys to the Tennessee Valley Fair for the first time. Logan was seven years old. Of all of the animal exhibits there his very favorite thing was the petting zoo. They had a tame emu. Logan had never seen anything like it before, it was a giant 5 foot tall bird that looked like a dinosaur. He was smitten! All he talked about after that trip to the fair was that someday he wanted an emu. Every year we would go back to the fair and Logan would head straight for the petting zoo, and the emu.

 Any time we talked about getting a farm, or a pet or animals in general over the next 9 years Logan was sure to bring up emus. He wanted one, and he wasn't going to let us forget it! When we sold our house last summer and started looking for a small farm, Logan mentioned that he hoped it would have room for an emu. Rodrigo and I hadn't seen any emu chicks for sale in years so we nodded our heads and said, "Sure son." Haha, little did I know...

On Sunday afternoon Rodrigo and Logan were looking at the farm and garden section of Craigslist trying to find me a livestock guardian dog to take care of my goats and chickens. We've spotted coyotes in the fields across the road (in broad daylight ) and hawks are constantly flying over head scoping out the rabbit arks in the yard, hoping for an escapee. So I really need a good dog to help out around here! Well, they didn't find me a dog, instead they spotted an ad for emu chicks. And that, as they say, was that. The phone number was called and the directions given, and within a couple of hours Logan became the very happy almost 16 year old owner/ caregiver to a pair of adorable emu chicks.

For the moment they are living in a old baby play-yard converted to emu brooder in our dining room. The lady we got them from says that within two weeks they should be over two feet tall, so other arrangements will have to be made as soon as possible.

Honestly, this is just exactly the kind of thing that I would have begged my parents to let me do when I was a kid. They probably wouldn't have let me, they were pretty strict about the no weird livestock or pets. In retrospect they did let me have a pretty wide range of "normal" pets when I was a kid, but you know, I always had aspirations of starting my own zoo. Gerald Durrell was my hero, he traveled the world collecting animals and started a zoo! I read all of his books cover to cover so many times they became quite ragged and tattered after years of being carted around the globe with me. I always thought that when I grew up and had kids of my own and they wanted something that really and truly interested them, and we were in a place where we would be able to provide it with the type of home it needed, and it wasn't going to pose a threat to any little ones, or require a fortune to buy or for it's upkeep that we would let them have it. So here we are now with Logan's emu chicks in the house...

17 comments:

  1. Oh my!!! Well I am glad he got is "dream" animal(s), lol. Keep us updated on how you are going to keep them, that should be interesting:)

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  2. Oh my gosh. They're gorgeous! And this is totally uncanny. My Eldest (15) was just talking my ear off about emus as well, having recently seen an ad for some. She reasoned that they would protect all of the other animals and we NEED them. Guard emus. I LOVE the idea, but the fencing challenges are a bit much at the moment. BUT YOU ARE DOING IT! How very exciting. Congrats! And I'm gonna have to keep my eldest away from your blog ;-)

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  3. Wabi-Sabi, I'm all for enabling your Eldest. :-) We are hoping that they will be guard emus...at least the sheer size of these things should ward off some predators. I hope!! Logan has been looking up emu harnesses and carts, dreaming of training them to haul light loads around the place. Just think of all the help they'd be around your place. hehe

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  4. Oh my they are so cute!!! Can't wait to hear all about your adventures with them.

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  5. Neat! I have never seen emu chicks, they are beautiful. We have chickens, ducks, and turkeys - no emus, though. How exciting for you!

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  6. Well now, I've seen it all and it was here on your blog! I did not know they were striped and wow! what great parents to have emus on the farm. Maybe the emus can be your guard dog? They do get big and can have attitude right??

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    1. Karen, they get huge! They can get over 5 feet tall and weigh as much as 130 lbs! That's one giant bird. We have read that they make wonderful guards protecting anything that's not in their "flock". So we are going to make sure over the next few months that they are well socialized with all of the other animals around here!

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  7. Oh how fun!! Emu eggs are GORGEOUS! Are either female? What a fun adventure. We're back to square one in our dog hunt too. I'm still keeping an eye out for a GPD for you. My pullets are just about ready to join the flock so I need to downsize a few of the hens. If you are still interested in trading hens for rabbits, let me know! :)

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    1. Amanda I mentioned trading hens for rabbits to my husband and he said sure! Just shoot me an email or give me a call! :-) And as far as the sex of the emus goes...we have no idea! We only got two because we didn't want them to feel lonely. I am hoping that we do have one or two females...I'd love to have the eggs for something!

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  8. I just came across your blog today and I was so thrilled!! I'm just getting into goats and I came across your blog when I was looking for pictures of goat milking stands. :) So happy to have found you and I'll be visiting again.

    Those emus are really cute, how are they doing now? Do they grow quickly? We live on about 46 acres and have a horse and a couple ponies. Now we have two goats, plus one kid, the other doe is due to kid in a couple months. We are slowly building up our little homestead here. :)

    You have a beautiful family and I look forward to coming back soon!

    Blessings!

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  9. I'm so glad you came by my little blog for a visit! The emus are doing great! They are growing quite fast. They moved out to a much larger temporary pen in our rabbit barn this past week, because frankly, emus in the house long term, just wasn't going to happen! Our weather is supposed to really warm and beautiful this coming week and we are planning on fencing them a temporary "pasture" within the goat pasture area with chicken netting, because at the moment they can still fit through the holes in the cattle panels around part of the goat fence. We don't want them to get out unsupervised and get hurt...

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  10. Ack, they are SO CUTE! I had no idea emus started out so cute! lol How fun.
    Aubrey

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  11. The emus look fabulous and look like such little characters. I bet they have grown so, so much already. What wonderful new friends to have. We are massive Gerald Durrell fans here too. Oh, to be surrounding by all sorts of magnificent creatures!

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  12. This post was awesome! I just dropped into see your blog from the comment you left on mine. Good luck with the Emus !

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  13. That is so wonderful ~ a little bit of Australia at your home!!
    They are so cute & while I've seen plenty of emus in real life, I've never actually seen chicks!
    Enjoy
    Blessings
    Renata:)

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    1. Yes! We were just talking about the fact they they are really Australian, and wondering if you have them near your farm. My boys are all very keen to learn about Aussie animals, and enjoy watching documentaries about the wildlife there. Maybe someday we'll go for a visit so they can see it first hand!

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  14. Ok, you are the coolest mom EVER! How beautiful those Emus are. I don't think I've ever seen a baby emu before. My name is Hil, and I am also a country Mama. Thanks for all the inspiration that you've posted here.

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