More Emus and Four Kids

So, we have ended up with 4 emu chicks!  The first one, who was so weak, did die.  We were sad, but in all of the excitement of having a chick, we didn't even realize until later that he hatched after only a mere four weeks in his egg instead of the expected eight.  No wonder he was weak and had to be handfed!!

Meanwhile, our surviving four seem to be growing like weeds, only they are cuter.  So...the chicks that survive were hatched on March 9, March 12, April 1, and April 3.  What a difference three weeks can make in size!

 



Emu chick hatched April 1 and Emu chick hatched March 9

If you notice on the April 1st emu chick, there is purple Vet Wrap on his legs.  While his splayed or spaddled legs were not as bad as our first little guy, he did seem to have trouble walking.  After a long search, I found a website by Kathy Shea Mormino, the Chicken Chick® with information about how she wraps her chicks' legs.  Voila!  It has helped a lot!  I'm sorry I didn't find Kathy's site for my first little guy -- maybe it would have helped.


You can see from this rear view (his head is down), that his legs go out to the sides instead of being straight up and down. He is actually much better than he was -- he likes to have his legs rubbed between wrappings.  Maybe the wrap is like a cast and his legs get itchy.



Here he is with his legs vet wrapped and a connecting piece of Vet Wrap going between his legs to hold them in the right position.  He walks pretty well with this set-up!

We are looking for warmer weather so they can be moved outside.  Sadly, unlike my goose, the emu chicks aren't as imprinted on me as I would like.  Maybe I'll have to carry one around in my pocket next year, though they are considerably bigger than a gosling!

Then, on April 10, I went out to find that Zipporah, my Nubian cross, had two kids!  The father is an Angora buck.  The little boy already has wavy fiber, but the little girl doesn't. 

Zip with her new kids!  The boy on the left and the girl on the right.

Finally, Monday morning, April 15, I went out and Zarahemla had had twins, too.  With the same father, they look remarkably like Zipporah's kids!  Surprisingly white is a dominant color in the sheep and goat world!  (Zip's girl is a very light tan, and a couple of others have a little dark color running through the white -- but none look like their mothers!)

And, as if four kids aren't enough, Martha, our Saanen, should be having one or two more in late May or early June!  We will have milk in abundance this summer! 

Emu Chicks at GEE Funny Farm!

It has been an exciting two weeks at the GEE Funny Farm.  We’ve had three of our emu eggs hatch.  The first one was a surprise just because though we have had eggs in the past none have hatched.  On February 27, there was a flurry of activity as Kathy read up on what to do with newly hatched emu chicks.  We were surprised that the little guy seemed so weak.  He could barely hold his head up and it took three days before he could walk.  How could a emu chick in the wild survive?!?!

The first chick, still in the incubator....

Hatching from its egg...

So cute baby emu!

While the Internet can be a wonderful source of information, it can also be an instrument of frustration.  There are several emu farmers (people who raise emus for their meat and oil) and like every other farmer, probably, each one has an opinion.  I am also in a ‘group’ of emu people and they are mostly farmers, too, with little understanding for people who raise emus as pets.  Needless to say, it was tough to get information that gelled with all parties.

As our very cute first chick got a bit older, he did not eat on his own – it seemed, from what I read, that emu chicks like chicken chicks would start pecking at things and just had to be guided to food.  I ended up hand feeding him with a eye dropper.  He also seemed to have less and less control of his legs, with them splaying in opposite directions – and walking seemed an impossible feat.  However, he is a stoic little guy and is finally eating on his own, though I still encourage water drinking since I don’t actually see him do that on his own.

Our next emu chick hatched on March 9.  Upon hatching, we noticed that it was considerably bigger than our first chick AND he could support its head immediately and could walk soon after hatching.  An aha moment as we realized that our first chick was not really ‘normal.’  The 2^nd chick ate greedily by the 3^rd day and we breathed a sigh of relief that he would not have to be handfed.

 Our 2nd emu chick walking, a little.  It is exciting to see it go!

Our 3^rd chick hatched on March 12 and it, too, was huge compared to our first guy (who really didn’t seem small when he hatched).  The 3^rd chick could support its head, but seemed very tired – he did take 8 hours to hatch and it was an exhausting process.   This is the 2^nd day since it hatched and it seems to be somewhere in between the other two:   stronger than the first and not as strong as the second.

While we try to educate others about our animals, we find that we are always learning, too.  Sometimes it is exciting – having emu chicks.  Sometimes it is sad – our first chick isn’t as healthy as we’d like.  But that is life on the farm.  With chickens, only about ¼ of the chicks survive the first 4 days.  We’ve done better than those odds.  We hope and pray for a miracle with our first little guy.  We hope and pray that the other two, and any that we may have in the future, will be healthy.  We are grateful for this very cool experience!!

 This is what greeted us at 6:30 am on March 12. 

You can see it finally free itself from its egg on the GEE Funny Farm Facebook page!