Latest on what’s been happening on our smallholding at Chilcotts Farm.
The Emus are loving grapes! Every afternoon I pop out and give them a little snack of freshly picked grapes. Fortunately, during September and October we have more grapes than we can eat, make wine or brandy from, Our excess would regularly go to the chickens, but now the emus too.
My only concern is what their little treat is going to be come the end of October, perhaps diced apple?
Early on a September morning, I can honestly say I would never expect to open my curtains, look out and see emus roaming our fields.
Yet that is what we are so fortunate to see.
Here is Izzy walking around in the early morning sun. You can’t see Ozzy, but he is sitting just behind the hedge.
For the past month Ozzy and Izzy the emus have had full access to the field.
Beautifully tame and inquisitive, they spend a lot of time at the gate being met by passers by.
The geese used to be the star attraction for passers by. The emus seem to now be taking font stage as the main attraction.
Having hatched them in April, it is still remarkable to think that they are only 5 months old! They are growing so quickly!
Ozzy and Izzy have now moved from the back garden to their nursery paddock.
This weekend we herded the emus out of the garden across the road and into their new home.
While they are young, I have sectioned off part of the field. They have access to the stable, where they go to bed at night and are locked away for safety.
During the day, they have full access to run around in their own little sanctuary.
After 9 months the plan is to give them free access to the field which they will share with the geese.
The emus now coming up for three months old are like all little children, exploring, playing, experimenting and always inquisitive!
They seem to have a fascination with brightly coloured materials, especially my son’s underpants!
They grow so fast it is quite incredible the speed of growth. Now outside, they are enjoying the sunshine running around on the lawn.
They currently live in the back of our shippon (which is our log store later on in the year) with access to the garden.
We are feeding them on special emu growers feed, which we have source on line. This is rather expensive when taking into account the delivery cost, but amazingly our local feed merchant can source feed for us.
Amazingly they are putting themselves to bed at night which makes things so much easier. I am hoping that this continues especially when they are still quite small.
Longer term, we are going to move them to where we have our stable. Half of this has been turned into emu accommodation in preparation for their move.
Our first little emu hatched at 50 days incubation. This little one hatched on day 55.
So its name? The first was Ozzy, this is Izzy.
Normally to sex the little chicks you send off for DNA testing. This often involves using the membrane in the shell. However, the company I was going to use currently will only take blood or feather samples. I don’t feel it is humane to inflict either on the defensive little chicks.
As long as they have company that is what I feel is important.
Late afternoon today, our first little emu chick popped out. It is very alert and trying to stand.
Tomorrow I will move it into a pen under a heat lamp.
Hopefully over the next few days it will be joined by other sibblings.
Came down in the morning to find our first quail had hatched. The little ball of fluff was chirping and wondering around lonely in the incubator. By mid morning Fluffy had been joined by two others.
Eight eggs remain in the incubator so fingers crossed and may the hatching continue.
Something new, never done it before. We were generously given quail eggs by someone who had purchased some of our honey. Told they were fertile, not having looked after quails before, we thought we would have a go at hatching.
As you can see, very small eggs – quail on the left, chicken egg in the middle and emu egg on the right.
The quail egg weighs 15 grams, the chicken egg 65 grams and the emu egg 750 grams!
To hatch a a quail egg the incubator temperature needs to be 37.1 centigrade with a humidity 50% RH.
A dozen eggs in our little incubator, I would expect about a 60% hatch rate. So possibly 7 quails, of which 60% or 4 will be male and 3 female. 23 days to hatch day and counting!
Check back for updates!
