This spring we hatched 57 emu chicks. April, May and June were extremely hectic. The chicks grew so fast we moved them along like an assembly line.  Their first week was spent in the greenhouse with water/food at floor level; heat lamps above and heat pads below.  Then we'd move them to the next pen, a few degrees cooler with water/food dishes a few inches higher so they couldn't climb into them; after another week they moved to a third pen with outside access for warm days; water/food raised again. From there they'd eventually move to outside pens and water/food kept rising as their legs continued to grow.  Stanley Johnson swore a couple of times he saw them growing.  As we relocated one set of chicks we'd have to go back and clean out each preceding pen in order to bring along the next batch....and so on and so on....thank goodness that's over.  (Why do I miss it?)

In late May we shipped 25 of last year’s grow-out birds to Oklahoma for processing at EPMI (Emu Products and Management Inc.). Birds are ready for processing at 12-14 months. On that same open cattle truck we sent 30 chicks to grow-out in Oklahoma.  After selling a number of other birds to New England farmers we are left with only 14 chicks and 6 breeding pair to take care of  - it's very quiet.  

I started thinking .... how cool it would be to have other types of Ratites on the farm to show people. And so, within a few weeks, we will  be hatching 6 Ostrich Eggs which I purchased from the San Diego Ostrich Farm.  Ostrich have a complementary breeding season to the Emu.  They begin to lay their eggs in April (just when emu stop) and continue through August.  That will extend our ability to have hatches going on all summer for visitors.

Figuring we’d better learn a bit about Ostrich before they hatch I’ve started researching – and I’m already fascinated.   I grabbed this list off of the American Ostrich Association.

Did you know the Ostrich ...

• is the largest living bird in the world

• is native to Africa , yet thrives in countries all over the world

• adult males are eight to ten feet in height and weigh 350-400 pounds

• male is black with white wing tips and tail plumes

• the female has light brown with gray plumage and is slightly smaller than the male

• has two toes, all other birds have three or four toes

• can run at speeds of up to 40 MPH for sustained times

• will live to be 50 - 75 years old

• egg is the largest of all eggs, yet it is the smallest egg in relation to the size of the bird

• egg can weigh 1600 gm and is equivalent to 2 dozen chicken eggs

• hen can lay 40 -100 eggs per year, averaging about 60

• chick grows one foot taller each month until it is 7-8 months old

• females sit on eggs by day; males sit on eggs by night

• pulled chariots in races in ancient Egypt