Meriruka's Tales - need advice on squash

[big brown horse]

I had a kid in my class once whose parents owned an emu ranch...is that what it is called? Anyway, they would donate those beautiful, large, dark sea-blue eggs to our school's classrooms. (They would "blow" the egg out first.)

They also butchered them for meat. It resembled red meat from what I can remember. I never had any though. Aren't some cowboy boots made from emu leather? I know ostridge is often used, why not emu?

(That kid also brought lots of "egg" related lunches, such as omelettes and quiche. I think they said that one emu egg was equivilant to about a doz. chicken eggs.)

The more I think about it, owning emus sounds pretty cool!

eta: misspelled ostridge

 

[The Vail Benton's]

I worked at a Veterinary Hospital in the country some years ago... after a storm one day, one our techs arrived to find a stray emu near our gate. Nobody ever claimed it and so the tech took it home with her. They are not particularly bright, so you have to have safe and secure fencing/shelter. Thier brains are about the size of a walnut. We kept this one in a horse stall until Marybeth finally took it home & we led it around around by putting a hula hoop around it's neck - it worked great. (btw, when MB did, transport it, she had to ride in the horse trailer with it in order to keep it calm).
I think they have the potential to lay not only very large eggs, but pretty too, with a kind of bumple-ie texture. I would think they could be sold for pretty good money should you be able to locate a buyer.

 

[big brown horse]

A hula hoop around it's neck??? that is so funny!

I would love a big basket of those hand blown eggs for a display! They are so beautiful!

 

[Occamstazer]

Gah, now I want some emus. You guys are such enablers.

 

[big brown horse]

Gotta get a hula hoop first!

 

[The Vail Benton's]

Gotta get a hula hoop first!

only if you want to be a genuine emu wrangler.

 

[big brown horse]

Seriously, emus sound like a good SS type of animal. You can eat their eggs, you can put the composted poo in your garden, you can eat them when they stop laying and then you can make some cowboy boots out of them.

 

[Occamstazer]

I do remember seeing/reading that they can be a pain to keep because they're so stupid. Apparently barbed-wire fence is dangerous for them, because if they spook, they'll flee at top speed and kill themselves on it.
I've never had them, though, so I could be wrong.
I hope you get them, meriruka, so I can live vicariously by reading about the little guys

 

[meriruka]

Occamstazer
Today 12:32 pm Gah, now I want some emus. You guys are such enablers.


Sneaks up on you doesn't it? First I'm thinking, "Oh. Emus. Cool."
Then you look them up and they look like a walking tiki hut. Then you read the funny stories (now including hula hoops) and then somebody posts this pic and it's all over but the fencing.

 

[big brown horse]

That does it!!! I'm trading that stinky piglet for an emu chick!!


Now where to find a hula hoop...