February 10th...and Pasture Surprises!

Hi All!!!

We had a FARM FIRST this week!!!  My children woke up this morning and found some things in the pasture that we have never seen before...

EMU EGGS!!!!

I very much wanted to save them until Friday to show all of you, however, my husband thinks that we should incubate them right away instead of waiting, so... since they will be in the incubator, I took some size comparisons to show you how BIG these eggs are! 

Here they are compared to chicken eggs:
(The brown one is a mixed-breed egg, the cream egg is a Cochin egg)

Here is an egg in my hand:
(I have tiny hands, but STILL...it's HUGE!)

And finally, here is an egg with a quarter on it:

(If you have an egg at home, put a quarter on it and compare!)

For a little background:

For those of you who have never been to our farm, or have never heard the story, we received Margie and Kevin from our neighbor last spring when they moved from AZ to MO. Adult emus do not travel well in a trailer because of their long necks and legs, so our neighbor asked us to take them. Thankfully it was a very smooth transition for them and we love them. Margie is about 7-8 years old and in that amount of time, my neighbor only got TWO eggs from her. We figured she wouldn't lay any over here either, but apparently she thinks our pasture makes a perfect nest.  We do not know if they are fertilized or not because she and Kevin are rarely near each other (Margie doesn't seem to like Kevin all that much!). 

General Emu Information (much of which I am learning right along with you!):

• Male emus sit the nest (since these were scattered throughout our pasture, Kevin has taken no interest in them, so we will be incubating them)

• Female emus tend to lay 3 clutches of 6-7 eggs each.  (We found 6 eggs today... MAYBE we will get to find eggs 2 more times???)

• It takes between 45 and 60 days to hatch an emu egg. (For comparison, it takes between 18-23 days to hatch a chicken egg and around 28 days to hatch a goose egg.)

• Eggs hatch at a temperature of 97.5*F and 30% humidity. (For comparison, chicken eggs require temps of between 99-102* and around 60-70% humidity). 

• We should turn the emu eggs 4 times a day (we have an egg turner for our chicken eggs...still trying to figure out if we will use it for the emu eggs or not!)

• You cannot candle an emu egg because their shells are too thick (so we have no way of knowing if we will have little emus or not!).  

• If we incubate our emu eggs today, and they are fertile, we should have baby emus by April 8th. 

Okay...now onto Friday ;-)

 Schedule for Friday, February 10, 2023

From 10-Noon(ish) we will break into group activities:

Group A-- Ages 5-8

You will be doing Project this week. You will be doing a simpler version of the Scavenger Hunts that the older kiddos got to do. Come work together to find everything on your lists and win a prize! (We MAY try to re-do the watercolor spray paint idea MAYBE, so come prepared in clothes that can get paint on them...)

Parents, if your little ones tend to wander, please stay close by. You are responsible for taking your child to the restroom or providing them with water if they get thirsty. Try to remind them that this is a group activity, and they should try to stick with their group as much as possible. That will really help keep things flowing smoothly for everyone. <3

Materials Needed: 

Sunscreen and Water Bottles...if you so desire. 

Clothes/shoes that you don't mind getting dirty.

Group B--Ages 9-12

You will be doing Gardening this week. I don't know what Ms. Paula has planned, but it is sure to be interesting!  

Materials Needed: 

Sunscreen and Water Bottles...if you so desire. 

Clothes/shoes that you don't mind getting dirty.

Garden gloves if you think you want them.

Group C--Ages 13-18

You will be doing the P.E. this week. We have had a wonderful adult volunteer to run PE this week, so maybe kickball, maybe something else! Come prepared to run around in the pasture! 

 

Materials Needed: 

Sunscreen and Water Bottles...if you so desire. 

Clothes/shoes that you don't mind getting dirty.

A great attitude!

Those teenagers that do not feel like participating in P.E. are welcome to volunteer with Group A. Please note: you WILL be put to work if you volunteer in that capacity! 

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Picnic Lunch

Everyone is welcome to stay and have a picnic lunch in the backyard area. You are responsible for bringing your own lunch. Please do not feed any animals with that lunch and please make sure all garbage is disposed of in the dumpster or garbage can.