Saturday, May 21, 2011

The Fuzz Butts are here! The Fuzz Butts are here!

Here, on the last day of the world, oops, I mean universe, we decided to go ahead with out plans. Me, the fella, step-dot and Felix drove down the south shore to Chester Basin to Circle Pond Farm. A mad mad place. It was pouring - no kidding! Raining? Like wet? Unbelievable....  But we didn't let that deter us. For today was the day that we were going to 'pick up chicks!' Yay. And so we did.
The nice folks at Circle Pond Farm have all sorts of birds. They are bird fanciers, bird showers and bird breeders. They have chickens (heritage of all sorts), ducks, geese, pheasants, turkeys,peacocks, and and and....emus! Well just two. They grow to be SIX feet tall. These are just young punks -about a month old I think. They'd found the eggs in a shipment or something and decided they's wing it (can't resist) and see what they got. They got Ozzie and Harriet and those two birds totally stole the step-dot's heart, oh and mine. Definitely mine.
here they are in their cage before they were let go to follow us up to the car. Did you know that emu's do this bizarre clownish dance? Well, yes they do.


















We made our selection - I'd already done that by email but it goes all to bits when you arrive in their kitchen and see the several dozen incubators full of various tiny thingies. But we did and we piled back in the car - the kids holding the box of 13 fuzz butts who peeped all the way home while we enjoyed the heat in all its tropical balmy-ness. For we had to blast it for the trip (an hour) home.

Now they are in their first brooder - plastic bin - in sweet patootie's workshop, peeping away, eating their mash, drinking from their little fountain and generally being as cute as it is possible to be. Wow. Here they are:


13 comments:

Robyn said...

possibly better than yarn!

Anonymous said...

I bet this is the easy part..

caring for them and then having to..

uh..

terminate them would be the hard part..

Sue said...

oh, emu chicks are just so cute. They scamper along behind dad, but not so much fun when they grow up, as you said they are big - and not so attractive, but definitely quirky! I love all the photos, thankyou, it brought back memories of my childhood - we had bantams, nothing fancy at all, but so sweet.

ShannonAnn said...

I would love to have some chicks, but I think my cats would love them more. lol

Jan Morrison said...

Robyn - oh, I don't know...depends on the day! And the emus inspired all sorts of twisty stripey thoughts in my head!

Denise - it actually isn't. Darn it. Because they are pretty fragile or seem pretty fragile at this point. One of them died yesterday - think it was failing when we got it. So this morning I was scared to go down and check on them - what if their heat lamp went out, what if the bulb blew, what if they....on and on. The SP went down (as he does every morning) to make coffee and let the dog out. When he came up with the coffee he said "all lively and busy" and I let out an expellation of relief. The irritating thing is that we probably have six boys in the gang at least and we will have to send five of them to Kenmore Camp (we will keep one roo again) but that is months down the road. It is irritating because I think they could sex them but when the breeders are making five bucks for each fuzz butt - they're not going to bother because then they'll have roos to feed and process. Dang. I decided last time out that having animals or eating almost anything causes some creatures to be killed (yep, even getting wool or tofu) and I would either become a fresharian or try and do things in the most enlightened way possible.
Sue - I can't stop thinking about those emu chicks - their completely crazed dancing, like Cirq de Soleil acrobat clowns! I was transfixed. Why do people have emus? Feathers, oil?

Shannon Ann - Oh your cats wouldn't have a chance once they got big. We keep our dog from having any time alone with them but once they're big - even he would have the boots put to him! Our last rooster won a fight with a rottweiler. yes.

Cyncalla said...

Thank you so much for sharing this, it's such a treat. I want to follow their progress! And I love the story of how they got the emu eggs.

Liza said...

I stood eye-to-eye with an Emu "Down Under" and then watched as he chased after my brother-in-law's embroidered shirt logo. They are cute as chicks...but I want room between me and a grown up. Love your chickie pics.

Lou Belcher said...

It brings a smile to my face to see all that fluff... Those chicks are so cute.

Lou

Jude said...

I love the picture of the rooster/hen looking longinly out the chicken coop window!

Sue said...

Me again! yes, Emu oil is apparently really nourishing. Some aboriginal artists paint the eggs for sale. I've never heard of the feathers being used, but have a vague feeling I've heard of the skin being used for something, but can't find any references to it. When they're full grown they can be somewhat cantankerous, and from memory can run 30 miles per hour over short distances - I wouldn't want one in the yard!
Hope all the littlies have survived so far with all their little 'peep peep' noises.

Gardeningbren said...

Looking at these chick photos makes my heart melt...think one of them is wearing mascara and eye liner...so that's a girl right there!!

Julie Flanders said...

Oh my gosh, they're so cute!! I love the pictures. I can't wait to see photos of them as they grow.

I somehow missed that you had this blog, Jan! I'm happy to be following it now. :)

Jan Morrison said...

Cyncalla - glad you enjoy them and I'll definitely be giving reports on the critters.
Liza - oh dear. I had geese at one point and they were fairly terrifying so I can't imagine. In fact our first roo 'John Wayne' was a sumavabeeyatch and had to be retired to Kenmore Camp.
Lou - aren't they just! I could look at them all day and they already scratch so earnestly.
Sue - yep, that skin thing I've heard of too. hmmmm.
Bren - you know I got them right near you - that place is one wild harum scarum joint!
Julie - yep, about I don't know, half a year or more ago - I decided I had to separate my blog interests - most of the writers aren't that interested in chickens and knitting and likewise but I have a few (like Mari) who go easily back and forth.