2013 first hatch photos

[ES Emus]

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Hopefully she put that raccoon in a permanent trace-like state!!!

 

[yinepu]

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she didn't say.. but I know I would have..

we have some very large.. very brazen raccoons here. Thanks to one of my neighbors feeding them.
My husband was greeted by a big male one morning as he was going to work .. the raccoon was on the front porch.. had helped himself to the barn cat's food.. and was trying to open the front door!...
Needless to say it surprised my husband who's first reaction was to plant an army boot into said raccoon.. which caused Mr Raccoon to beat a hasty retreat off of the porch and into the bushes.

 

[ES Emus]

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Growing up in the country, I had several young raccoons as pets when I was a kid, they are quite intelligent. I used to ride my bicycle down to the general store and I had one who would follow me like a dog. He would be worn out by the time we got there and he would ride back on my shoulder. I remember one that would come to the back door and scratch to get in. That was before we even had rabies in the area. I definitely would not think as much of them now if they were stealing my emu eggs.

 

[yinepu]

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well. one of my neighbors was bragging to me about how he had been feeding a family of them.. how they would come in and play with the remote for the tv, help to themselves to food in his cabinets and so on.. then he decided to stop feeding them and cut down the tree they were living in.. so we "inherited" his raccoons... lost a lot of birds to ol' Bubba and family before we got the coops built.

i did run across Bubba one night.. biggest coon I had ever seen.. he could have easily walked off with an emu egg . Luckily for him i didn't have a gun handy.. all I had was a flashlight.. he had 0 fear of me though.. until I started barking like a dog. Apparently he and dogs are not on speaking terms.

 

[ES Emus]

we have new pipping going on inside an egg that was in the same batch that hatched 6 days ago?!!!

 

[yinepu]

we have new pipping going on inside an egg that was in the same batch that hatched 6 days ago?!!!

fashionably late?

 

[ES Emus]

fashionably late?

good one!!!

 

[ES Emus]

we have new pipping going on inside an egg that was in the same batch that hatched 6 days ago?!!!

If it hatches successfully, there may be an issue with the chicks that are a week older picking on it. All of the older chicks have been sold and/or spoken for, and the last ones will hopefully be picked up on Saturday. I don't want to set up a second brooding pen for a single chick and our next hatch is not due til April...

 

[yinepu]

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he'll be fine in the hatcher until saturday if you're able to leave him in there... otherwise is there any way to divide off a piece of the brooder for him?

 

[ES Emus]

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I want to avoid leaving it in the hatcher because we had to take the fan guard off so the incubator would have enough clearance to handle emu eggs. Don't want to see the little fellow get a haircut or worse from the overhead fan! If he comes out before the others are gone, maybe he will hatch out running!