Mighty Neighborly

[ES Emus]

One of the farmer's hired hands who rents the field behind my house was havesting the corn crop today when he saw me in one of the emu pens and stopped his combine. He rolled down the window of the combine cab and asked me if I wanted any feed corn for my birds, to which I said, "sure!", thinking that we was going to let me get a feed bucket of corn from the hopper. He then asked me if I wanted it inside the fence and I said okay. He then drove the combine up alongside the fence, extended the chute boom over the side of the emu pen and proceeded to discharge several hundred pounds of corn into a nice feed pile in the corner of the pen before I yelled "Whoa!". He then waved and left to finish up with the harvest. Gonna have some fat and happy emus for a while!

 

[anirishfarmer]

fair play to him

Health and happiness

 

[ES Emus]

 

[anirishfarmer]

that'll keep them going a while

Health and happiness

 

[Calla]

Yes and what ever they can't eat in a hurry, will sprout after some rain and then you have a nice plot of corn next year .....if they not eat the new growth as it grows lol
My bantam runs have grown 4- 5 ft of this, but very handy, makes lovely straw for my Emus.

 

[ES Emus]

The squirrels and dove have found my corn pile! Got home from work and there were six squirrels and a whole flock of dove chowing down. The doves were so full that they had difficulty flying accross the field and the squirrels may end up weighing 30 lbs a piece before the corn is all gone...!

 

[Calla]

So much for looking forward to next years little corn patch, lol but better then rats and magpies.

 

[smokeyjoe]

the squirrels are probably stuffing there cheeks full to go store it for the winter , they will have there winter storage and they didn't have to go different places to get it lol looked like a big pile of corn when you started .

 

[smokeyjoe]

have you noticed a lot of undigested corn ?, I have found that the corn don't get digested well and it comes out the other end even if it is cracked corn , they just can't seem to break it down at least that has been my experience in the past . but they do love it .

 

[ES Emus]

have you noticed a lot of undigested corn ?, I have found that the corn don't get digested well and it comes out the other end even if it is cracked corn , they just can't seem to break it down at least that has been my experience in the past . but they do love it .

yes, emus don't digest whole corn all that well, but a supply of grainy/sandy soil and small pebbles for their consumption helps with the process. Oh well, it was free and I am still feeding them a more nutritionally balanced pellet food in addition to the corn.