We saw some emu today and it got me thinking that having a couple ostriches might be really cool. I think ot would be unbelievably badass to go into town with a steampunk style cart pulled by ostriches. Totally weird people out. I have plenty of room for a big pen.
They are delicious. Don't name them. It will make the harvest awkward.
The other thought I had was that they could pay for themselves a bit by taking thhem to the racetrack and selling rides in the cart or something. 
Huckleberry wrote: They are delicious. Don't name them. It will make the harvest awkward.
Supposed to be super healthy meat too. They'd be pets in this case though. Maybe sell the eggs?
Name them Stewie and Fry.
My aunt and uncle used to raise Emu's. Eggs are delicious. The birds themselves are gigantic shiny happy people.
You're gonna need a lot of Buffalo sauce.
There's a farm not farm from me that has ostrich and emu. Schools bring kids by on field trips, it's like a petting zoo he's made from his farm.
Never known him to put them on carts, but it's pretty cool to go see.
My research says they haul ass. Like mid 40s mph.
Yeah, theyre damn fast. You can ride em too. I've seen ostrich races at the horse track before. Mean sumbitches though.
Do eeeeeeet.
In reply to Huckleberry:
Meh, we had show steers and commercial heifers with names like T Bone, Burger, Sir Loin, etc. Never slowed us down. Of course there were plenty of other names like Cheech, Chong, Methane, Mad Scientist, Pig, etc.
Emus got popular here in the late '90s, bottom fell out of the market and folks literally opened their gates and turned them loose. We had random wild emu roaming around rural central AR for a few years afterwards.
Grandpa used to tell about being on the tractor mowing hay and having an emu come running out of the near by woods and run laps around the tractor. I don't think Grandpa did drugs.
In reply to Jay:
I love that game. I've got top score for the world on the iphone.
Ostrich is even more delicious than Camel. Possibly one of the best meats I've had. If you have the time and cash to raise a big exotic bird... why not?
I think we need an ostrich fryer. Anyone got a cheap horse trough and some charcoal?
Last emu I met was an shiny happy person and his name was frosty.
A little eccentric but Emu just sounds cool. Be known as the creepy old guy w/ the emu ranch.
I really want a llama or two tho.
I've wrangled Emu. My sister has a couple on her farm. You want to be cautious around them, but they are fun. They look like they were designed by Dr Seuss and make a weird drumming sound deep in their chest. Utterly unmanageable and untrainable for domestic work though, harnessing them would bring you hours of frustration.
I have no first hand knowledge of ostrich but my gut tells me that if they were even a little easy or pleasant my sister would have them as well and she most definitely DOES NOT.
Horses, ponies, sheep, emu, cows, pigs, turkey, goats, dogs, cats, tortoise, ducks, snakes, turtles, and children: yes. No ostrich. That tells me something.
Wait a second, if you have enough space to raise emus or ostriches, then you have enough space to host rallycross events.
We need to talk.
Wow, this thread just jogged one of my weirdest memories. I remember being at my friend's house when I was in 4th or 5th grade for a sleepover. We stayed up really late, and there was some "wacky world of sports"-type show on TV. We were watching it, and they had an ostrich race from India. They had all these gates set up like a horse race with turns, and ostrich jockeys! They lined them all up, and when the start gun fired, the ostriches went ballistic and just took off in every direction! They were crashing through the gates, dragging the jockeys, etc. We were laughing for days after that.
C/N: Do not attempt to race ostriches.
mndsm wrote: I think we need an ostrich fryer. Anyone got a cheap horse trough and some charcoal?
No lie, My uncle deep fried an ostrich probably 20 years ago. It basically all started on a drunken dare. So he built a fryer from some huge stainless tank, it was at least 200 gallons, and a propane burner underneath. He threw a big party and fryed the whole thing in one dip. It was cut up, but it all went in together. Tasted like beef if I recall.
I knew someone who raised them for meat. Then the BC government in their wisdom decreed that all birds must be slaughtered and processed in a facility that does not slaughter and process hooved animals. Well, an Emu or Ostrich is way bigger than a chicken, so that was the end of that.
If I had a million dollars...
In reply to gearheadmb:
Fried an ostrich on a dare? Chopper Reid would approve.
gearheadmb wrote:mndsm wrote: I think we need an ostrich fryer. Anyone got a cheap horse trough and some charcoal?No lie, My uncle deep fried an ostrich probably 20 years ago. It basically all started on a drunken dare. So he built a fryer from some huge stainless tank, it was at least 200 gallons, and a propane burner underneath. He threw a big party and fryed the whole thing in one dip. It was cut up, but it all went in together. Tasted like beef if I recall.
Thats the sort of drunken dare that is amazing.
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