An emu called Emu

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I have been going through my mother’s diaries. On Christmas Day in 1961, her nephew, nicknamed Chick, gave her an emu chick. I don’t recall where it came from. Mum was thrilled as she loved all animals and the emu lived with some of our other chooks (chickens) and turkeys in a large yard – probably nearly an acre in size. She was even more thrilled when, on June 21, 1965, she found a large, bright green egg in a corner of the yard. From then until 1984, Emu (very original name) laid a clutch of eggs every year. She laid 8 eggs that first year, then a total of 68 over the next five years with 19 being the most. She must have been at her best in 1973-8 when she laid 30, 36, 29, 15. The numbers tapered off then (7,9,16, 21, 5) until, in 1984, she laid 11 eggs. She died in 1988 aged 27. This somewhat exceeds the estimated lifespan of a wild emu as 5-15 years. As she didn’t have a mate, the eggs weren’t fertile and, as it’s the male that incubates the eggs, she paid no attention to them once they were laid. We would laboriously drill a small hole in each end of the end, stir up the contents with a skewer then blow the eggs. We made sponges cakes in baking dishes. We tried the egg scrambled once but didn’t enjoy it much. Vin and I put simple carvings on some of the eggs but the shell was very hard and difficult to carve. It is multi-layered and each layer is slightly paler than the previous. Unfortunately, we don’t have any photos and we sold the eggs to a tourist shop. The photo is of an emu at Parsons’ Green Holiday Park in south Tipperary, Ireland.