This is our Story
Our family smallholding complete with an assortment of livestock and poultry is situated in Herefordshire close to a picturesque black and white market town nestled within the rolling Malvern Hills yet close to the M5/M50 motorway network with Bristol,Birmingham and Cardiff within 1 hour travel time away.
Initially we concentrated on breeding and showing rare breed poultry and waterfowl but lurking in the back of our minds was the desire to do something more unusual but what exactly that might be was eluding us. However that was about to change when a family member jokingly suggested we should try emu farming having become interested in them after doing online research.We should have laughed off such a suggestion but it placed a seed of an idea in our heads but at that stage it was nothing more.
The following Spring that was all about to change when the opportunity to purchase some possibly fertile emu hatching eggs arose.The first attempts at hatching with our limited knowledge was somewhat dismal with 5 live chicks out of a possible 13 but only 3 eventually surviving. The first season was like a baptism of fire as you can read as many books on the subject as you like but there is no substitute to doing it yourself although the information regarding hatching and rearing ratites is patchy at best and largely focused on U.S.A. commercial emu farming which has little relevance to how ratites are kept in the UK.We have made mistakes,had our run of bad luck and encountered many a disaster along the way but it has been a valuable learning curve which has been banked as experience.
Now some years on and from such small beginnings, we have built up stable breeding groups of unrelated emus with a fluctuating population of youngsters and two sizable flocks of rhea.Great efforts have gone into selecting unrelated stock in an attempt to reduce genetic flaws and widen the limited gene pool.
We now thoroughly experienced and proficient in the hatching, rearing,management and veterinary care of ratites and even advise overseas breeders.Our knowledge has been hard gained and we are in a unique position to help and advise other owners starting out.
It would have taken us many more years to achieve the success now enjoyed if it hadn’t been for our good friend and mentor,Margaret Dover,of Leicestershire Emus.Although now retired her decades of knowledge is still invaluable to us.A special mention must also go to our vet Eden Tanner M.R.C.V.S who has given us so much of his time and veterinary skills in one form or another over the years.There is no substitute to logic and commonsense when dealing with ratites!
We hope you enjoy browsing through the website and that it may encourage you to meet the big birds in person.There are a few visitor options for 2018 even if you can’t own an emu or rhea as well as details as how to purchase them in the various sections.
