Hope This Wasn't a Bad Decision With The Emus!

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Nugget. He's the nice one.

[00:00:07]Good morning, y'all. Jason over here at Cog Hill  Farm. Hope you're having the best day ever today out here in the back garden. I wanted to check  the tomatoes real quick. They're starting to go. Telling you, they are starting to go. Come on,  Holly. And I wanted to show y'all a couple things back here before we go have fun with animals.  Gonna have an interesting day today to say the least. Going to try a little experiment today with  the emus shake and bake and the sheriff nugget.

[00:00:39]And um well, I'll explain all that later. Right  now though, I want to there was a question I saw pop up a many a time and I want to answer that  real quick and then we'll head on over there and see well see if our emu experiment is a good one  or not so good. So, in the last video, I showed you how our tomatoes was booming. And I saw a  question cuz I said I had to come back here and cut off the bottom leaves cuz I don't like them  touching the ground cuz that could cause a disease issue on you there. After I said I was going to  do that, I did come and cut those out. By the way, um, a lot of y'all asked me, do I cut the suckers  off my tomato plants? And the answer is no. I do not cut the suckers. Here's why. And if you don't  know, here's what a sucker is on a tomato. Now, if you look right here, you see you got a main  branch coming up right through here. And then you got another branch that goes this way. And in  between these two branches in this V is this here vine right here. Now, that is the sucker right  there. Now, a lot of folks will cut this out. A lot of times these suckers just on your planter  just keep growing and not do much or eventually will produce you fruit. So, what a lot of people  would do because this takes a lot of energy for your plant to make and, you know, grow, they'll  cut this sucker out so more energy would go into a fruiting. Now, I'm sure it works and I have done  it before, but honestly, I don't have time to be honest with y'all to come out here and cut the  suckers off my tomato plants. And I always get a lot of tomatoes. I always get a ton of tomatoes.  So, for me, it's a time thing. Is it worth the time for me to come out here and prune my tomato  suckers? Cuz you got to stay on top of it if it's something you going to do versus the yield you're  going to get. You see what I'm saying? Is it worth it? Now, for me, it's not because we just got so  much going on here at the farm. And you guys know that that number one, I'm going to have more  enough tomatoes with these plants I got. And number two, I just don't have the time to come out  here and prune all the suckers off. Some of y'all may do it. And if you do do it, let me know.  Do you cut the suckers off your tomato plants?

[00:03:03]Are you like me, you don't? Let me know in the  comments below. I would love to know who out there does remove the suckers off their tomatoes and  who doesn't. Now, I know some of y'all probably just noticed something. I got the garden flags up  now. I didn't have enough to finish out the entire uh back garden back here. It's pretty good space,  but these were left over from the old farm that I just hung on to. And I decided, well, I'm going  to put them up. Um I got them. I'm going to put them up and I'll just buy some extras. Um I don't  know how many more I'm going to need, but anyways, this got about halfway around, I reckon. But on  one hand, I don't like the bright orange. I don't know. It was just when I first put them up, I  really didn't like it. I say I really didn't like it. It wasn't what I thought it was going to look  like. Now, that was a couple of days ago. It's starting to grow on me a just a little bit. And  the reason why we're putting these garden flags up is to help deter or keep the peacocks for one back  here because this did such an amazing job, this technique or trick at the old farm that I want to  implement it here. And I already had them. So I put them up. Now I did order me some more that are  totally different and are triangle shape and a lot smaller but different. And I just want to see what  they look like, too. I only ordered one little set, so it was 30 foot and that's not gonna put a  dent in this, but I didn't want to order a whole bunch of them in not work, right? You know what I  mean? Now, Brooke and her mom love it. They think it's absolutely beautiful. They love it. They  think it's cute and whimsical like our old farm and garden used to be and they like it. But just  something about that orange. Now, on to some other things. About to head over. I got to go finish  feeding the horses. I got their feed soaking.

[00:04:53]We're going to feed those guys. Going to head over  to the barn where mama is right now taking care of things over there. And going to do a little  experimenting with the three emus. And I'll get into more of that when we get over there. Wait,  Holly? Where' she go? Come on, girl. There she is. She's in the shade. Get your baby. Come on. We  got to go. Got a girl. Well, Tater, I had no doubt that you would be here. But where is Matilda?  Here she comes. Come on, big girl. Look at you.

[00:05:34]You better come for breakfast. Everybody else is  already here waiting. Moody and Mildred were both laying down when I came out here. All right,  Tater, come down here. Come down here, girl.

[00:05:59]Some morning she decides that she's going to come all the way down to the other  end. Get you down here, girl.

[00:06:10]Looks like Bramble has not figured out I'm  out here yet. Or he just doesn't care cuz he's enjoying his is rolling around this  morning. Bramble, what you doing, buddy?

[00:06:50]All right, Peaches, enjoy your breakfast.  Got to go get Miss Pocket hers. Come on, girl. Show me where to go. Where do I  need to go? Come on. Let's see here. I think this is where we want to  go, isn't it? Yay. All right.

[00:07:14]There you go. Now we're going to get Loretta.  Somebody's fired up this morning. I opened the gate and I think she thought about not even eating  her food and going on out to the grass. I think we need to fix your little top knot before you  do anything today. It looks like it's starting to come down. You let me fix that before we  get going. Yeah. I'm going to shut your gate.

[00:07:40]You're not gonna be happy with me, are you?  Just get it where it won't get in your eyes.

[00:07:52]And Jason says this makes  you run real fast. So there you go. Is that better? Now, now open your gate.

[00:08:04]You ready to go? Oh my goodness. I think it  does make her run real fast. I knew she was ready to get out and have her grass this morning.  Fired up first thing in the morning. All right, got Miss Loretta going. I don't  know what I need to do about you, but you are something else. Got all this nesting  box space and you want to lay up there. Have you already laid? Let me take a peek. Let's  see what you got. Nope. Hadn't laid yet.

[00:08:47]Take your time, girl. Just in that short  amount of time that I was out there gathering eggs and walking from the barn to the to the  chicken coop area, we've had two people stop, so I know I need to replenish eggs. Had 33.  So, just shy of three dozen. and going to get these cartoned up, taken out to the  egg stand for the community. That a girl.

[00:09:16]Well, as most of all y'all know, we have three  emus here on the farm. We got, of course, the OG, the original Nugget. Then we have Earnest and Opie  or Shake and Bake. And our intentions were to put all three of those guys together. And that way  Nugget won't be the only emu out in the pasture.

[00:09:46]Now, we have put all three emus together several  times. Several several several several times, and it has not worked out at all. Um, Ernest, the  white emu, seems to be aggressive towards Nugget.

[00:10:08]And you would think it would be just the the the  other because Nugget's the oldest emu, but that's not the case. It's always Earnest. And so, we've  had to split them up because it's just it is a total mess. I mean, Nugget gets to running, he  gets really, really nervous. and we don't want him to hurt himself, run into the fence or, you  know, something crazy. And we don't want Ernest to hurt him either. So, we just kind of kept them  separated. We've also noticed that Ernest seems to be a little aggressive towards Opie sometimes.  Uh, we think that's why Opie escapes. You know, when we used to keep them in the stall at night, a  lot of times, most of the time, Opie would escape and Ernest would still be in the stall. And we'll  see patches of Ernest feathers out. Like the other day, I saw in that stall some of Ernest feathers  and we think it's Opie that's doing it. Let's try putting Opie and Nugget together just to see what  happens. since Ernest is just a little well he's a little bully or a little bullish I should say.  So that's what we're about to do. We're going to try this experiment and do a little switcheroo  play a little musical chairs because we always want what's best for the animals and you don't  know until you kind of try. I mean we never would have put pocket and peaches together. That seems  crazy in itself and it's one of the best things we've ever done here on the farm. Just a little  experiment to see how it goes. So, grab your popcorn, get your Coke RC, whatever, whichever one  you like. You might be a Pepsi fan. I don't know.

[00:11:55]Maybe some sweet tea. We'll see what happens  when we put these fellas together and we'll go from there. What you think's going to happen once  we put Nugget with Opie? Yeah. I think nothing's going to happen. I think nothing's going to  happen either. Opie is really docile. Kind of like Nugget. Um, I don't know why Ernest seems to be an  aggressor or kind of a bully. He's high strung. He is high strung, I guess. So, he um I don't know.  It just seems weird to me. It does. As a matter of fact, we almost thought about doing a DNA test. We  did because we thought that maybe Opie was a girl and maybe that's why Ernest was I actually thought  Ernest was a girl. Oh, you thought Ernest was a girl. Okay. Okay. I thought Ernest was a girl  because typically in the emu world the females are a little more aggressive than the males are.  It it's been a minute so I couldn't remember which one we thought but I do remember the day that I  was sitting out there with them and I heard him make a nugget noise. I've heard Ernest recently  make a a nugget noise and I videoed it and put it in one of the videos. It was it was months ago. It  was back when we were on the fence about what it could be. I even reached out to Pitta at Milligan  Farm because the DNA tests that they do are not always 100% accurate. And that's at no fault of  the breeder. It just sometimes happens that way.

[00:13:23]And um I thought, well, maybe this is one of those  mishaps and and maybe Ernest is a girl and that's why she's acting ugly. Well, we'll just see how  it goes. Well, I came out this morning and opened Snow White's door to let her and the dwarfs out.  Mhm. And Nugget was standing right there because he and the geese have had access to this pasture  that we're letting rest. And those two and Nugget are closer proximity and actually interacting with  each other over the fence. They are more than they ever have. I've noticed that too. So there may  that maybe everybody's calming down maybe. So, and that's one thing that we're thinking that  possibly if Ernest I mean if Opie goes over there with Nugget and they bond and it'll show  Ernest that hey look, you know, and we've got ways to keep them all and keep them separated.  So, we're not parting with anybody. Huh. Well, isn't that interesting? Yeah. Y two separate  stalls. They are in two separate stalls. You see there was Opie down there and Ernest is right  here. Reckon I go shut that gate. Too late now, ain't it? Too late now. All right. So you  Laretta's going to hip you. Nah, I'm going home. I'm going to let you figure this out. Let's  see if I can see if I can get this going here.

[00:14:56]Come on, fellas. We don't want  both of them. Want both of them.

[00:15:06]Maybe we could get the goats in the stall.  I don't know. Let's see here. Can I Is it okay if Loretta comes over? Yeah, we can  get Loretta back over easy. Huh. That's what I thought last night. Honey and Jesse  want to go over bad, too. You go that way.

[00:15:29]All right. Come on. Try to help me. I'm coming.

[00:15:38]They don't steer the right way. I can tell  you that. It It's just not going to happen with the goats. Now, there we go. Now,  you're a emu wrangler, aren't you? Yeah, I was about to ride him. I see  that nugget. He's the nice one.

[00:16:10]I guarantee it wouldn't have gone  like that if Ernest was in here. No, not at all. You going to  let him clean my shoes, too?

[00:16:26]Oh my goodness. What if this works?

[00:16:42]Yeah. Nugget feels no threat. No threat  whatsoever. If he did, he would be gone if it was earnest. or to be hissing and all that involved.  None of that. You're a sweet baby, aren't you? He is. He is. I mean, he's night and day difference.  Yeah, cuz you can pet him and you can't do that with uh Ernest. No, you cannot. And you know,  they've been treated equally. Absolutely.

[00:17:11]Maybe you're happy. Is that what it is?

[00:17:18]I mean, you can see his feathers are  some of his feathers are missing. And we don't know if Ernest did that  or if he did it trying to get out of a stall. They're growing back. But  look, they're growing back. I mean, you can see. Mhm. And that's what they do is  they just grab a mouthful. What? Loretta nugget says, "There ain't nothing over here,  y'all. Let me back on that other side or something. There just ain't nothing over here.

[00:17:49]Yeah, that's going great. Right there.  Look at that. What if they like become the best of friends? I don't know. Oh goodness.

[00:18:04]Except the camera. She knocked  it over. It's facing straight up.

[00:18:08]It's real dirty. I'm going to wipe it  off. Uhoh. He just wanted to test him.

[00:18:18]How about that? This may be the ticket.

[00:18:24]And Ernest will be fine over  there with all that crew. Yeah, if we leave it like this. If we leave it  like this. Uhoh. Look at here. And see, this is what I'm hoping that'll happen. I hope  so, too. That's what we No, he's Is he Is he trying to be ugly? I don't know. He was going  real slow. I can't tell if he was trying to be ugly or he was trying to get my shoe. I think  he was trying. He just hit honey. You seen Did he actually bite her? Yes. I'm telling you,  he's something else now. Watch it. Hey partner.

[00:19:02]Try to pet Ernest. Oh yeah. You try to pet  Ernest. He don't want it. He don't want you touching. He's not like the the uh these  guys. No. at all? No, not at all. I mean, same exact treatment. That just goes to  show no matter how something's raised, sometimes it just is the way it's going to  be. Just different. It is what it is. Oh my gracious. Oh goodness. She's done knocked the  water over. And I cleaned it out this morning, scrubbed it, made sure it was all nice.  And oh, she said she's got to have her spa. Look at her. There she goes.  You don't care if you got any water.

[00:19:53]Oh my goodness, y'all. Y'all come get her. Look  at her. Oh me. There goes that conditioner.

[00:20:05]Oh goodness. Okay. What would you  do if you saw Peaches do that, Brooke? Oh, call 911. My pig is in the mud.  She flipped her water over and is in the mud.

[00:20:23]Oh, y'all saw me do that, huh? And now she's not  even going to lay in it. She's done. She's like, "Where's my water?" I'm done. That thing was full,  too. I am done, Loretta. Jason, look at Nugget.

[00:20:38]Oh, Nuggie. Oh, sweetie. But this is a  difference because he would not relax even across the fence from Ernest. Yeah,  that is that is a big difference. And now, I mean, look, Ernest standing right  there. He knows it. He won't bully her. I can tell you that right now. You  saw her just run him off. She's like the peaches of this side. Yeah. You know what  I mean? She's not ugly. She's not mean.

[00:21:06]But she don't take nothing off anybody over here  now. Nothing. Loretta, you got fancy hair. Do, don't you, though? Look at that.  See, even Aunt Jesse's backing up.

[00:21:26]They respect old Loretta. They do, don't  they? I respect her, too. Look at her.

[00:21:35]Oh goodness. Now Ernest is gone in  that stall. Yeah. Yeah. Ernest is not caring. I'm telling. Look  at this. He is not caring.

[00:21:49]You think Opie will walk over to the pond side  with us? I think so. I think he will. You want to go try it? You going to try walking to the pond,  buddy? I think I need to fill Loretta's water up first or I'll remember. Yeah. You think I'll go do  that real quick? Oh, I don't mind doing it. Hey, honey. Are you going to knock it over again  as soon as I get it filled up? You better put a lot of water in it so I can It was I'm  telling you, it was all the way to the top.

[00:22:25]Well, you and Opie are almost identical  in their temperament. Colors are close.

[00:22:31]He's considered a blonde and the geese got  their water ashy this morning. But yeah, uh, Nugget is your typical standard emu. He's  called a blonde right there. And of course, Ernest over there, he's a white  emu. Look at Look at that.

[00:22:57]Look at there, buddy.

[00:23:01]Well, I cleaned out the water and Brooke  just said they may not leave from over here now because that got mud. They  got my mud puddle down yonder.

[00:23:14]Well, they might though, Brooke. I don't know.  Opie hadn't had his turn yet. You can see one of them took my Yeah, don't forget my water  bracelet off. I was think they want you to forget the water. So does Loretta. Do you know  that she was over there helping me? And I hope she didn't flip it over. No, it's didn't flipped  over yet. She was thinking about it. All right, come on, Doug. You want to go to  your your side? Come on. Let's go.

[00:23:46]Here they come. Look at here.

[00:23:56]It's okay. Come on.

[00:24:08]Oh, goodness. Hey, first name Holly.

[00:24:21]They do their heads like this. We  don't want you over here, Holly.

[00:24:27]You want to uh let them be for a little bit and  see what happens? I think so. We'll gauge it.

[00:24:38]Hey, this is a new world.

[00:24:45]Holly finally laid down, did she? Yeah. But  they still They don't want her over there, do they? They're not as mad at her laying  down as they were with her standing up.

[00:24:57]He's not looking for Ernest at all. No, he's not.  And I thought he might not leave that area. Yeah, I thought the same thing. But he he's not  he's not worried about Ernest in the least.

[00:25:10]And when we left, Ernest wasn't  being worried about them. No, he was done gone to a stall. He's  not standing up there either.

[00:25:25]Was that Sam? Sam. Yeah.

[00:25:30]They going to give him something to eat.

[00:25:48]Nugget just popped up in the camera, did he?  Yeah. Like a like a muppet is what he looks like.

[00:26:00]Yeah, he can almost turn his head all  the way back around. Almost complete 360.

[00:26:08]I wanted to show y'all this, but look, they're both at the feed bucket right  there. Nugget and Opie and the geese.

[00:26:22]How about that?

[00:27:37]Well, y'all, so far it has been smooth as silk  between Nugget and Earnest right here. Earnest op right here. I get their names confused. Y'all  just have to ap I'll just have to apologize for that today. But no issues, no static. Everybody's  been fine. Hadn't seen any craziness whatsoever.

[00:27:58]Uh this is not permanent. We We were just trying  this experiment here to see what would happen.

[00:28:04]Um I don't even see Ernest. Uh Ernest has  been carrying on his business as usual, walking around the pasture, hanging out with  the uh the animals over there. He's been out in the woods. I haven't seen him, you know, trying  to bust at the seams and pacing and, you know, trying to get over here in here with Nugget and  Opie. None of that. Absolutely none of that. But we'll continue to gauge this. There he is. Now,  he just popped up as soon as I was talking. He must have heard me talking about him. And we're  going just going to continue to gauge this and uh see where it goes. And it's just not this is  not a permanent thing. We just we just wanted to try a little something and see how it went. And  honestly, it kind of went exactly how I thought it would because Nugget and Opie over there are  so much alike and Ernest is a little different.

[00:28:57]He is, but aren't we all, brother? Aren't  we all? We're all a little different. Yeah, we're all a little different. Oh goodness. Hey,  appreciate y'all helping us with this experiment today. Hope y'all have the best day ever. We'll  catch you guys on the next one and y'all be good.