Here there be emu

Local man's business has turned into more of a hobby

The sound of drum beats fill the backyard of Ken Moyes' farm.

In this instance, the natives making the sounds tend to resemble Big Bird or something out of "Jurassic Park."

Female emus, you see, make sounds that sound like drums. The males make noises that sound like pigs grunting.

For the past ten years, Moyes has owned emus at his ranch on Jonathan Road outside Moses Lake, a business decision he said originated from his wife and daughter as the Feather Drum Ranch after his brother and sister-in-law decided to get into the business in Warden.

"Everybody else has got out of it, but we hung with it," he said with a chuckle.

Since his wife's death and his daughter's decision to leave the business, it has become more of a hobby than a lofty entrepreneurial pursuit.

"I do sell a little bit of product now and then," he said.

Products include hand and body lotions, acne treatments, chapstick and lip balm, a power rub, and a gel that Moyes said is guaranteed to stop pain within five minutes.

"The carpenters, plumbers, sheet-rock hangers — they love the stuff because it keeps their hands moist and keeps them from cracking," he said.

The ranch also sells ground meat, steaks, roasts, pepperoni sticks, jerky and summer sausage.

"All of that is fat free and very very low in cholesterol," he said.

In order to make the products, the ranch has the emu slaughtered, renders down the fat and then sends it to a place called EPMI in Oklahoma, Moyes said.

He said he has seven pairs of emus for laying eggs, and 13 chicks.

"They're a very healthy, sturdy bird; they require very little care," he said. "They're a loving bird. I've got one out here that, I go out to feed him in the mornings, he'll stand at the gate. I've got to pet him before he'll let me in to feed him."

That particular bird was "kind of a pet" when Moyes first started raising him. He added that he sometimes gets attached to them.

"They're a little bit skittish, especially when they're babies," he said. "The older they get, the more gentle they get, when you've been around them for a while and they get to know you … Most people think they're mean and ornery like an ostrich, but they're not. I like to think of them as a tame, gentle bird. Once in a while you'll find one that is ornery and mean, but it's not too often."

Moyes said that he gets a lot of people who stop in to see the emus, and that the neighborhood children love to come in and feed them.

Emus start laying eggs around the last of October, with most laying one egg every three days, and they lay through the end of March, Moyes said.

An emu egg is "pretty good-sized; probably about a little bigger than a softball," he said. "It's kind of oblong shaped. The color is green."

Adult emus can get up to about 150 pounds.

"When they stretch their head out, they're taller than we are," he said with a chuckle.