When you live on a farm, you get used to seeing the lifecycle occur on a regular basis. That is especially true as far as chickens are concerned and on many farms, there is a time of year in which new chickens are hatched to replace those lost in the previous year.

One family decided to purchase some emu eggs on eBay. This is what happened.

An emu egg is approximately 14 times larger than a chicken egg.

Unfortunately, only one of the four eggs purchased on eBay was fertile. This is a picture of the emu that hatched. It was difficult to tell if she would survive because she was weak and needed assistance getting out of her shell.

They thought that they may have done something wrong in the hatching process and perhaps it is their fault that two healthy chicks were not hatched. They did their research and tried their best and were happy that at least one chick was born.

Within a week, the emu chick started looking a lot better. They called her Paul before they found out she was a female. The name stuck.

About two weeks after she hatched they drove south a few days and nobody was there to look after Paul. They decided to take her on the road trip. It was a messy journey but ultimately entertaining.

You can see Paul’s baby feathers are disappearing on her neck at around six weeks of age. If you look carefully you can also pick out her ear holes.

They had gone back to university for a few months, which is why there is a significant jump in the emu’s size. Paul’s stripes are gone from her head and neck. Her back feathers are turning darker.

They thought this was the last picture they would get of Paul.

Shortly after the previous picture was taken, Paul got a bad bacterial infection. She was hiding it for a while until one evening she wasn’t eating or drinking and could barely walk.

This picture is from the second time she was taken to the veterinarian. The first time they took her she was feeling a little under the weather but one of the vets was accustomed to working with ostriches in South Africa. He knew a little about large birds. The vet said that it was a bad situation and she was unlikely to make it. They took the photo because they thought she would die at the vet’s office.

The veterinarian did just fine, as did Paul. They also didn’t charge anything for their efforts, they only charged for the supplies. Considering the fact that the owners were not in a financial position to pay for veterinary care, it really helped out.

Now she is looking a lot healthier. It took about two weeks to overcome the infection and she didn’t seem to grow at all while she was sick.

Paul spends a lot of time with the chickens. Perhaps she is having an identity crisis!?

You can now see that Paul’s head and neck are turning blue. She is about as large as she will get but she will grow slowly for another year.

A poor quality picture but too great not to share.