4 D ACRES' Blog on Everything Emu

Care of Emu Oil

April 02, 2009

How best to care for my emu oil is a question I receive a lot of time while selling at shows. 4 D Acres Pure Refined Emu Oil has a shelf life of 2 - 3 years from the date of refining at normal room temperature. We keep records of when each batch is refined and a batch number is printed on each bottle. Also when we receive a batch of emu oil in from our refinery we refrigerate it, thus extending the life of the oil. We also only keep about a 30 day supply of emu oil on our shelves for retail sale. Refrigeration slows down the natural process of the oil turning rancid. All emu oil will eventually turn rancid and this is detectable by the odor it will have upon opening the bottle. We also do not fragrance our oil as we want you to know when it is turning rancid. Emu oil should not have an odor unless a fragrance is added.
So how can you best take care of your bottle of emu oil. Here are a few suggestions:

Keep out of direct sunlight

Store your oil away from heat sources

If you buy a large quantity, transfer a small amount into a smaller size bottle for daily use and place the remainder under refrigeration - to reliquefy, just warm the large bottle under warm tap water and it will become fluid again allowing you to refill the smaller bottle.

Buy your oil from a reputable source and know what you are buying. There are currently three grades of emu oil on the market today. Grade A - fully refined and meets the international trade rules for Grade A oil; Grade B - this oil is refined but does not meet all of the international trade rules; Grade C - crude emu oil unrefined (usually used in the making of homemade soap).

4 D Acres Fully Refined Emu Oil is refined in an edible oil, food grade refinery so it is safe to use anywhere on your body. This is Grade A emu oil.

Rusty's Refined Emu Oil and Equine Aide are Grade B emu oil and are for animal use.

Our handmade bar soap is made with Grade C emu oil and is sold for home soapmaker.

Busy in the Winter

February 12, 2009

Life on our emu farm sure has had its ups and downs - weather wise. It will be in the 60’s one day and down around zero a couple days later. Just before Christmas we had a thunderstorm with high winds (lucky - no damage) that gave us about an inch of rain, the temperatures dropped, then came the sleet and by nightfall it started snowing. I have heard all my life “If you don’t like the weather - wait a day, it will change”. Seems lately all we have to do is wait a couple of hours. With all this change the birds are doing just fine as they are spending time more inside their building on those cold windy days. Our breeders are in the process of producing eggs which means that we are looking at February to prepare the incubators for this years hatch. In January we started storing eggs so that we can do what we call batch hatching. What this means, we load the incubator up one day then wait about 52 days for the chicks to hatch checking the incubator temperature and humidity daily. It may be automatic but Murphy's law does take effect here once in a while.

We are now shipping emu meat as well as our emu oil to customers in the continental United States. We ship all emu oil packages if under 13oz total weight by USPS First Class Mail and if over 13oz then the package is shipped by USPS Priority Mail. If interested in emu meat please call for meat price and shipping & handling costs. This amount varies as to the distance and the weight of the package. We ship with dry ice in insulated shipping boxes normally by UPS ground. It is important that it arrive still frozen thus we ship meat orders only on Monday and Tuesday. Holidays do play a factor in this as we do not want your shipment waiting in a warehouse thawing.

Currently we are securing stall space at a few of the Kansas City Metro Farmers' Markets. We will be in Overland Park Farmers' Market on Wednesday and Saturdays (space 6) and Merriam Farmers' Market on Saturdays (space 31,32). Watch for further markets as we fill up our week.

Mike