Couple tries to crack case of mystery egg

Thursday November 26, 2009

Ostrich farm located 3 miles from where discovery made

by Elaine McMillion
Daily Mail staff

CLENDENIN, W.Va.--Something bigger than a Thanksgiving turkey laid the egg that Sherman Farley stumbled upon while deer hunting Tuesday.

Bill Pepper, owner of Benedict Haid Farm, three miles from where the egg was found, suspects it is an ostrich egg.

But it still remains a mystery as to how the 4.5-pound egg that measures 18 inches in diameter longways wound up in the woods near Dutch Ridge Road in Clendenin.

Farley, 49, discovered it while hunting about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

After examining the beige-colored egg, he decided to leave it there overnight. He returned home later that evening and told his wife about his find.

"He was afraid to get it," Rosie Farley said with a laugh. "He thought it might blow up."

So on Wednesday morning Rosie went with her husband to the spot where it lay.

Rosie, 60, has been a hunter herself for nearly 30 years, but she was baffled by the enormous egg.

"I've never seen anything like this in the woods," she said.

"It looks like it has been with another egg in the nest," she said as she pointed to a dried, yellow, yolk-like substance on the shell.

The egg measures 16 1/4 inches in diameter at its center and has a porcelain-like shell.

Rosie says it can't be a turkey egg because those are not much larger than chicken eggs. She also said she has never seen peacocks in the area. Emu eggs are much darker in color, normally blue or green.

"I'm sure there's nothing native to West Virginia that would lay an egg that size," said Jim Phillips, a state naturalist based at Pipestem State Park.

Rosie said she has recently heard stories of ostriches running loose near Falling Rock, which is fairly close by and between Blue Creek and Clendenin.

Pepper said about a month ago someone called him to report the appearance of an emu running through the woods just miles from his farm on Dutch Ridge Road.

"I told them I only have one emu and it was still there," said Pepper, who is also a Charleston lawyer. "But that might have been an ostrich that someone confused for an emu."

Benedict Haid Farm, which is about three miles from where the egg was found and about a half hour's drive from downtown Charleston, has one emu and seven ostriches.

Pepper said the shell of an ostrich egg is dimpled like a golf ball and thicker than that of a chicken egg - about an eighth of an inch thick.

Pepper's description matches the characteristics of the Farley's find, but now the question is not "what," but "how?"

"How would an egg get three miles from the farm?" Rosie wondered.

Pepper said ostriches lay eggs only in warm weather. He has not seen one of his large birds lay an egg in three to four weeks.

Phillips, the naturalist, also said that wild birds are not laying eggs this time of the year.

"I wonder if the West Virginia Mothman found a girlfriend," Phillips joked.

Pepper does not believe one of his ostriches has escaped.

"I don't keep an accurate count so maybe one of mine got loose, but I really don't think so," Pepper said. "Someone on the farm would have told me."

"Besides they make no attempt to get loose. They got it made and they don't jump the fence," he said.

Phillips suspects other wildlife is to blame.

"If he's not missing any ostriches, probably what has happened is a coyote, raccoon or bear has rolled it that far," Phillips said. "It wouldn't be impossible for a dog to move something like that, too."

However, Phillips said he doesn't understand why a bear or raccoon couldn't have figured out how to crack open the egg.

Pepper said it is hard to believe an animal could get a four-pound egg three miles to the place where Farley found it.

"I don't see how an animal could have done that," Pepper said.

Pepper and Phillips suspect a prank.

"The only other thing I can think of is one of the neighbors did it as a joke to see if a hunter would find it," the naturalist said.

However the egg ended up in the woods, Pepper said the Farleys have a new but foul-smelling treasure in their possession.

"There is nothing in there but a bunch of slime and goo," Pepper said. "Chances are it will be the most horrific smell they have ever smelled."

Pepper recommends the couple drill a hole in the bottom with a quarter-inch drill bit and blow out the contents with a tire pump. Then he says they should soak it in bleach.

An ostrich egg is valued at $10 to $15, he said.

"People carve them and paint them," Pepper said. "They are very pretty. You can a buy a stand for them."

That's exactly what the Dutch Ridge residents plan to do.

"I'd like to find out what it is, drill it and keep it as a souvenir," Rosie said.

Although the chances of a baby ostrich surviving are extremely slim, Rosie can still dream.

"If it hatched, I'd probably pen it up and take care of it," Rosie said. "And if it was big enough, I'd probably saddle it up."

http://www.dailymail.com/News/Kanawha/200911250737?page=2&build=cache

(Submitted by Chad Arment)