Emus; Should I?

[ChanceRider]

Probably a good decision to hold off until you have everything ready to bring birds to your home.... they grow pretty quickly! I have a 100' x 25' run for my breeding pair. It's made with peeler core posts and 6' tall no-climb horse fencing. It gives them ample room to run, and run they do! When we get our first rains of the year you'd think my birds are possessed. They run, jump, twist, and provide hours of entertainment!

I have an automatic bucket waterer (it was originally for my horses) attached about 3.5' high on a fence post, and a metal bin type feeder that'll holdl 50lbs of pelleted feed. My emu are the easiest to care for of all our critters.

One thing, if you want very friendly emu, get the chicks as young as you can. My male bird, Enoch, loves to rest his head on my shoulder and get "hugs". Scratch under his beak and his eyes close... I swear he almost purrs.

I'm in the Sierra Foothills of Northern California and pay about $15 for a 50 lb bag of chow. Right now the birds are going through a bag a week. When the male sits the nest for almost 2 months, he won't eat or drink, so the consumption goes down. I use an all-purpose chow, but there are several different types of feed depending upon the stage of growth, i.e., grower, breeder, maintenance, etc.

I know some people in town who have a female emu who walks on a leash. She has a harness, loads in a horse trailer, and is very easy-going. LOL, I love my birds, but even more so because they kill skunks! There have been 2 that made the mistake of going into the pen after feed.... emus 2.... skunks 0.

Enoch and BoomBoom

 

[jhm47]

If you're getting them for pets, be aware that they do eat a lot. They are also not very valuable, at least in this area. I have a friend who bought 250 chicks, and planned to feed them up and make a fortune. He kept them for 2 years, and butchered about 50 of them. The meat was not anything to get excited about. I had some, and it was pretty bad. He make sausage, jerky, and tried grinding it. He gave away many samples, but it just didn't catch on.

He kept the rest of the birds for another 6 months, and tried to market them, but no buyers. He finally got sick of feeding them and dug a trench, drove them into it and shot them. Covered the trench and was out of the business. I can just see some scientist 1000 years from now finding the skeletons of these birds and freaking out about how the climate has changed and how all these emus must have died from some strange cause.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Oh my goodness! That is so sad!

 

[ChanceRider]

That really is a shame. I have a friend who raised hundreds of them, for the meat, fat, feathers and hide. I don't care for the meat myself, but then I eat very little beef. The fat can be rendered down into emu oil which sells quite well. My friend had the hides tanned and sold emu skin vests, etc., in his store. The feathers were used to make cat toys, plus a local fishing store uses some of the feathers for tying flies.

I was never interested in a commercial venture with my birds... which is why I keep just my breeding pair. I've had no trouble getting rid of the chicks I've hatched out. Plus, if I don't let the male hatch the eggs, I can collect the eggs, blow them out, and sell them for $5 - $10 each.

At one time people did think they'd "strike it rich" with emu meat... it takes a lot of work to market the meat and make the other products. Not really a get-rich-quick market for them now.

 

[snewman]

You have all given me a great bunch of information, thanks! I'm going to check out the sites a couple of you included. I'd be planning on keeping them just as pets, and if I ended up with a breeding pair, ok, maybe I could sell a few babies and, if not, just collect the eggs. But I do think I'll wait until spring. Chickens and ducks were enough new species for this year, I guess.