Bitter cold temps?

[Kymber50]

Hello all! We have decided to just go the chick route with the emus instead of hatching eggs - just seems simpler! We're having four emu chicks shipped to the house in April. My question is how cold can emus get down to and still be fine? Within the last week, we've been getting temps of -30 degrees F with the wind chill, and one morning it was 20 below with no wind! Would emus be fine in these temps? I've seen lots of pics of them walking in snow, but then again it's hard to judge what temp it is because it can snow in 30 degree weather or 30 below weather, lol. We will have a little shed for them to avoid the wind if they so choose, but I've heard that emus tend to ignore these, even in cold and snow. Can anyone say a rough estimate of the coldest its ever been for their emus? I just don't want to freeze the birds! Thanks!

 

[chickenzoo]

Well if they are chicks, I would keep them in a large brooder under a heat light until they get a few months old before turning them loose. They don't have down like chickens. Let us know how they handle the shipping, as I've been told by many that emu chicks don't ship well and when I was looking no one would.

 

[foulman007]

Mine have been into the lower teens for a few day here in south carolina but I kno many who raise them up in canada with no problems. Just got to keep the water flowing.

 

[Supreme Emu]

Have a look on the Net, Kymber, and find a 'range-map' of the distribution of this bird in its natural habitat. You'll see that it ranges across most of Australia. Now find a standard topographical map. You see the 'Great Dividing Range' runs down the entire east coast. (We call it a 'range' but we're so hard up for mountains here that any old anthill is denominated 'mountain.' The tallest peak in Oz is under 8,000 feet.) The emu's range extends – in places -- into that range, and it snows there in Winter. That's the very coldest area of their range at present, though historically the pigmy emus inhabited Tasmania, which is much colder.

Meanwhile, here in the Gully, we love to complain about how cold it gets – but that's 'Australian cold': it's technically temperate; it doesn't snow. My emus will sit with perfect complacency in the open in pouring rain.

The chicks – and I'm unsatisfied with the information on the Net – hatch both Winter and Summer, so they must be fairly hardy -- but the temperatures you've mentioned certainly are low!!

Supreme Emu

 

[Kymber50]

Thanks for the replies! They will have a barn, maybe slighty heated, with an electric waterer that always keeps it thawed in the winter.