emu chicks or egg hatching

[scrappyroo]

I've had two over the years and both have been sweet as can be. My male never made it to adulthood so I don't know how he would have been. I'm thinking of purchasing another pair of chicks. Thats weird that you can have an Emu but not a Rhea. The Rhea is smaller. I will get a picture of her on my website after the weekend so you can see her. Might be one on there already but i'm not sure.

 

[kees]

Can you tell me where you got your chicks?

 

[scrappyroo]

Quote:
I got them off eggbid from a guy in Ohio. This guy also wrote a book on Rheas that he sells on eggbid every now and then and he also is a curator of an aviary or something along that line. He had Rheas listed about a month ago as did another guy from South Carolina. I paid about $325 for the pair with shipping. My Rhea is gray but can produce whites as well as grays if I ever get a male again.

 

[kees]

I look at eggbid just about every day and haven't seen anything about emus lately. I haven't had the most success incubating so I'd rather start with a chick.

 

[LinckHillPoultry]

I'd love to have either an emu or rhea, it'd be great to protect my flock.
How big of a pen would I need?

 

[chickenzoo]

They need room to run, but are also couch potatoes, spending a good part of the day lounging. If you turn them loose during the day and only put them in a pen at night I think 25x50 would be ideal for one or two. If you want to keep them in it all the time, you need way bigger IMO.

 

[kees]

I called someone and she said that there won't be any emu chicks available until January because they are just coming into the breeding season now. She is also very, very far away and stated that the Post Office has only recently allowed emu chicks to be shipped. Go figure. When the breeder found out that I wanted the emu as a pet, she suggested a woman out in CA who bred all white ones! I tried to call her but after three days, she never returned my call. I guess she has enough of a demand.

 

[scrappyroo]

If you go to eggbid and click on the Rhea auction link the page will come up empty because there aren't any for sale on there right now. But if you click on the completed auction link at the top of the page you'll see a few from a week or so ago. Martydawg had a pair of splits that didn't sell at $200 plus shipping for the pair. Maybe he still has them if you e-mail him.

 

[kees]

Can you tell what a pair of splits are? Did he say how old they were?

 

[scrappyroo]

They were around six weeks old at the time. They are gray but carry the white gene as does mine. Mine were six weeks old when they were shipped to me. My girl is almost 5 feet tall now when she stretches and was about 18 inches when shipped.