That’s great info. Thanks. It will be interesting to see what happens. I was able to mark the eggs in their relative order. Not totally accurate but close.
I have another male, Clyde. We hadn’t noticed any mating this winter at all. I did see them mate this Fall but that was months ago. I started thinking that maybe I was doing all of this prep and worry for unfertilized eggs so I decided to crack one open. It was very sad. There were a few blood vessels and a tiny dot. I was so sad
So, it’s all such a mystery. Hopefully there are other fertile eggs and hopefully Clyde has been breeding Edwina so she was still laying fertile eggs.
I also heard something that was a bit similar about the eggs hatching fairly close together in this type of situation.
Ayleth doesn’t love me petting him but now he is very docile. He seems fine with me checking the eggs and rubbing his neck and shoulders a bit.
So, to your question. I guess they are free range in that they go where they want in a 5 ac hay field that is attached to small pasture with a pond and the chicken coop and then attached to the corrals and barn. They either follow us with a bucket of feed or we herd them slowly. Or they just follow me because they either figure I have something for them to eat or just because. They are very curious and social as near as I can tell. Sometimes I leave the gate open because I like to just watch them cruse around. They are so funny. If they didn’t have such big yukky poops, I’d let them out more often. When they have gotten out and wandered off a bit, we just find them and one person has the bucket and the other walks behind them. They don’t seem to have this feeling of ‘Oh boy, we’ve escaped so let’s run and take off

’
I feel that if your Emus are relatively tame and follow you around in their enclosure already and are attached to you and your feed bucket, then it’s a maybe. Have someone with you to practice before you do it outside the paddock.
My Emus aren’t really flighty or afraid of people or anything that I’ve noticed. When I leave the gate open they go back in on their own half the time. It’s their home.
Make sure that there aren’t any other little critters out that they haven’t already bonded with. They will attack strange dogs and such with their feet. I found out the hard way that they are fine with whatever animals are part of their pack but they aren’t with strange critters. I turned out some turkey chicks when they were about a month old and Clyde charged at them instantly and calumped his big foot right on top of one and killed it. I now introduce new critters slowly with a fence in between and when I do open the gate, I have a little safe house that the little ones can escape under.
I better stop now. I love my Emus. I never planned on any of this. My first two were given to me. The owners needed to find them a new home. I lost their number years ago so I actually don’t know how old Edwina is ? We’ve had her for about 10 years. Her buddy, Male? Female? died a few years back. That is why a got Ayleth and Clyde. I felt Edwina was lonely ~~~