Emu eggs breaking?

[Megzy]

Hi,

I am new to this forum & am loving the photos of all the baby emus, they are so cute arent they.

I have 2 emus & my girl has just started laying. We have had 2 in the past 2 weeks, she has just laid them randomly in the yard & I moved them to the emu enclosure whch is in the bushy part of our block.

The first egg, my boy followed me & started to put leaves over it. I checked it daily & after a few days it was smashed. We had our 2nd egg yesterday & I did the same thing & it was smashed by the time I got home from work.

My boy is very aggressive & pushy at the moment & I am not sure if he is breaking the eggs or if its a snake or goanna?

This is the first time our girl has laid & I was just wondering if I could get some advice or tips on what to do & look out for.

Thanks & looking forward to chatting with you all.

 

[foulman007]

I put a decoy egg in their pen and they smashed it but never their own. they just started laying now most emus ae done for the season sure you dont have huge chickens

 

[Megzy]

I wonder where I could get a decoy egg. Sounds like a good plan.

I am in Darwin - Australia, just finishing up our "wet season", so cooling down just a little.

I havent been able to find out too much information about emus locally, which is a bit weird being a native bird and all. lol

 

[foulman007]

I had some empty ones i filled with sand then waxed shut. they had it around for a while and burried it for a while but as soon as my girl laid and egg it was over for it. I guess they thought it was a rival egg and ..smash!
do you have several males together?

 

[Megzy]

No just the 1 male & female, (Barry & Megan) its their first time so I am assuming he doesnt really know what he is doing.

He is very cranky at the moment, fluffing up & trying to push me around. Which is unusual as he is usually NICE & enjoys a pat, which at the moment he wont have any part of.

I have been searching for what might be a nest but there is a lot of trampled grass patches like UFO landing sites.

I might try to collect the eggs as Megan lays them & keep them until there is enough to sit on? Will see how we go.

 

[Supreme Emu]

Hi, Megzy. I guessed that you are in Oz when you mentioned the goanna. I'm near Albany. My birds are tame – no fences.

The article on emus at Wikipedia is good (and they don't want to make emus into biltong); but I'd love people to read it and other articles, and decide what is true and what is not. Several articles, for instance, say that emus drink gallons of water a day – boy!! That's a whole lot of sipsipsipsipsipsipsip!

Do you know what species your birds are?

I had two clutches of five chicks at my place at the same time this week. Fourteen emus in sight at one time.

No one seems to have boring names for their emus! I have heard Enoch, Alan, Bert and Ernie, Plop Plop, Jazzy, and Number One . . . and now Megan.

Supreme Emu
Rocky Gully, W.A.

 

[zazouse]

Quote:

NO FENCES

..
Are you saying you free range emus?

 

[chickenzoo]

Quote:

NO FENCES

..
Are you saying you free range emus?

His are not pets, but tamer wild emus. They own him........

 

[Megzy]

A quick update - My computer monitor broke down & have just replaced it so havent been on for a while.

We found the nest & we now have 5 good eggs, they have broken about 4 eggs so far. I actually put the random eggs in a totally different place to where the nest is, so they must have thought it was a strange egg & not theirs???

Barry is still a bit weird, its not aggressive so much. Think he actually wants to mate with anything or anyone who goes near him. He must not know he is an emu!!