Emu Hatch-a-long 2012

[Ellamumu]

Good Morning All,

Now that my Emus have hatched and/or are hatching I need to finish up their living quarters. I've given them about 1/2 acre or more of open space and partial pine grove. I live in the Northeast just south of Boston. My question is are there any plants that are particularly dangerous for Emu? Also, what plantings could I add to give them a more natural and beneficial environment. Maybe this is the wrong thread but I really like all of the advice the seasoned emu keepers have been giving.

Thanks in advance........

I live in NH and we have nightshade,which i have to keep ripping out because it looks like delicious little blueberries! The funny thing about nightshade is if the berries are completely ripe you can eat them , but if they're not quite ripe, poison,! I don't take a chance as soon as I see the plants they get ripped out!

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Kiri,

It’s wonderful that you have asked this question!! I am full of ideas on this subject, though I am an observer of wild emus, not a keeper of pet emus.

There are indications that shrubs and trees are beneficial because they give the birds the chance to get out of one another’s way. In a way, then, a pen is ‘bigger’ if there are shrubs and small trees in it. Check out the Youtube clip ‘Crazy Emu Dance.’ The birds are enjoying a spazzy dance, a very normal morning behaviour – but their environment is outstanding.

Can you encourage the growth of things that emus like? People mention dandelions. They love spinach. Almost any sort of ‘fresh pick.’ Clover? Wild birds eat a truly amazing array of things. They go into the maze of the old sheep-yards here in order to eat thistles.

When you are out and about, perhaps at a farm or in the country, pick examples of every flower and berry and grass species that you see growing hardily and in abundance. Offer them to your birds. If they scoff them up, they are Yummy for emus. There’s a little yellow flower here – I don’t know it’s name – that emus will, quite literally, eat by the hundred. They get down on their hocks in spring, and decapitate these things for hours.

Fig trees? They luuuurv figs. They will jump up off the ground over a foot – it’s hilarious to see their tooshes jumping up and down – to get to the figs. As an experiment, I once heaved about forty figs down Greedy the Emu’s throat in under three minutes. In fig season, they'll eat them until their pooh is fig green.

A tree called a ‘lilly pilly’? It’s an Australian native – can you get them where you are? Emus similarly luuuurv lilly pillies (and they bear truly profusely).

Fruit trees? Pears, plums, apricots. I counted over 110 apricot stones in a single pooh of a wild bird that hangs out here. The photo is of the Omega Chick scoffing a plum from one of the trees here. If there is fallen fruit available, emus will make it a central part of their diet. Also, good patches of grass will survive much longer under those trees as summer comes on, and that grass will return first when autumn rains come.

There is a bush here with an old ‘feral’ grape vine growing in the middle, and wild birds will shove their way so far in that you can only see their tail feathers sticking out. You can train grapes along fences, and once they are established, will bear fruit forever without any input on your part.

Suppose you planted patches of different grass species, then patiently watched which ones they grazed on. In the wild, while watching wild birds on large pastures, you see that they spend surprising amounts of time grazing on small areas – a half an hour on an area a half the size of a tennis court. That is, they seek out the species that they like best. (A while ago, I got to watch through binoculars a male with six chicks graze for about a half an hour on a large pasture before they noticed me, and skedaddled.)

It would be a great contribution if you provided reports over time on the development of your birds’ environment.

I note in closing that the excersize that the birds get in stretching and tearing down fruit, and cropping as they graze, is, I suspect, a real contribution to their health (including chicks: you can hang bunches of spinach in their chick pen).

Supreme Emu

Rocky Gully

Western Australia

 

[yinepu]

Avie’s idea – pooling statistics – is a good idea, I think (and another candidate for a 'standing-thread').

Guys, I’d be grateful to anyone who has bred/hatched a lot of emus, and can tell me anything about the ratio between males and females. (It has to do with figurin’ out the mating-dynamic of the wild birds.)

Supreme Emu
Western Australia

I think every single one that I hatched out this year was male...


someone has to be hatching out all of my girls!!

 

[yinepu]

Kiri,

It’s wonderful that you have asked this question!! I am full of ideas on this subject, though I am an observer of wild emus, not a keeper of pet emus.

There are indications that shrubs and trees are beneficial because they give the birds the chance to get out of one another’s way. In a way, then, a pen is ‘bigger’ if there are shrubs and small trees in it. Check out the Youtube clip ‘Crazy Emu Dance.’ The birds are enjoying a spazzy dance, a very normal morning behaviour – but their environment is outstanding.

Can you encourage the growth of things that emus like? People mention dandelions. They love spinach. Almost any sort of ‘fresh pick.’ Clover? Wild birds eat a truly amazing array of things. They go into the maze of the old sheep-yards here in order to eat thistles.

When you are out and about, perhaps at a farm or in the country, pick examples of every flower and berry and grass species that you see growing hardily and in abundance. Offer them to your birds. If they scoff them up, they are Yummy for emus. There’s a little yellow flower here – I don’t know it’s name – that emus will, quite literally, eat by the hundred. They get down on their hocks in spring, and decapitate these things for hours.

Fig trees? They luuuurv figs. They will jump up off the ground over a foot – it’s hilarious to see their tooshes jumping up and down – to get to the figs. As an experiment, I once heaved about forty figs down Greedy the Emu’s throat in under three minutes. In fig season, they'll eat them until their pooh is fig green.

A tree called a ‘lilly pilly’? It’s an Australian native – can you get them where you are? Emus similarly luuuurv lilly pillies (and they bear truly profusely).

Fruit trees? Pears, plums, apricots. I counted over 110 apricot stones in a single pooh of a wild bird that hangs out here. The photo is of the Omega Chick scoffing a plum from one of the trees here. If there is fallen fruit available, emus will make it a central part of their diet. Also, good patches of grass will survive much longer under those trees as summer comes on, and that grass will return first when autumn rains come.

There is a bush here with an old ‘feral’ grape vine growing in the middle, and wild birds will shove their way so far in that you can only see their tail feathers sticking out. You can train grapes along fences, and once they are established, will bear fruit forever without any input on your part.

Suppose you planted patches of different grass species, then patiently watched which ones they grazed on. In the wild, while watching wild birds on large pastures, you see that they spend surprising amounts of time grazing on small areas – a half an hour on an area a half the size of a tennis court. That is, they seek out the species that they like best. (A while ago, I got to watch through binoculars a male with six chicks graze for about a half an hour on a large pasture before they noticed me, and skedaddled.)

It would be a great contribution if you provided reports over time on the development of your birds’ environment.

I note in closing that the excersize that the birds get in stretching and tearing down fruit, and cropping as they graze, is, I suspect, a real contribution to their health (including chicks: you can hang bunches of spinach in their chick pen).

Supreme Emu

Rocky Gully

Western Australia

Lilly Pilly is a type of myrtle (Syzygium)

I know we can get myrtles.. would just have to check further into the exact type

 

[Grassman 52]

day 52 - 3 Chirping away and 4 waiting

Day 45/46 for 6 eggs

Pogo passed his little green stool and I placed chopped greens in his food and water er - he was eating and drinking - things are right on track.

I also need to get the enclosure ready - I have about 2 acres fenced in with no-climb horse fence - need to put in a grow-out pen.



Here is my current set-up
Three buildings - 12x12 chicken coop - 8 x 16 - duck house - three sided goose hut 6 X10
Outside of the enclosure - I have a brooder shed with metal tanks that I use as brooders

You can see a few birds out this morning - I have 6 geese (one goose sitting on a nest) about 20 chickens (two roosters) - about 30 Muscovy ducks. All my bird numbers go up and down as I hatch and sell.

I have shade along both sides and hardwood tress in the back - plus the chicken coop is on blocks that give about 1 foot in height and during the day the ducks and chickens sleep under it in the cool shade - Have two large plastic pools and two smaller ones that are always filled with clean water

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Hey, Yinepu!

Well, let’s co-operate on this one. I will post a picture tomorrow.

I kid you not, readers, this particular type of tree bears fabulously well, and emus love the purple berries. After the figs cut out here, the wild birds squabble at the lilly pilly. It’s the tree that I have said brings the birds to within thirty feet of the house. I have a long pole, and I give the tree a flogging every morning in season, to bring down berries. The birds forage like giant chickens beneath it.


Here is Audacious, with the lilly pilly on the left of the photo. It's early in the season, so the clusters aren't yet visible:


S.E.

 

[Grassman 52]

say hello to Hugo - Pogo's brother or sister 366g actually 67% of starting egg weight - right on Target

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Here is the lily pilly. It’s early season. The darker ones are ripe. They are larger. The smaller bunch is immature. The bunches will get bigger:






s.e.

 

[Kiril749]

I don't know if lily pilly would grow in New England. We have warm to hot summers but very cold winters as well.....

And good news, our second egg pipped externally so Sydney is gonna have a play mate soon. And egg three is still moving. It's day 55 so I'm holding out hope for that one as well.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Pretty impressive, Grassman!

And the lilly pilly thing: my thought is that we should all patiently co-operate -- 'standing-thread'!! -- to gather knowledge of what emus like, and what grows where.

My position is most most fortunate in that I have natural grasses and introduced grasses and various fruit trees; and I can observe the emus eating or not eating them.

For example, peaches weren't on the list 'cause they are a big big for emus to swallow, and the stones have a wicked little barb on the end, which may cause internal injury.


S.E.