I stop turning when I hear chirping.
Grassman Congrats! I couldn't kill my Emus for meat. I wanted a pair but if I ended up with 2 pairs I was going to donate one pair to our local zoo. There I know they would be taken care of.Next year is another try and I will see if the zoo wants any
Kiril Maybe you can but a male from Grassman or Yinepu? Congrats on the girls
dare I tell you that I have emu meat in the fridge and freezer right now?
Yoda
I know raising birds for meat is a tough thing to do - I raise a lot of ducks and geese and I do eat many of them during the year and sell the rest so I have room for my hobby - Hatching eggs
Now I say I have a plan - keep a few breeding pairs and process the balance, but it's only a plan at this point in time. Everyday I walk the chicks from their shed (where they spend the night) to the chick run where they can exercise. The more time I spend with them - may change my business plan.
My main flock consists of around: 40 breeder birds (4 Emus) - during hatching I can easily have 200 or more birds on hand
15 layer chickens with two roosters - enough eggs for the family to eat and fertilized eggs for hatching.
6 Geese - 4 geese and 2 ganders - sell hatching eggs in the spring along with goslings.
15 Muscovy ducks - 13 ducks and 2 drakes. Raise and sell ducklings and meat birds.
9 Emus - 7 males and 2 females (the ratio will not work in the long run)
Grassman.. have you ever tasted emu meat?
If so then I won't have to tell you this.. but it is delicious.. like very tender flavorful veal.. super tender (don't even need a knife to cut it). In all honesty if we had the land and resources we would probably do away with the chickens and raise just emu for meat and perhaps some ducks for meat and eggs
Just within the past few weeks we had emu stew and emu steaks... plenty more meat in the freezer and fridge.
for our birds there are a few that we wouldn't kill for the meat.. Paco and Dorian (and Rose since she's our only girl at this point)
If something were to happen to any of them Paco is still the only one I don't think I could put a fork to. He's my baby.. however if Dorian or Rose were to die from an accident or need to be put down due to injuries... we wouldn't waste the meat. Yes.. we love them.. but they aren't my silly ol Paco.. and well.. wasted meat is just that.. wasted meat
We have re-homed a few of the emu chicks since we ended up with so many boys... if one of the final two chicks ends up being a female then she will be spared from Freezer Camp unless she ends up getting seriously hurt. The other chick is still debatable... I still have them running up to greet me every day.. looking for attention and snacks. But my ducks, geese and chickens do the same thing (as do the turkeys and pigeons). We aren't super rich.. so the birds are here for a reason.. breeders, meat, eggs and finally a select few as pets. Since we have so many it's just not in our best interests to make all of them pets.
Next year we will be hatching out more.. hopefully to get a few more females. Excess males will either be rehomed to people who need a male.. or grow out for the freezer.
