Emus? Why?

[briefvisit]

I observed the rothschildis of my district.

Tremendously interesting species: 99% dinosaur, gynocentric; the male parents, and the chicks he raises are only half his own; and their territories are big enough to make effective observation of their territorial behaviours quite practical.

 

[drumstick diva]

They are fascinating

 

[Akrnaf2]

One reason to have them.....

 

[BreanneRN]

I had an emu for 20 years, it was given to me by someone who had to get rid of it as she had too many birds and someone complained. They had complained about the noise from her parrots, but she got rid of the emu chicks instead... They are really interesting birds, very old, having existed as they are for millions of years, so they say. They are like living dinosaurs. Females lay the large green eggs that look kind of like avocados, but the male bird sets on the eggs and raises the chicks without any female help. The female continues to lay eggs through the egg laying season with a series of different males. The eggs taste of iron and they will turn pink if exposed to air, while you are cooking them. The meat is red and also high in iron. Mostly people eat the thigh meat and it is supposed to taste like beef, somewhat, a red meat. To harvest the oil/fat (which is good for arthritis complaints, dry skin, bedsores and other skin issues) you have to kill the bird and render the fat by boiling the fat pad located on the back of the bird. Big bird from Sesame street was patterned after an emu but colored like a baby chick. I called my emu Big Bird!
Emus live for a very long time, I had mine for over 20 years. You can tell the males from the females by the sounds they make, males "grunt" and females "drum". The drumming is moderately loud and sounds like native tribal drumming that you might hear in an african movie. I raised my emu from the time it was the size of a turkey. He ate about 2 quarts of food a day, liked corn and fruit as snacks, loved pomegranates and grapes. Once you have an emu, it is hard to get rid of it, as they don't travel well, can wind up with broken legs. The best way is to fill a horse trailer with a few feet of wood shavings. I just kept mine. He ate as much as a whole flock of chickens but weighed close to 100 pounds so for his size, he was thrifty. I had a hen emu to start with but she got egg bound (I think) and died. Couldn't find any vet that would come out to help her. My male bird was never aggressive but if they defend themselves, I understand they pack a very powerful kick, like being hit by a professional boxer. The wings are small and vestigial, and they don't even flap them. Well, that was my experience having an emu. Still have some of the blown eggs, which I drilled a hole in and drained. I fed him ostrich maintenance until I couldn't get it anymore and then fed him a combination of rabbit pellets and layer pellets and cracked corn. I don't know how long he might have lived. At age 20, some predator got into his pen and chased him out into a canal. I was not able to find him but did not find any remains after the canal dried up, it only ran water periodically. People should think twice or maybe three times about having these birds. They eat a lot, take up a lot of space, and while not mean, can hurt you. Shipping problems make them hard to rehome. The market has not really developed much for the meat and the bird must be killed for the oil which is also hard to market in the raw state.

 

[Akrnaf2]

See this

 

[birdmanmax]

I’ve raised emus for around a year now. Although it feels like a lot longer. We have seven in total now and we had one mature female this past winter (she laid no eggs this winter). Emus can eat a lot and in that sense they are extremely expensive our seven can easily eat 50 pounds of feed in a couple days but we try to supply a diet of mostly greens and pellets as more of a treat. As for the eggs they can sell for $20-$30 as hatching eggs or $10 as blown out eggs. The chicks sell for $100-$200 and adults can be up to $800-$1000 a piece. Emus are commonly butchered for their meat and oil.

 

[BreanneRN]

At that price, those are some extremely expensive drumsticks... Uncertain of what the dressed weight of an emu bird would be exactly...