Incubating Emu Eggs....

[maidmariner]

I have a chance to buy 2 emus at a very reasonable price. We live on 1 acre with 3 miniature horses in the pasture. How hard are emus to raise? Are there usually some kind of county/city code for keeping them? The seller also offered to sell me just eggs because she has another buyer interested if I'm not. She is selling me the eggs for $15 and is local so there would be no shipping. Also, wouldn't I have to have a special incubator for emu eggs? Or can a regular table top one be adjusted to accomodate emu eggs? I would gladly turn them as many times a a day as necessary to hatch out my own. It seems that cabinet incubators that I have been researching are just so expensive.

Sandy

 

[ChanceRider]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=307188

The above link is to a thread that has a lot of good info on hatching emu eggs. I believe a standard (not emu) incubator was used. I have 4 GQF cabinet bators, each was orginally set up for hatching emu eggs. I guess quite a few people used to raise emus commercially in our area as these bators are fairly easy to come by. I lucked out and bought two off a CraigsList ad, for $50.00 each, and bought one from a friend for $150.00. with all those incubators though, I simply let my male, Enoch, sit on the eggs to hatch them. He's a great broody and good with his chicks.

Personally I'd go with the hatching eggs, rather than the older emus. The recently hatched chicks will really bond with you and would be easy to work with, train to walk on a harness/leash, etc. It depends upon how tame the pair of birds are, and if you have an incubator to use. The newly hatched chicks are beautiful with feather patterns that fade away as they grow out.

My emus are quite easy to keep. They eat a commercially prepared ratite feed; we have a couple of different brands available at local feed stores. Emus can, if raised with other livestock from a young age, easily get along with other animals. I gave a pair of chicks to a friend who keeps them in with goats and llamas. We built an 8' x 8' run in shelter for my birds and they completely ignore it except to eat as I keep their feeder in their shed. We have 100 degree summers and snowy winters and the birds do great.

I hope you're able to get emus, they're so neat! Sorry I don't know about county codes on keeping them, it depends upon your area.

Good luck!