List Of Breeders?

[Sumatra503]

Since I am looking for eggs and chicks and I know a few others here are I thought perhaps a list of people who will have eggs, chicks, or adult birds available this breeding season would be a nice thing to have.

Will anyone out there have anything ratite related for sale this year?

 

[bensteph821]

Yes , we have Ostrich chicks for sale between 2 1/2 months and 4 months old..pennsylvania here

 

[farmchick897]

I plan to let my emus hatch their eggs this year rather then sell the eggs. So I should have babies around April for sale in KY.

 

[Nicophorus]

Is there really that much demand for emus these days? There seems to be at least several breeders here in Florida, is there a shortage of breeders in the north? I would not mind getting into emu breeding more if I thought there was a good demand for them. I just do not want to end up with 100+ emus I can't sell...

 

[haleyh-LHP]

If interested I'm selling my young male/female pair of emu. I am in PA

 

[casuarius]

Quote:
There is no demand for Emus. These days, they are strictly pets. The demand is growing slowly for Ostriches, and you can sell them for meat if you find the right buyers. I stopped breeding Emus completely because I couldnt even give them away. Rheas seem to sell fairly well, prices have went up on them because of the rarity. I get $600/pr for young greys and $1000/pr for whites.

 

[Nicophorus]

That is what I figured. Fortunatly, I'm pretty happy with how tame and "fun" they are as pets (so far). I hate to breed animals that there is no demand for (see all the homeless dogs in the shelters for example), but with Emus you can at least have some very beautiful eggs to give as gifts or sell (for crafts/decorations). So a pet that gives back , in a way.

 

[foulman007]

I had no problem selling 20+ chicks this year and could have sold a lot more if i had them. most of the people who bought them drove 2 or more hours. I only sold 1 to people on byc..

 

[Nicophorus]

I've been googling articles about emus and a lot of horror stories come up about the late 1990's with people just letting hundreds go free at a time, or letting large flocks starve to death and even one about two texas doctors useing a baseball bat to kill 100 before police came to stop them.

Seems like it was a big time ponzi scheme back in the day.

 

[casuarius]

My last Adults I started at $200 each, and after months of not selling I finally got rid of them at $50 each. Chicks seem to sell better, and i've been able to get $100 each for them. You don't make much profit off of them, if any at all by the time you keep and feed them up to a good size. I suppose it varies by location and interests. The eggs do sell well for decorations, usually around $10 each. During the 1990's Ratites were nearly eradicated in the US as you mentioned. Ostich, Emus, and Rheas were all killed in masses because of the huge market drop over night. It was a big money making scheme anyway, and the birds were being sold at insane prices. $20,000 or more for a pair of Emu's, and more for Ostriches. They were selling too high to market the meat at a affordable price. There were never as many Rheas in here as there were Emus and Ostriches, so the slaughtering really hurt the Rheas, making them the rarest of the 3. I still love Emus as pets though