Need Advice! Emus quit Laying

[WildWoodFarms]

I have a male and female emu....3-4 years old.....laid first egg Nov.28th...and a 2nd egg Dec. 1st or 2nd.....the female has not laid since

Feeding them game bird feed, veggies, oyster shell.......plus they have an acre to free range

What is going on? Why is she not laying?

last year she only laid 8 or 10.....not the 20+ eggs everyone else is getting, and she did not lay every 3 days

Please help......we use our emu eggs to supplement our chicken egg production

 

[ES Emus]

maybe put her strictly on a non-medicated breeder-layer pellet diet, works for us... is it possible that she is hiding a nest somewhere?

 

[birdeo]

they will not all lay on a regular schedule and I agree with ES, look for a clutch of eggs or possibly you have a critter getting your eggs.
Coons for one can and will run off with them.
Do you watch this bird closely near dark to see if she's pacing , clucking and acting as if she's getting ready to lay ?
Check the entire area well , look under leaves etc. and maybe you will find a few eggs stashed away.
They usually will tell on themselves by going to the nest and covering /uncovering the eggs too so keep a close eye on them and see if they are hiding any from you !

 

[WildWoodFarms]

After around 4:00 in the afternoon they come back to their barn and pen....which is about 40x200.....she has always laid in the same spot....within a 10x20 area of their pen......but we have searched the whole pen several times......and found nothing

As far as critters are concerned.... that's an impossibility their pen is 8ft tall, 1ft of that is in the ground, and topped....whole pen
is constructed of welded wire (
1. animals cant fit through
2. eggs couldn't fit through
3. nothing can climb over
4. no signs of broken eggs
5. no damaged fencing

I say she just isn't laying.......but why the long hiatus? and what can I do to get her back on track?

 

[yinepu]

If it isn't a physical issue or feed issue then it sounds to me that something may have upset her...

Have you been searching their area too frequently?.. have any new animals or people been around the pair?.. has there been any change of routine?.. When you collect the eggs do you leave "dummy eggs" in their place?.. have you gone over every inch of the free range acre to look for another nesting site?

If an emu feels that her nest has been robbed it may very well put her off laying since she would no longer consider it to be a safe place for her eggs... plus an acre is a good sized area to have an emu egg hunt...


Rose left her nest when the weather made a sudden change.. she laid a few eggs in a different nest then went back to her original nest once the weather straightened out... it took a few days for us to find the alternate nest.. but my husband went out and walked the entire pasture until he found it...

 

[WildWoodFarms]

Thank you everyone for the advice! Happy Holidays!!!