Shipped Emu Hatching Egg

[Nyhillbillies]

Do you have other poultry? Are emus poultry? I see other hatching emu threads at the bottom of the page here!

 

[Sneakyturtle]

Haha they are just pets for me. If you raise them to be processed, you can get different products from them (emu meat, emu oil, emu leather), so some people do that. I just like them because they are entertaining and friendly. You can breed them and sell their offspring, so I might do that when mine are older.

They are just a little more calmer and better pets than my chickens and ducks. If I go out in their pasture and sit down, they will come up to me and plop down next to me to be petted. Some of my chickens will tolerate petting for a minute, and my ducks will tolerate it if I'm feeding them mealworms, but my emus seem to actually enjoy the affection. They are very curious and always come up to the fence to be petted when we have people over. They also will randomly get the zoomies and its super cute.

 

[Sneakyturtle]

Do you have other poultry? Are emus poultry? I see other hatching emu threads at the bottom of the page here!

I think they are poultry... but they are also considered ratites, which is the group of large flightless birds including kiwis, emus, cassowaries, and ostriches.

I have looked through the emu hatching threads and gotten some good information. But I don't think anyone has started one for this year yet.

 

[Nyhillbillies]

Haha they are just pets for me. If you raise them to be processed, you can get different products from them (emu meat, emu oil, emu leather), so some people do that. I just like them because they are entertaining and friendly. You can breed them and sell their offspring, so I might do that when mine are older.

They are just a little more calmer and better pets than my chickens and ducks. If I go out in their pasture and sit down, they will come up to me and plop down next to me to be petted. Some of my chickens will tolerate petting for a minute, and my ducks will tolerate it if I'm feeding them mealworms, but my emus seem to actually enjoy the affection. They are very curious and always come up to the fence to be petted when we have people over. They also will randomly get the zoomies and its super cute.

We’re vegetarians, the closest we will ever get to ‘processing’ any animal is collecting eggs daily to eat or feed to our little flock.
Are they natural guard animals like llamas?

 

[Sneakyturtle]

We’re vegetarians, the closest we will ever get to ‘processing’ any animal is collecting eggs daily to eat or feed to our little flock.
Are they natural guard animals like llamas?

They definitely can be, they will chase off anything small that gets into their pasture. They are fenced off from my other poultry though because I don't trust them not to chase and hurt my other poultry because they are so big. But they have the back 3 acres of my 10 acre property, so foxes and coyotes never make it past the emu pasture before they get chased off. At least I have never seen a fox or coyote closer to my house where the chickens/ducks/guineas are, but I have seen them in the back of the emu pasture before, and I have seen the emus chase them when they are spotted.

 

[Sneakyturtle]

My third egg arrived today! Unfortunately, it was 18 degrees here when I went out to take care of the chickens this morning so that might affect the viability of the egg.

The seller sent good instructions, which is nice:

I’m leaving it out at room temperature today then before I go to bed I plan on putting it in the incubator.

Right now it weighs 630.5 g.

 

[Nyhillbillies]

This is exciting!!
Just how big is big when they are grown?? And, do they have a coop?

 

[Nyhillbillies]

And…. The big question : if baby emus integrated with grown chicken hens, would they most likely be accepted as a member of the flock, and safe to raise up with?

 

[Sneakyturtle]

This is exciting!!
Just how big is big when they are grown?? And, do they have a coop?

Mine aren’t completely full grown yet but they can get up to 6 ft tall and around 120 lbs when completely grown. They have a janky metal shed that I throw a bunch of straw into so they can have something to get out of inclement weather, but they usually stay outside even when it’s raining or snowing. I also have some of those cheap chicken runs you can get on Amazon, that I had covered in tarps last year to give them more room to get out of rain or snow, but the tarps are completely ruined a year later and I haven’t gotten around to replacing the tarps yet.

 

[Sneakyturtle]

And…. The big question : if baby emus integrated with grown chicken hens, would they most likely be accepted as a member of the flock, and safe to raise up with?

That’s good question. I know a lot of people put a chick or two in with emus when they are first born so the chick can teach them how to eat or drink, but usually most people separate them when the emu gets bigger. I don’t think an emu that was raised with hens would intentionally hurt a chicken that it knew, but it might accidentally just because of the size difference. I think if it was in a big enough pasture, it would most likely be fine, but it would also depend on the individual emu.