Emu Essentials

So far this year we, at GEE Funny Farm have found seven emu eggs; one had cracked because it froze before we found it.  The others have been put into an incubator.  Temperature and humidity have to be monitored and the eggs need to be turned at least three times a day. 

Here the emu eggs are in our incubator.  You can see the heating element on top, the fan to circulate the air, the six eggs (the chalk mark is the date they were found), the container I add water to so the eggs don't dry out, and the thermometer/humidity monitor.

Emus are the largest bird native to Australia.  Males and females look alike but make very different sounds.  An adult emu can weigh between 90-150 pounds and stand between five and half feet to six feet tall.  They can run up to 45 miles per hour in short bursts, run in a zigzag pattern, and have a stride of up to nine feet!  And emus can swim!  Our emus like to lounge in a horse trough, kid's swimming pool, or mud (things we have available).  They will also come to be sprayed with the hose or play in the sprinkler.

Emu (I found it on the Internet) on the run!  Ours run, but I've never gotten such a good shot!

Our emu, Eunice, chasing the mini donkey -- or at least running in his direction!

  

Our emus play in a kid's pool.

Emus are ratites, related to ostriches (Africa), cassowaries (New Guinea and North-Eastern Australia), rheas (South America), and kiwis (New Zealand). The only bird larger than the emu is the ostrich. 
 

Ostrich -- notice it's big (relative to the emu) wings.

Eunice, our emu.

A cassowary -- beautiful colors, and the third largest bird.  Also known to be very territorial.

 

A rhea.  I guess it could be called the South American ostrich...

A brown kiwi.  You can only see kiwis in New Zealand since they are not allowed to be exported.

Ratite means 'flat breast-bone with no keel,' therefore these birds do not have any flesh in the breast area and this is one of the reasons that they cannot fly.  While ostriches have big wings, emu wings are only about eight inches long.  Also, ratite feathers are not aerodynamic and ratites have solid bones instead of the hollow bones that most birds have.

Here is a close up picture of an emu wing that I found on the Internet.  Eunice will let me show hers, so I need to get a picture of that!

 While ostriches have two toes, emus have three.  They can use their big strong feet for defense, but emus are usually calm and docile.

Emu feet.

 Interestingly, several sites say that emus mate and lay eggs in May and June -- if only that OUR experience!!  Other sites say that breeding and laying season starts as early as September and runs through March -- THAT is closer to our experience!  Our emu has laid eggs beginning in December, though this year it was almost the end of January before we found our first egg.  Emus can lay 20-50 eggs in a season.  Luckily ours has never laid more than about 15.  We usually find about 10-12 eggs through the season.  In the past, we tried different ways to save the eggs until it warmed up enough for the male to sit on the clutch (the group of eggs), but it is too long a wait in Wisconsin and none of the eggs have hatched, though our male has sat them diligently for about eight weeks, taking no food or water.  The male emu uses the body fat he has stored during the eight weeks and only drinks what he can reach (the sites say 'dew' but we try to keep water near him).  He only stands to turn the eggs and it is the male that raises the chicks once they hatch.

This gives you an idea of the sizes of ratite eggs, compared to a chicken egg.  Actually, the kiwi , which is small compared to other ratites, claims the 3rd largest egg, though in this picture it looks like the rhea's is larger.

 

A variety of emu eggs.  Ours are always the dark green color found in the upper left-hand side of this photo.  It would be fun to have this variety!

Emus are sometimes referred to as 'the most useable bird' because they are known for their unique oil (found in the pad on their back - that they use to regulate body temperature), their iron-packed meat (that tastes more like very lean beef than chicken), their fine leather, unusual feathers, their toenails, and their green eggs -- the last three items are used for decorative purposes.

Some products made from emu oil.

 

Emu meat.

Yep, a Harley Davidson cap made from emu leather!

An emu feather -- notice 2 feathers in one quill!

A fan made from emu feathers.

A beaded necklace with emu feather accents.

A necklace with an emu toenail accent.

An emu egg being etched.

A carved emu egg.

A painted emu egg with combed emu feathers.

Pendant lamps made from emu shells.

 The emu is curious and docile, as mentioned before.  Our emus have followed us around, taking our caps, our tools, my gloves and then running off a ways.  We can always retrieve the stolen items.

Eunice, our emu, checking our the new 'toy' for the goats.

Chicks are about ten inches tall at birth with black and white stripes on a brown background.  When they are about three months old, the chicks turn nearly black.  Then, as adults, their feathers change again into a tan, brown, and black mixture.  Chicks grow very quickly, up to two pounds a week, and are fully grown in twelve to fourteen months.  In the wild, they stay with their family group for about another six months before they split up to breed in their second season.

These chicks hatched about three weeks apart -- you can see the difference in size!

Here are the two chicks on their first day outside.  You can see that the larger one is close to three months.  The stripes are gone and the feathers are coming in black.

Emus are hardy and can survive in extreme temperatures, which is good thing in Wisconsin!  We like them very much, though our favorite is Eunice, our female who hasn't bonded with any male.  We loved having the experience of having chicks last year and hope that we end up with at least a couple this year!  We hope that you get the experience of seeing our emus and at least one chick.  They are wondrous birds!

Emu Chicks at GEE Funny Farm!

It has been an exciting two weeks at the GEE Funny Farm.  We’ve had three of our emu eggs hatch.  The first one was a surprise just because though we have had eggs in the past none have hatched.  On February 27, there was a flurry of activity as Kathy read up on what to do with newly hatched emu chicks.  We were surprised that the little guy seemed so weak.  He could barely hold his head up and it took three days before he could walk.  How could a emu chick in the wild survive?!?!

The first chick, still in the incubator....

Hatching from its egg...

So cute baby emu!

While the Internet can be a wonderful source of information, it can also be an instrument of frustration.  There are several emu farmers (people who raise emus for their meat and oil) and like every other farmer, probably, each one has an opinion.  I am also in a ‘group’ of emu people and they are mostly farmers, too, with little understanding for people who raise emus as pets.  Needless to say, it was tough to get information that gelled with all parties.

As our very cute first chick got a bit older, he did not eat on his own – it seemed, from what I read, that emu chicks like chicken chicks would start pecking at things and just had to be guided to food.  I ended up hand feeding him with a eye dropper.  He also seemed to have less and less control of his legs, with them splaying in opposite directions – and walking seemed an impossible feat.  However, he is a stoic little guy and is finally eating on his own, though I still encourage water drinking since I don’t actually see him do that on his own.

Our next emu chick hatched on March 9.  Upon hatching, we noticed that it was considerably bigger than our first chick AND he could support its head immediately and could walk soon after hatching.  An aha moment as we realized that our first chick was not really ‘normal.’  The 2^nd chick ate greedily by the 3^rd day and we breathed a sigh of relief that he would not have to be handfed.

 Our 2nd emu chick walking, a little.  It is exciting to see it go!

Our 3^rd chick hatched on March 12 and it, too, was huge compared to our first guy (who really didn’t seem small when he hatched).  The 3^rd chick could support its head, but seemed very tired – he did take 8 hours to hatch and it was an exhausting process.   This is the 2^nd day since it hatched and it seems to be somewhere in between the other two:   stronger than the first and not as strong as the second.

While we try to educate others about our animals, we find that we are always learning, too.  Sometimes it is exciting – having emu chicks.  Sometimes it is sad – our first chick isn’t as healthy as we’d like.  But that is life on the farm.  With chickens, only about ¼ of the chicks survive the first 4 days.  We’ve done better than those odds.  We hope and pray for a miracle with our first little guy.  We hope and pray that the other two, and any that we may have in the future, will be healthy.  We are grateful for this very cool experience!!

 This is what greeted us at 6:30 am on March 12. 

You can see it finally free itself from its egg on the GEE Funny Farm Facebook page!