Tis the Season For Emu Eggs And Chicks!

Archive from the old Critter Blog about emus. Lots of fun was had, and some interesting pics too. Hope you enjoy...

Original date - November 27 2005

Welp, we're moving into the dark of the year. The days are getting shorter, it's getting colder, and it's raining all the time. What does all this mean, other than I had to pull out my head lamp to do the evening feeding and watering after getting home from work?It's time for Emu Eggs!

November is when our birds start laying and we're starting to search the pens for eggs. Now what's this you say? Wild birds don't lay eggs in the winter - yes I know that it's not really winter here yet, but it sure feels like it! As you may or may not know, emus are from Australia, and they do everything the opposite from what a regular bird would do. Instead of the spring, they lay in the winter, instead of the morning or the day, they lay the eggs at night, and the rooster actually sets the nest and rears the chicks instead of the hen or both parents.

Last year, Harold decided to pull out the incubator and hatch some eggs, and I believe that we will do it again this year. What an adventure! The incubator is sort of large, and the bathroom, which is normally fairly good sized, gets kind of cramped when the incubator is set up in there. Incubation lasts for about 50 days, at the end of which the big day happens, well, actually the big days, we usually stagger the setting of the eggs over the space of a few days.

The first thing we notice is that the eggs start to move, as the chicks are turning inside, and when you put the egg to your ear you can hear the chick inside chirp and whistle. If you whistle at the egg the chick will actually answer you. We keep a close eye on the eggs that show activity and within a day or so of them starting to talk they'll pip, that is they'll break open the egg. It can take up to a day for a chick to hatch, during which time we keep a close eye on them to ensure that they don't dry out and to also make sure that they don't get stuck. If they don't come out in a reasonable amount of time they can have leg and spine problems, if they come out too soon they will not have absorbed the blood from the membrane in the egg and they can bleed out through the umbilical cord. Yes birds really do have belly buttons, for a little while after hatching anyway.



In the pic above you can see just how cramped they are in that egg and how, if they don't get out in time, they can have developmental problems.

After hatching, they spend some time in the bottome tray of the incubator. This allows them time to dry off, and for the belly button to close. Then it's on to the great indoors of the brooding area!


Last winter, the emu chicks spent the better part of 6 weeks in our bath tub. Talk about an adventure! And a lot of cleaning too. It wasn't so bad when the chicks were up to a few weeks old, but as they say, the bigger the bird the bigger the mess, and by the time they were old enough to go outside, I was cleaning the tub a couple of times a day, and really regretting the days when it was going to rain, as I had a large cage rigged for them to have a turn out during the day when it was warm. On rainy days they were in the tub all day, and I'd be cleaning 3 times that day.

To ensure that the chicks don't get a condition called 'splay legs' I used pieces of carpet on the floor of the tub to give them traction. It's cheap, we know some carpet layers and got some used carpet from a tear out for free, and it's also easy to clean and pretty sturdy. I was able to hose off the dirty carpet and then hang it up to dry, having enough pieces that I could have several pieces for backup. I also placed the feed and water bowls at opposite ends of the tub. This encouraged the chicks to move, and it also kept the feed and water getting to contaminated. Emu chicks are not one of nature's most agile animals, and they have a real tendancy to trip over things and stumble. They also tend to want to go through the water and feed dishes as opposed to going around them.



Having the chicks in the house like this is inconvenient for us, but it does make it easier to handle them a lot. It's always been my oppinion that for animals to do well in captivity, they really need to be comfortable with humans and the things that go along with the human world. The way we approach this, is to handle the animals quite a bit when they're young and impressionable.

My approach to hardening the chicks off, that is the process of weaning them off of the heat lamp and conditioning them to tolerate outside weather is to raise the heat lamp a few inches every few days. As I can see the birds moving farther and farther from the lamp and each other when they sleep, I can move the lamp higher and higher, until they are off the lamp during the day, and then day and night. At this point they are ready to go outside for short periods of time during the day when the sun is out and it's warm. We keep an eye on them and if at any time they start shivering, they are brought back in the house. It takes a few weeks, but eventually they are ready to move to the barn.

That first day in the barn is always exciting for the chicks. Emu chicks are incredibly curious about things, especially ones that are raised our way. Because they are exposed to many new things from that first day out of the incubator, they grow up pretty bold, they think new things are the order of the day, every day, and they are very good at being able to adapt quickly to new things, situations and environments. Emus are also attracted to contrasty and shiny objects. The area on the back side of the barn where I move them to has a rough concrete floor, and is about 15' X 8', so they have plenty of traction, and lots of room to run, and run they do. One of a young emu's favorite things to do is to run and dance!

Surprise, It's A Llama!

Last Sunday, Harold came home from tooling around and a trip to the store with an announcement. "You have a photo shoot at 3pm." He proclaimed gleefully. "What am I shooting?" I asked with a bit of trepidation. "Oh, you'll see. You're going to need a lot of film though." He replied.
During the next few hours he teased me with bits of information, like 'We're going to need the horse trailer', and 'I bought something'. Having been around Harold for quite a while, I knew that something was up, obviously, but I held off getting too excited or trying to dig any more information about what I was shooting or what he had bought. At one point, he hinted that it could be a potbellied pig, but I knew better. We don't have a containment area good enough to keep a pig. So that was out. But also knowing Harold, it could be almost anything. So I adopted a wait and see attitude.
I've been around animals of all sorts, both domestic and exotic, all my life and have been studying animal behavior and training animals privately for over 30 years, so I wasn't too worried about what ever kind of critter Harold might have bought. What ever it was it would have a home at our farm. And Harold is aware of the permitting requirements for various exotics, so I knew I didn't have to worry about that. Truth to tell, I was kind of excited. I love working with different animals, you learn something new with each individual and with each species or breed you work with. Harold knows it's OK to bring anything home, as long as it's legal to have. If the animal doesn't fit in, I'll find it a home where it will.
Anyway, around 2:30 we head over to Bi-Mart to pick up film and batteries for the film camera. I usually shoot digital, but not knowing how many pictures I was on the hook to take, I figured lots of film was the order of the day, given the fact that my digital will only hold a bit over 100 high res images. And then we headed off to the shoot.
A couple of miles from our farm there is a farm that raises rare livestock and a few exotics. As I was to find out, they have the most impressive herd of Zebu cattle I've ever seen. This was our destination. The Zebu have to be seen to be believed. Their largest bull looks like he just stepped off the wall of an Egyptian toomb, he's absolutely breathtaking, and a big baby doll to boot.
But getting back to the story -
We pulled up to the gate and one of the owners let us in. The first fellow to greet us was an adorable young llama who's name I was to find out, is Niki-Nik. Niki was all over us as soon as we came through the gate. Not pushy, but polite and inquisitive. He was absolutely charming, he still is in fact. Harold looked at me and asked if I liked him. I said 'Sure', where upon he said, "That's good because he's yours".
Was I surprised? You bet. Was I happy? Right again.
The owners of the farm gave us an extensive tour, which lasted around an hour and a half, and I have to say, I was very impressed. As I mentioned before, they have 3 of the 4 main types of Zebu, from the huge bull I described above, to the diminutive miniature Zebu. These little cattle are smaller than the calf our Angus/Jersey cow had, and the calves are absolutely tiny. They also have other interesting animals. I'll see if they will allow me to write something about their farm. They are a wealth of information on a wide range of animals both rare livestock to exotics.
After the tour it was time to load Niki into the truck. The fellow reached down and lifted Niki up, placing him on the tail gait of Harold's truck and we ushered him in under the canopy. Closing the back of the truck and securing it, we got in and headed home. Niki quickly took to the experience and laid down. When we go him home we let him out into a lock up area we have between the emu compound and the back yard. He go out of the truck and made himself at home, exploring and sampling the vegetation in the back garden.
The horses, were, to say the least, fascinated by him. Especially Melora, my Lipizzan mare. Melora is a sucker for any baby, and Niki being only 4 months old fit the bill just fine. Even Gizmo, the Lipizzan stallion, was intrigued by him. Rocky, the Paint stallion was curious, and the emus just didn't know what to make of him.

Niki browses as Melora looks on.

Gizmo, the first horse to meet Niki.



The emus just couldn't figure him out. Emus are funny that way, they'll flare out and run and dance about, then come back all full of curiosity.