Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have one of the closest living relatives of a dinosaur roaming in your backyard, besides chickens? Are you looking into getting something more exotic and bigger than your average bird? If you have looked into raising emus or want to know more about them, I am here to share my experience and helpful knowledge I have learned hands on (so far) raising my pair.
Neville, my young male emu
Luna, my young female emu
To start out my story, I'll give you a background on how we even obtained these magnificent creatures to begin with.
A few years ago, I was watching videos on YouTube and stumbled across a family that owned emus. I was amazed at how docile they were and thought about how cool it would be to own them ourselves one day. I didn't think much of it for a while, and then one day I was looking on one of my local exotic livestock auctions and saw they were selling pairs. I was interested in going and "impulse buying" a pair to start out with. The only problem was that I am not a fan of auctions and we didn't have a large area fenced in yet. So, I skipped the auction and researched emus and their behavior as well as why people raise them in the first place. After months of research and putting up 3 acres of fencing, my husband and I finally decided to get our own. We wanted young chicks that were DNA sexed from different blood lines, so finding what we wanted was tricky and time consuming. There aren't many breeders in our state (Arkansas), so we looked at other states as well. We found a reliable breeder in our home state of Texas, and he had a lot of chicks to choose from and gladly offered to personally deliver them to us as he was selling the others to a zoo in Memphis, Tennessee and had to make the trip anyways.
After getting our new emu chicks, I can tell you I expected things to be a lot different. They weren't hard to take care of necessarily, but they were downright skittish. I pushed myself on them to try to get them to like me by holding them and petting them, but this only made things worse. Luna and Neville (the emus) ran away, hid in a corner, and would kick if I tried to pet them. After doing more research and asking for advice on an emu Facebook page, I finally decided to let them be. I sat with them every day in a chair and put the food bowl between my feet. They were skittish at first, but they finally gave in and weren't as shy after just a few weeks.
Neville at 6 weeks old
Luna (Left) and Neville (Right) as babies
Since it was still winter when we first got them, they had to be indoors the first few weeks. Once we finally let them outdoors into a small pen with a shelter inside of the fenced 3 acres in the front, they went back to their skittish stage and were what I call "fence runners" where they would run the fence line and try to get out. Neville (the male) even lost feathers on his neck from trying to force his way out of the fence.
A few weeks passed and we finally decided to let them into the bigger area to run around. Luna and Neville showed so much improvement after having more area to run around in. They were no longer "fence runners" and after a while of getting used to the yard, they finally would let me get close again.
Now that Luna and Neville are older, they have become such sweethearts. Out of all of the animals I have ever raised, these two have amazed me at how something so big and scary looking can be so gentle and sweet. Neville is the major lover that will walk up to you and put his neck on your shoulder or lay next to you while you're sitting down. Luna is still standoffish, but this is quite common with female emus from my research. She is a lover too, but only on her terms, and sometimes doesn't want to be pet and will run off. Other than that, they are a joy to have, and we are so thankful to have them on our small hobby farm. We look forward to having at least 4 more.
Luna pecking at the camera.
Luna (Back) and Neville (Front) at around 4 to 5 months
Now that you've heard my story (so far) on how I've obtained my emus in the first place as well as their behavior from chicks until now, here is some more helpful information I've learned from personal experience raising these magnificent birds:
Emus are naturally territorial birds:
If you've thought about getting a guard animal for your other animals you have, consider a pair of guard emus. No, I'm not kidding. Emus are known to be quite territorial birds when it comes to anything foreign coming into their area. This includes chickens or any other animals as well so I recommend raising the emus with chickens or even chicks when they're younger so they're used to them, and always introduce new animals slowly and cautiously. A good tip would be to have the new animal in a pen that the emus can see in to for a few weeks before letting them out to roam with them. Or just simply keep everyone in their own pens.
But seriously, emus can be really good guard animals. I've read many posts from people across the world about how their emus stomped a coyote to death or another predator for that matter. I can definitely say from my experience, if they see something in the yard that isn't supposed to be there, they'll make sure it won't stay long. We recently had a hawk swoop down on our smaller birds and the emus quickly jumped in the air trying to catch the hawk. After they jumped up and hissed at the hawk, it flew off into the woods while they chased it as far as they could. Nothing gets past them and they will surely let you know if something is in the yard.
Emus are more hardy than people think:
Coming from Australia, a lot of people believe emus can only tolerate hot conditions and do not do well in colder conditions. This may be true for those that have negative temperatures for a lengthy amount of time, however, in my own experience and research I have learned just how hardy emus are in varying weather conditions. No matter if it is 100°F or 25°F outside, the emus are always outside of their shelter and never want to use it. Whether it's raining or snowing, emus love running around and exploring the yard with the others and playing. After observing Luna and Neville, I've noticed that they actually prefer to be in the rain rather than not.
Emus love water:
When I say emus love water, I don't mean just drinking water. Emus absolutely love swimming, playing in, and even just looking at water. Like I mentioned above, emus would rather stand in the rain than sit and be dry. They actually try their best not to stay dry. Many times a day, my emus step into on of our smaller water containers and try to swim around. We have a pond that was recently dug and still filling up, yet they love swimming in the water that is in there.
Luna (Left) and Neville (Right) taking a swim in the new watering hole.
Emus are very social birds:
I firmly believe you should have more than one emu, as they do better in a mob (group of emus). If Luna and Neville are separated, usually because one is in the front and the other in the backyard, they call out for each other and run around looking for their mate. I believe emus do better together, as they do in the wild. Sure, you can have just one emu raised with your other animals, but I have always thought that they should have at least one other bird of their species (another emu) to keep them satisfied.
Emus are also very human-social, and enjoy bonding with their owners and taking treats from their hands. Luna and Neville run to the door when they hear me come outside, and always wait by the gate at our driveway when we drive up hoping to get attention.
A male emu at a drive thru exotic zoo (picture is from my mother in law)
So, what's the point in even getting these wild birds?
Many times my husband and I are asked "why do you have emus?" or more on the lines of "what is the purpose of having them?".
Frankly, there is no real answer to this that completely satisfies the person usually asking these questions, but here are a few reasons why we have decided to keep these wonderful creatures and add more in the next few years:
Luna at around 3 to 4 months old
Profit:
Believe it or not, you can actually make a decent profit on your emus, if you have pairs. Selling their eggs online or even locally can make a pretty penny. I noticed this when we were searching for our own emus. Prices for fertile eggs locally and online were $100-150 each most of the time, and non fertile eggs (used for crafts) still sold for around $50 each. That is just the eggs, and people buy these on a hope that they will hatch.
Chicks are quite expensive as well. There was only one local breeder around us at the time, but even her chicks were $250, not sexed. We preferred to have our emu chicks sexed from two different blood lines, so ours were $300 each, but it was worth it since they came from good lines and were delivered personally to us in a crate we got to keep (yay free stuff!). You can also make money off of grown emu pairs or even younger pairs. Older pairs that are proven to mate and have layed eggs go for around $2000-2500+ around us and younger pairs 6 months old or less go for around $1000-1400.
When our two start to mate and lay, we will be selling eggs and chicks depending on what we decide to try doing first. We hope to add at least 4 more of these birds and at least cover feed costs and make a little profit until we figure out what sells the best.
Meat Production:
While we haven't gotten into this, some large emu farms raise emus and butcher them for meat. In some areas, emu meat is becoming a popular choice for red meat. Emus could provide a decent amount of meat for you and your family depending on how many you have, and you could even make a profit on selling the meat depending on the demand in your area.
Companionship or pets:
Emus can be great pets, in my personal opinion. Many people that own emus would agree with me when I say that they can be very friendly and loving in some ways. We were absolutely surprised at how Neville and Luna will just walk up to us for attention. Not only this, but they are great with our dogs and very entertaining to watch. Its hilarious to see the emus and dogs run around the house together. Emus are a lot more docile than people like to think and I believe they can be great companions/pets for someone wanting an animal they can interact with as well as great entertainment.
My young brother in law petting Luna
My husband and brother in law petting Neville
My husband petting and hugging Neville
Whether you are looking at getting these crazy, amazing birds for your homestead or simply wanted to know more about them, I hope you have learned a little from my experience. We are so blessed to have our two and cannot wait to add more!
Neville, my young male emu
Luna, my young female emu
To start out my story, I'll give you a background on how we even obtained these magnificent creatures to begin with.
A few years ago, I was watching videos on YouTube and stumbled across a family that owned emus. I was amazed at how docile they were and thought about how cool it would be to own them ourselves one day. I didn't think much of it for a while, and then one day I was looking on one of my local exotic livestock auctions and saw they were selling pairs. I was interested in going and "impulse buying" a pair to start out with. The only problem was that I am not a fan of auctions and we didn't have a large area fenced in yet. So, I skipped the auction and researched emus and their behavior as well as why people raise them in the first place. After months of research and putting up 3 acres of fencing, my husband and I finally decided to get our own. We wanted young chicks that were DNA sexed from different blood lines, so finding what we wanted was tricky and time consuming. There aren't many breeders in our state (Arkansas), so we looked at other states as well. We found a reliable breeder in our home state of Texas, and he had a lot of chicks to choose from and gladly offered to personally deliver them to us as he was selling the others to a zoo in Memphis, Tennessee and had to make the trip anyways.
After getting our new emu chicks, I can tell you I expected things to be a lot different. They weren't hard to take care of necessarily, but they were downright skittish. I pushed myself on them to try to get them to like me by holding them and petting them, but this only made things worse. Luna and Neville (the emus) ran away, hid in a corner, and would kick if I tried to pet them. After doing more research and asking for advice on an emu Facebook page, I finally decided to let them be. I sat with them every day in a chair and put the food bowl between my feet. They were skittish at first, but they finally gave in and weren't as shy after just a few weeks.
Neville at 6 weeks old
Luna (Left) and Neville (Right) as babies
Since it was still winter when we first got them, they had to be indoors the first few weeks. Once we finally let them outdoors into a small pen with a shelter inside of the fenced 3 acres in the front, they went back to their skittish stage and were what I call "fence runners" where they would run the fence line and try to get out. Neville (the male) even lost feathers on his neck from trying to force his way out of the fence.
A few weeks passed and we finally decided to let them into the bigger area to run around. Luna and Neville showed so much improvement after having more area to run around in. They were no longer "fence runners" and after a while of getting used to the yard, they finally would let me get close again.
Now that Luna and Neville are older, they have become such sweethearts. Out of all of the animals I have ever raised, these two have amazed me at how something so big and scary looking can be so gentle and sweet. Neville is the major lover that will walk up to you and put his neck on your shoulder or lay next to you while you're sitting down. Luna is still standoffish, but this is quite common with female emus from my research. She is a lover too, but only on her terms, and sometimes doesn't want to be pet and will run off. Other than that, they are a joy to have, and we are so thankful to have them on our small hobby farm. We look forward to having at least 4 more.
Luna pecking at the camera.
Luna (Back) and Neville (Front) at around 4 to 5 months
Now that you've heard my story (so far) on how I've obtained my emus in the first place as well as their behavior from chicks until now, here is some more helpful information I've learned from personal experience raising these magnificent birds:
Emus are naturally territorial birds:
If you've thought about getting a guard animal for your other animals you have, consider a pair of guard emus. No, I'm not kidding. Emus are known to be quite territorial birds when it comes to anything foreign coming into their area. This includes chickens or any other animals as well so I recommend raising the emus with chickens or even chicks when they're younger so they're used to them, and always introduce new animals slowly and cautiously. A good tip would be to have the new animal in a pen that the emus can see in to for a few weeks before letting them out to roam with them. Or just simply keep everyone in their own pens.
But seriously, emus can be really good guard animals. I've read many posts from people across the world about how their emus stomped a coyote to death or another predator for that matter. I can definitely say from my experience, if they see something in the yard that isn't supposed to be there, they'll make sure it won't stay long. We recently had a hawk swoop down on our smaller birds and the emus quickly jumped in the air trying to catch the hawk. After they jumped up and hissed at the hawk, it flew off into the woods while they chased it as far as they could. Nothing gets past them and they will surely let you know if something is in the yard.
Emus are more hardy than people think:
Coming from Australia, a lot of people believe emus can only tolerate hot conditions and do not do well in colder conditions. This may be true for those that have negative temperatures for a lengthy amount of time, however, in my own experience and research I have learned just how hardy emus are in varying weather conditions. No matter if it is 100°F or 25°F outside, the emus are always outside of their shelter and never want to use it. Whether it's raining or snowing, emus love running around and exploring the yard with the others and playing. After observing Luna and Neville, I've noticed that they actually prefer to be in the rain rather than not.
Emus love water:
When I say emus love water, I don't mean just drinking water. Emus absolutely love swimming, playing in, and even just looking at water. Like I mentioned above, emus would rather stand in the rain than sit and be dry. They actually try their best not to stay dry. Many times a day, my emus step into on of our smaller water containers and try to swim around. We have a pond that was recently dug and still filling up, yet they love swimming in the water that is in there.
Luna (Left) and Neville (Right) taking a swim in the new watering hole.
Emus are very social birds:
I firmly believe you should have more than one emu, as they do better in a mob (group of emus). If Luna and Neville are separated, usually because one is in the front and the other in the backyard, they call out for each other and run around looking for their mate. I believe emus do better together, as they do in the wild. Sure, you can have just one emu raised with your other animals, but I have always thought that they should have at least one other bird of their species (another emu) to keep them satisfied.
Emus are also very human-social, and enjoy bonding with their owners and taking treats from their hands. Luna and Neville run to the door when they hear me come outside, and always wait by the gate at our driveway when we drive up hoping to get attention.
A male emu at a drive thru exotic zoo (picture is from my mother in law)
So, what's the point in even getting these wild birds?
Many times my husband and I are asked "why do you have emus?" or more on the lines of "what is the purpose of having them?".
Frankly, there is no real answer to this that completely satisfies the person usually asking these questions, but here are a few reasons why we have decided to keep these wonderful creatures and add more in the next few years:
Luna at around 3 to 4 months old
Profit:
Believe it or not, you can actually make a decent profit on your emus, if you have pairs. Selling their eggs online or even locally can make a pretty penny. I noticed this when we were searching for our own emus. Prices for fertile eggs locally and online were $100-150 each most of the time, and non fertile eggs (used for crafts) still sold for around $50 each. That is just the eggs, and people buy these on a hope that they will hatch.
Chicks are quite expensive as well. There was only one local breeder around us at the time, but even her chicks were $250, not sexed. We preferred to have our emu chicks sexed from two different blood lines, so ours were $300 each, but it was worth it since they came from good lines and were delivered personally to us in a crate we got to keep (yay free stuff!). You can also make money off of grown emu pairs or even younger pairs. Older pairs that are proven to mate and have layed eggs go for around $2000-2500+ around us and younger pairs 6 months old or less go for around $1000-1400.
When our two start to mate and lay, we will be selling eggs and chicks depending on what we decide to try doing first. We hope to add at least 4 more of these birds and at least cover feed costs and make a little profit until we figure out what sells the best.
Meat Production:
While we haven't gotten into this, some large emu farms raise emus and butcher them for meat. In some areas, emu meat is becoming a popular choice for red meat. Emus could provide a decent amount of meat for you and your family depending on how many you have, and you could even make a profit on selling the meat depending on the demand in your area.
Companionship or pets:
Emus can be great pets, in my personal opinion. Many people that own emus would agree with me when I say that they can be very friendly and loving in some ways. We were absolutely surprised at how Neville and Luna will just walk up to us for attention. Not only this, but they are great with our dogs and very entertaining to watch. Its hilarious to see the emus and dogs run around the house together. Emus are a lot more docile than people like to think and I believe they can be great companions/pets for someone wanting an animal they can interact with as well as great entertainment.
My young brother in law petting Luna
My husband and brother in law petting Neville
My husband petting and hugging Neville
Whether you are looking at getting these crazy, amazing birds for your homestead or simply wanted to know more about them, I hope you have learned a little from my experience. We are so blessed to have our two and cannot wait to add more!
