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Emu2

In the Brooder
Jun 27, 2017
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Hi, I would like to introduce myself. I joined about 2 years ago to ask a question about my Emus. I never introduced myself then. My name is Jim. I own what I call a gentleman farm in 84 Pennsylvania. 84 is mostly a farm country, it is where 84 lumber company came from, which now has 400 stores. Now 70 years old and trying to catch up with my likes and hobbies, since retiring for the third time (retiring gets costly LOL). Anyway I was a foreman in an underground coal mine for 20 years +. The mine caught on fire for the second time and the fire was so bad our mine had to be sealed. I then became a real estate agent for a couple of years, and then became an Registered Nurse. Tried to retire 3 times but ran out of money. Finally retired for a year and half. I always loved growing things, have gardened for at least 55 years in one way or another and I love animals. WE only have 3.5 acres, we raise egg laying chickens of all kind of breeds, a couple meat chickens ready to eat when I get time. I have never kept track of all the different breeds. Everytime I shop for feed and see new chics I fall in love and bring some home. We have 2 Emus that we raised from chicks. They are male & female, almost three years old. She has laid eggs for two years now. I tried incubating but they apparently were not fertile. That is why I came back to the group. Maybe someone can tell me how to encourage them to breed. The male did not sit on the eggs and they were found in many different locations on the farm. We also have Boer goats which I breed to sell. We have a couple Peking ducks & runner ducks. I have a large organic garden, and tried a Farm Stand. I as usual had to many projects, fell of a ladder building a greenhouse on my deck. & broke six ribs and got burned out. So I had to stop in late June with the market. I really like this group but I am not very good with keeping track of things on the internet D/T like I said too many projects. I have learned a lot of things the hard way and constantly learning new things. It is spring now and I am busier than ever but I will get back to this group MORE OFTEN. Thank you for having this group. Sometimes I have a little trouble navigating in the group and it is unbelievable that there is so much information in one spot AGAIN I LOVE THE GROUP.
 
Welcome back! We have two emus too, they are almost four months. From what we studied and studied hard before we rescued them was the female chooses the mate, they say you can even raise them together but if she doesn't choose him it's to no avail. I'm no expert though, just have studied a bit and talked with some emu farmers. So our fingers are crossed jelly bean chooses gum ball , 😂, that's our two.
 
Welcome to Backyard Chickens. pyxis could tell you a lot about emus but, her knowledge doesn't end there. You can find her on the emu threads and I know she is now raising a new breed (to me) of chickens. My mind is not working properly today, so I can't say what kind. Want to say Liege Fighters but probably wrong.
 
Are you not getting any eggs to hatch and that's how you're determining fertility? If yes, are you confident it's the eggs and not the incubator? Are your birds DNA sexed male and female?

Sometimes birds are just not compatible with each other and have no interest. They might not fight, but you won't get any fertile eggs.

The Emu Farmer's Handbook recommends a method of trying to pair up birds that have no interest, though it's a little mean and I'm not sure if I would want to do it to my own birds. They are to be penned in a small stall or trailer in the dark together for a week.

Another method is to split their pen in half with cattle panels, and feed and water the birds at the new fence together. This way, they have to interact and can't ignore each other because if they don't eat at the same time when they're fed, the other bird might have eaten their share of the food. Once they start to sleep at the fence near each other, the fence is taken down.

If those things don't work, all you can do is get more emus. I'd go for getting another male and female, and let them all pick their mates.

There's also artificial insemination, but you don't want to have to do that every year.

drumstick diva said:
Welcome to Backyard Chickens. pyxis could tell you a lot about emus but, her knowledge doesn't end there. You can find her on the emu threads and I know she is now raising a new breed (to me) of chickens. My mind is not working properly today, so I can't say what kind. Want to say Liege Fighters but probably wrong.
Click to expand...

Liege Fighters is right :)
 

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