After hatching hundreds of Chicken and Duck eggs and enjoying keeping a range of poultry and waterfowl, I decided it was time to think about what else it was possible to hatch in my little incubator...and Emu eggs seemed like the biggest I could fit in there... well I came to my senses and instead of getting carried away with myself, I decided to find a suitable modern substitute - from - where else but YouTube! It's amazing what you can find on there and there are various entries of dubious quality however a couple of Emu related films stood out as being pretty neat for my desire to get more information on Emus.
The following 2 minute video clip shows some interesting facts about Emu eggs. They are an incredible size!
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Emus are very hardy in UK climate. They are in fact friendly birds and are certainly not that difficult to keep. They live for 30 years and will be mature after about 2 and usually start laying eggs in their second winter. The male bird will incubate a clutch of eggs (normally about a dozen) for approximately 55 days. A good Emu will lay an egg every third day, they lay eggs from November to May. The eggs are huge, dark green and the shells have 3 different coloured layers. Patterns can be carved into the shell whuch shows different colours and eggs are popular with artists.
Eggs can be eaten (a pretty big scrambled egg I'd say) but other uses for Emus include meat, oil, and feathers. The egg shells have multiple layers so are popular with artists for decorating.
By 4 weeks old, they are getting pretty quick on their feet!