Questions And Answers About The Emu Bird:

 For A Great Source Of Emu Oil Click Here

 
Q-1)
What is an emu?
A-1)
An emu is a large flightless bird that comes from Australia. As adults, they weigh an average of 100 pounds. They are second in size only to the ostrich.

Q-2)
How long has the emu been in existence?

A-2)
Emu birds were roaming the earth with the dinosaurs about eighty million years ago. Yes that’s right.  Eighty MILLION years ago!

Q-3)
Are emus intelligent?

A-3)
No.  The emu has what is called a primitive brain. This means that like the turkey, they are not capable of learning.  The brain is only for body functions and motor skills. It is the size of a marble.

Q-4)
How does the emu bird reproduce?

A-4)
The emu lays between 20 and 40 eggs a year. They do this during the winter. They lay one egg every three days during the laying season. Different hens lay different amounts of eggs per year, but 20 to 40 is average. Emu eggs are green in color, and about the size of a softball. The male emu sits on the eggs, hatches the chicks, and raises them with no help from the female.
 

Q-5)
How long before they reach adult size?

A-5)
In one year the emu bird grows from a chick about six inches tall, to adult size, about five feet tall. At two years old they begin breeding.

Q-6)
Where did emu ranching begin?

A-6)
Emu ranching began in Australia. There are ranches there that raise as many as ten thousand birds a year.  Emu ranching has been in the United States since about 1987.

The harvest and processing of the emu bird is NO DIFFERENT than any product on your grocers meat counter.  The USDA inspects the processing of the emu, and has for several years.

Q-7)
Do other countries have emus?

A-7)
Yes. The emu is in countries such as China, Japan, Europe, and Canada just to name a few. Many countries import emu products such as meat and oil from Australia. The United States is now beginning to export emu products too.

Q-8)
What is a ratite?

A-8)
A ratite is a flightless bird which has no breast bone. The emu is a ratite along with the ostrich, rhea, kiwi, and cassowary.

 
Description Of The Emu:

The Emu is Australia’s tallest native bird, reaching 1.6-1.9m when standing erect. It weighs 30-45kg, which is lighter than its closest living relative, the Southern Cassowary Casuarius casuarius. Emus are easy to identify. Adult Emus are covered with shaggy grey-brown feathers except for the neck and head, which are largely naked and bluish-black. The wings are greatly reduced, but the legs are long and powerful. Each foot has three forward-facing toes and no hind toe.

The name ‘emu’ is not an Aboriginal word. It appears to have been derived from an Arabic word for large bird. It was later adopted by early Portuguese explorers and applied to cassowaries in eastern Indonesia. The term was subsequently transferred to the Emu by early European explorers to Australia. The first specimen collected in 1788 by Europeans was from what is now an inner suburb of Sydney of Redfern.
 

Distribution And Habitat:

The Emu is found only in Australia. It lives throughout most of the continent, ranging from coastal regions to high in the Snowy Mountains. The main habitats are sclerophyll forest and savanna woodland. These birds are rarely found in rainforest or very arid areas. Emus were once found in Tasmania, but were exterminated soon after Europeans arrived. Two dwarf species of emus that lived on Kangaroo Island and King Island also became extinct.

Today, Emus are absent from heavily populated regions, especially along the east coast. Despite this loss in some areas, Emu numbers may have increased since European settlement. The provision of water for domestic stock, together with the Emu’s ability to reproduce rapidly, has favored its survival. It is estimated that the Emu population is 625,000-725,000, with 100,000-200,000 in Western Australia and the majority of remaining populations in New South Wales and Queensland.
 

Emu Behavior:

Emus eat fruits, seeds, growing shoots of plants, insects, other small animals, and animal droppings. They move within their range according to climatic conditions. If sufficient food and water are present, birds will reside in one area. Where these resources are more variable, Emus move as needed to find suitable conditions. They are known to move hundreds of kilometers, sometimes at rates of 15-25km per day. Most people see Emus along roadsides, near fences or other barriers, giving the impression of close association. However, Emus are not really sociable, except for young birds, which stay with their father.

Their calls consist of booming, drumming and grunting. Booming is created in an inflatable neck sac, and can be heard up to 2km away.
 

Emu Breeding:

Nesting takes place in winter. The male and female remain together for about five months, which includes courtship, nest building and egg-laying. The nest consists of a platform of grass on the ground, about 10cm thick and 1-2m in diameter. Five to 15 eggs, measuring 130×90mm, are laid at intervals of 2-4 days. These are dark bluish-green when fresh, becoming lighter with exposure to the sun. The shells are thick, with paler green and white layers under the dark outer layer.

The female dominates the male during pair formation but once incubation begins, the male becomes aggressive to other Emus, including his mate. The female wanders away and leaves the male to perform all the incubation. Sometimes she will find another mate and breed again. The male sits on the nest for 55 days without drinking, feeding, defecating or leaving the nest. During this time, eggs often roll out of the nest and are pulled back in by the male. 

Newly hatched chicks are cream-colored with dark brown stripes. They leave the nest at 2-7 days when they are able to feed themselves. Young birds stay close together and remain with the male for four months. They finally leave at about six months. During this period, the stripes fade and the downy plumage is replaced by dull brown feathers. Emus are nearly fully grown at one year, and may breed at 20 months.

Emu farming has been tried for several decades but recently interest has been growing in this industry. A pair of Emus may produce ten eggs a year under good captive conditions, which yield on average 5.5 chicks. At the end of 15 months, these would yield 4m2 of leather, 150 kg of meat, 5.5 kg of feathers, and 2.7 L of oil. Eggshells of infertile eggs, are suitable for carving.

Sun-bleached eggs are generally those that have not hatched and are left in the nest after the male and young have left. Bleaching takes about three months.

References:

Davies, S.J.J.F. 1976. The natural history of the Emu, compared to other ratites. Pp. 109-122. Proceedings of the 16th International Ornithological Congress. Australian Academy of Sciences, Canberra.

Marchant, S. and Higgins, P.J. (coordinators). 1990. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Vol 1. Part A. Oxford University Press, Sydney.

Olsen, P., Crome, F. and Olsen, J. 1993. The Birds of Prey and Ground Birds of Australia. Angus and Robertson, and the National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife, Sydney.

Reilly, P.N. 1993. Emu. Kangaroo Press.

Walter Boles
Scientific Officer (Ornithology)

www.amonline.net.au/birds/factsheets/emu.htm
www.myemuoil.com

Can Emu Oil Really Help Slow The Aging Process? 

You are sure to be pleased with the results. If you need more convincing to give emu oil a try, just look up all the research that has been done on its effectiveness. You will see that emu oil has earned all the praise it gets.

Wishing You The BEST  

We are now shipping emu meat as well as our emu oil to customers in the continental United States. We ship all emu oil packages if under 13oz total weight by USPS First Class Mail and if over 13oz then the package is shipped by USPS.

Why Alpacas Are Not Like Emus

The original strategy for emus was to create an alternative market for meat, like chickens and turkeys. But an emu   meat market never materialized in the US. You never saw emu roasts in your supermarket, packages of emu drumsticks.

PALAYATHAMMAN EMU FARMS

The American Heart Association recently included emu meat in its listing of heart-healthy meats, said Williams, and Barry Sears, internationally-known author of The Zone recently included emu meat in his diet recommendations. 

Emu Ranch

Emu meat is very lean, 97% fat free, red meat, similar to beef in both taste and appearance. It is higher in vitamins, calcium and iron than beef, and lower in cholesterol than chicken. We did not buy any meat, so cannot vouch for the taste.

Emu, The Natural Alternative

A hot new food for the outdoor cooking seasonFifty years ago you might see the backyard grill in action threetimes in a year: Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day.Dad would wrestle it out of the garage, knock off the dust …   

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