Instructions
Make sure that you have a market for your products. Whether you want to sell emu meat, eggs or skins directly, you should make sure that you have a market before you invest in emus. There is no auction or slaughter system in place for emus the way there is for other animals like cattle and sheep, according to Red Oak Farm.
Allocate land and fence area to raise your emus. They don't require much space, and 1 acre per five to 10 emus should be more than enough land. However, you will need to fence the land with fence at least 5 or 6 feet high. Emus can jump very high and can jump over any fence shorter than that. Don't use a fence that animals can get limbs stuck in, or that contains sharp protrusions like barbed wire. In cold weather climates, emus need to have access to two- or three-sided shelters so that they can get out of the wind in inclement weather. Extremely cold farms, such as those in the mountains, will need heated barns to shelter emus in during cold snaps. Chicks should be kept in heated shelters until they are 3 months old, when they are ready to be moved out to pasture.
Ensure that you have adequate watering facilities available on your land, or a large source of available water for the emus. Emus consume a great deal of water. An average large adult ostrich will consume 2 to 3 gallons of water. Most of the farming guidelines for ostriches also apply to emus, as they are very similar birds.
Buy breeding stock from several different, unrelated sources of emus. Use the same practices that you would to establish any breeding herd of any type of farm animal.
Obtain an incubator and follow the guidelines provided with it to incubate the eggs after they are laid. The idea behind incubating eggs and hatching the emus in a hatchery is that the emus will imprint on the farmers raising them instead of on their parent birds, says the Wisconsin Emu Association.
Feed emu chicks with an emu starter ration that you buy commercially. Adult birds can be fed mixes of alfalfa, corn and wheat. Foraging on alfalfa, clover and grass is also a good food source for emus. Birds should be fed the amount that they clean up without leaving waste. This figure may adjust depending on the season and where they are penned, so the amount they are eating always needs to be watched.
Obtain proper veterinary care for your emus. Some farmers choose to have emus microchipped at a young age for tracking identification purposes. Emu waste needs to be observed occasionally to check for worms. Regular vaccinations for EEE and WEE are also required. EEE and WEE are the eastern and western strains of equine encephalitis.
Keep your male and female emus in separate pens or pastures. September is the prime breeding season. During this time, or your chosen breeding season, place the males and females together in breeding pairs. If infertile eggs result, try different pairings during the next breeding season. Consistently unfertilized eggs are more often a result of male infertility than problems with the hens.
How to Raise Emu Birds
Most interest in raising emus is not based on a desire to have the birds as pets, but rather to raise them as a commercial enterprise. Emu farms have seen rises and declines in their popularity, but there is certainly a niche for this large bird. If a farmer is interested in emus, is it is important that he first learn what is going to be required of him in order to be successful with this very large bird.