With emu chicks!
I decided to replace the non fertile emu eggs and found some for slae on eBay. To my shock and surprise the seller was a stone’s throw from my house! I bid on and won two of his auctions for two emu eggs each. He had three emu chicks that hatched in the last couple of days plus another dozen eggs in the incubator. I passed on buying the eggs and picked out a couple of chicks instead. That will save me almost two months of incubation, hand turning and electric bills! Plus, if my egg “B” hatches successfully they can grow up together and I won’t be raising a lone emu chick which is a bit of a nightmare. They bond with their human care givers and crave constant attention like they would from their broody daddy. The smallest of the two (standing) is a day older than the the other one which hatched Wednesday.
The other truly awesome part of this story is that John, the seller saved and marked the eggs from which these two hatched. As we speak, the inner membrane from each egg is on it’s way to Zoogen in Davis, CA for DNA testing. By Tuesday I should know of they are males or females. I will do the same with egg “B” when it hatches as well.
They are sporting pink numbered legbands but I will admit right now that I also have some blue legbands, just in case.
It is believed that am emu chick with a bullseye on it’s head is a male and those without are females. I have not found that to be reliable. I think a very pronounced bullseye might indicate a male chick but short of that I have not found it to be true. You can see from these photos that neither chick has a bullseye on it’s head. But for now I will take that as a sign I have girls, until the lab tells me differently.
Here is Pink Band #45 on the left and Pink Band #48 on the left.
Please check back soon on the fate of egg “B” and these two little sweethearts.
Karen Cowan. says
Hello there. I love your website. I would really like to hatch out 2 Emu chicks, I think I am a bit late in the season to purchase any eggs?
Regards.
Karen.
Mary says
Emu mating and laying season rins from November to March here in the US. You might still be able to find small emu chicks available from this year’s season. Good luck.
Irine says
So adorable 🙂 I cant wait to get mine 🙂
Tonyah says
I love them! Do you have any headshots of Louis and Stuart to see if they had the bullseye?
Mary O'Brien says
Silly me!
Kelly says
They are beautiful.
BTW…..your last pictures, you worded them so they are both on the left.
Dan says
This is GREAT now you have babys!!
So happy for you!!
Dan