Glad you think so! We've got more exciting emu content coming soon!

Yes we are in FL. Regulations also vary by city and county. Definitely recommend checking into laws before acquiring livestock as we have seen some sad outcomes when they weren't zoned for them and had to give them up.

Glad it was helpful!

They will EASILY clear a 4' fence...

Part 3 is out now with details on how to enter!

That’s a quite a bit of space for a 4 month old, I would slowly increase their space size. They can reach full speed in an acre pen and they’re still able to twist a tension up until 9 months.

Oh no! Escapes can be so stressful! Glad the video was helpful! Sounds like you have a solid plan going forward. September is when we start watching for such behavior as we are coming into our emu breeding season here in FL. We will be inspecting and reinforcing all our pastures over the coming weeks as well.

@@WhitetailHollowFarms We are in northern MI, I am a bit worried about how the eggs will handle the cold temps coming into winter if they lay between Nov-Apr🥶 . Do you have any videos on how long the season lasts and signs of mating behavior? Or do you have any reference material you would suggest? Thanks

Great question! All of the above really. They make great guardians as well!

Thanks for your question about grid size. Obviously, height is most important, and 6' is great. It is a guarantee that emus will stick their heads through the fence. They can easily stick their entire neck up to their chest through our 4" grid; our concern is how much more they can get through in a 6" grid? It also gives them more room to get their feet in to possibly launch themselves over or climb the fence. If decide to have males hatch chicks, a 6" grid will be too big for them, as the chicks can easily pass through. We saw this even with our 4" grid. Our biggest concern with a 6" grid is what it allows to come in and out. We've seen a fair share of animals squeezing through our 4" grid, and the same is happening with our neighbor's 6" grid. We watch foxes easily slip through our 4" grid regularly. So, what's our solution? We recently purchased 6 rolls of Bekaert Solidlock Pro 30 1561-6 12.5 gauge 330' High Tensile Fixed Knot Game Fence (61"tall with 6" verticals). It has graduated horizontal spacing that starts at 3". We hope this will tackle the issue of things breaching the fenceline, at least at the ground level. We will still run a single tension wire at the very top of our posts, which are slightly over 6 feet tall. We're all set to install it this spring. We had hoped to switch to the Solidlock Pro 1775-3 fence, but our existing posts weren't quite tall enough, and the extra cost to replace all of our posts would be significant. If we were to start all over, that is the fence we would choose. Hope this helps!

@@WhitetailHollowFarms thank you so much for the answer. I’m trying to decide if I want to have Emus on the farm. I may more questions in the future about feeding. And thank you for the response.

We never recommend moving emus on a trailer if you don’t have to, it’s very difficult to calm them down, they have high anxiety naturally. Just make your movements slow and easy. Make sure the trailer you are using has no large gaps or openings, otherwise you will have an emu climbing out. Tall wall trailers with full back door are best. limit the space they have to move on the trailer once they are in, to prevent them from running and slipping. We use a 16 foot cattle trailer with a separation gate and close it down to 8 feet with emus inside. We keep stall mats on the floor so they can’t slip and our back door is the full height of the trailer.

They don't tear up the ground like a chicken does no. But they will pick at stuff on the ground.

No, you need a very minimum 5 foot fence with tensile wire run around the top at the 6 foot mark. make sure you run just regular tensile wire and not barbwire, they will cut themselves on barbwire. They are likely to wrap themselves up in loose Hotwire at head height as well. Around the ground would be alright.

All our emus are with our goats (we don't have any sheep) and we have never had any issues. We do introduce new goat kids slowly with the adult emus so they know they belong there and not to stomp them. They are very much a guardian animal and will chase down anything that doesn't belong in their pasture.

@@WhitetailHollowFarms Great to know! With the coyotes around here, I need something in the pasture to keep the animals safe.

There is a lot of debate on this ... In our experience, No. We have adult females that have laid in the past that we know were being bred by our dominant male. Since we have added more females that have come of age, our dominant male isn't breeding the older ones, and they are not laying this year. The younger females are laying consistently every 3 days.

Yes we do! they are kept with mini and full-size jersey cattle.

That's why we have incubators. 😉

Yes, our emus live with our goats. Feeding can sometimes be a challenge as far as keeping the goats out of the emu feeders; bloat is a concern for us if the goats get too much of the emu feed. However, the emus don't seem to care for the alfalfa pellets we feed the goats, so that hasn't been an issue. We don't have sheep, so we can't speak on first-hand knowledge, but as long as they are appropriately introduced, we are not aware of any reason they can't be together.