We Tried To Hatch These Four Eggs Bought On eBay And This Is How The Events Unfolded
We live on a farm, and around came the time of year where we do egg hatching to replace any chickens that we lost the previous year.
Usually, we source the chicken eggs locally, but this year we decided to check eBay for the bird eggs, and we spotted emu hatching eggs. Naturally, we were very curious and began researching about rearing emus as farm birds.
In the end, we decided that a pair of birds would be ideal, so we bought four emu eggs since the seller had them listed as about 50% fertility chance.
And that’s how Paul’s story commences.
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Emu egg vs chicken egg
The volume of an emu egg is roughly 14 times that of a regular chicken egg.
Unfortunately only one of the exotic bird’s eggs was fertile. Here is a photo of the only emu hatchling. We didn’t know whether or not she would survive because she was very weak and had to be helped out of her shell.
I can’t help but think that maybe we got the hatching process wrong and perhaps it’s our fault we didn’t have two healthy chicks, but we tried our best and did plenty of research, at least we got one chick.
Anyway, a week later and the chick looks much better! We decided to call her Paul shortly before discovering that she is probably a female, but the name stuck.
This is about two weeks after she hatched. We had to drive down south for a few days, but there was no one home to look after Paul, so we took her with us. The journey was very messy but was an entertaining one, to say the least!
Here Paul is about six weeks old; you can see her baby feathers are starting to disappear on her neck and you can just about make out her ear holes now.
There’s a big jump here because I went back to university for a couple of months. Her lovely stripes have gone off her head and neck, and her back feathers are beginning to turn darker.
I thought this would be the last photo I got of Paul
Shortly after the previous photo was taken, she got a nasty bacterial infection which she managed to hide from us for a long time.
Suddenly one evening she could hardly walk and wasn’t eating or drinking anything. This photo is from the second time we took her to the vet; the first time we took her we thought she was just a bit worse for wear but luckily one of our local vets used to work with ostriches in South Africa, so he knew a fair amount about large birds. Anyway, the vet told us just how bad the situation was and that it was unlikely she would make it. I took this photo because I honestly thought she’d pass away at the vets.
We’re incredibly grateful to our vets, they didn’t charge us a penny for their time, only for the supplies they used, because they enjoyed working with Paul so much. We’re not exactly financially stable at the moment, so we were really moved when they gave us the bill.
And here she is looking much healthier! It took about two weeks for her to get over her illness, but she didn’t seem to grow at all in that time.
She spends a lot of her days with our chickens. I think she probably has an identity crisis – not sure if she’s a chicken, a dog, or a person.
Present day – you can see that her head and neck are beginning to turn blue. She’s almost at her largest now but will keep growing for another year still.
Sorry for the poor quality on this one, but it was too good to leave out!
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Share on FacebookYou had me worried there when you said you took her to the vet and they said she may not make it. Glad it had a happy ending!
I cannot believe it - went to a pub quiz tonight - one question was - what colour is an Emu egg I got it wrong
Load More Replies...Just a thought - what did Emu mom do when her hard earned and very hard to birth huge egg ended up on Ebay - something very wrong in this. Someone stole the baby
Diane a - agree with you 100% and don't understand why you are being down voted. This poor little thing should be with other Emu's. These people admit to being financially unstable and yet they buy Emu eggs on Ebay...really???
Load More Replies...Emu are amazing animals. I was the children's entertainer at the Cincinnati Zoo for two years and always enjoyed interacting with the emus.
Noooooo. An adult Emu is not cute.They are mean and their peck hurts. Remember this is an Australian bird, and as we all know everything in Australia wants to try to kill you ;-)
As an Aussie I can confirm this is true! They really hurt when they peck. Plus they are a lot bigger than people think, not to mention the beady little eyes...
Load More Replies...C'mon, just call her Paula already... I need her to be my namesake! XD She's too cute and looks happy! Hope she has a healthy and long life. <3
I was stationed in Western Australia from Dec. 1979 - April 1981. We had a family of Emu's on the base. They always hung out back of the galley, looking for handouts! Really cool birds!
Wow, this reminds me of a baby robin that fell from the large elm tree next to our small home. I took the bird in, fed her the wrong things (small pieces of bread/water) and then realized she needed bugs! Worms! She died after a few weeks, but learned to fly from the picket fence to my shoulder.. I was her 'person.' Many weeks of grieving and tears. I'd named her Peep. I was only 13 y.o.
This would be like someone here in Australian hatching a Bald eagle egg and raising it here :/ Not A GOOD idea AT all.
I've decided more and more that birds are about the funniest things around. I never really thought about them much until I started watching them and some days it just too much fun!
I thought fertilised eggs had to be kept warm for them to hatch...
An Emu? Or as the Americans call them Emoo. I just don't get why an emu egg would be on ebay to start with. Emus aren't exactly the friendliest animal in the world. I guess each to their own.
Sounds like y'all are very blessed. You obviously treat her like family and are close enough to have recognized a bacterial infection (not a simple thing). And access to a vet so knowledgeable about the species is priceless. Perhaps the powers that govern these things knew other adoptive families may not have had that ability. It's more than clear that you were made for each other.
Thank you for sharing your story about Paul! She's beautiful and they are very protective. You're lucky to have her in your family!
I had a friend who raised these birds in S. Oregon. When they are grown they are very large/tall and have the most amazing, huge glowing orange eyes! It's rather scary standing face to face with one as it seems like they might want to peck out your eyes, but my friend assured me that has never happened *L*
Awe Pauly is beautiful. . I’d love to meet her. I wonder what naughty little things she gets upto. They do have character. I’d love one.
i dont understand why anyone would buy an animal... Worst for having him/her as a wild pet? He/she lives as a pet without her/his own specie? I WISH THIS PEOPLE DIDNT EXIST.
By the way Paul is just right name for both man and woman. In France we just add E to the name. Paul and Paule ;)
my family - they were Paul and Pauline - they named their 1st child Paula - way too many Paul things going on there
Load More Replies...The egg industry entails so much animal suffering. Please don't support it. including by purchasing eggs for hatching.
You had me worried there when you said you took her to the vet and they said she may not make it. Glad it had a happy ending!
I cannot believe it - went to a pub quiz tonight - one question was - what colour is an Emu egg I got it wrong
Load More Replies...Just a thought - what did Emu mom do when her hard earned and very hard to birth huge egg ended up on Ebay - something very wrong in this. Someone stole the baby
Diane a - agree with you 100% and don't understand why you are being down voted. This poor little thing should be with other Emu's. These people admit to being financially unstable and yet they buy Emu eggs on Ebay...really???
Load More Replies...Emu are amazing animals. I was the children's entertainer at the Cincinnati Zoo for two years and always enjoyed interacting with the emus.
Noooooo. An adult Emu is not cute.They are mean and their peck hurts. Remember this is an Australian bird, and as we all know everything in Australia wants to try to kill you ;-)
As an Aussie I can confirm this is true! They really hurt when they peck. Plus they are a lot bigger than people think, not to mention the beady little eyes...
Load More Replies...C'mon, just call her Paula already... I need her to be my namesake! XD She's too cute and looks happy! Hope she has a healthy and long life. <3
I was stationed in Western Australia from Dec. 1979 - April 1981. We had a family of Emu's on the base. They always hung out back of the galley, looking for handouts! Really cool birds!
Wow, this reminds me of a baby robin that fell from the large elm tree next to our small home. I took the bird in, fed her the wrong things (small pieces of bread/water) and then realized she needed bugs! Worms! She died after a few weeks, but learned to fly from the picket fence to my shoulder.. I was her 'person.' Many weeks of grieving and tears. I'd named her Peep. I was only 13 y.o.
This would be like someone here in Australian hatching a Bald eagle egg and raising it here :/ Not A GOOD idea AT all.
I've decided more and more that birds are about the funniest things around. I never really thought about them much until I started watching them and some days it just too much fun!
I thought fertilised eggs had to be kept warm for them to hatch...
An Emu? Or as the Americans call them Emoo. I just don't get why an emu egg would be on ebay to start with. Emus aren't exactly the friendliest animal in the world. I guess each to their own.
Sounds like y'all are very blessed. You obviously treat her like family and are close enough to have recognized a bacterial infection (not a simple thing). And access to a vet so knowledgeable about the species is priceless. Perhaps the powers that govern these things knew other adoptive families may not have had that ability. It's more than clear that you were made for each other.
Thank you for sharing your story about Paul! She's beautiful and they are very protective. You're lucky to have her in your family!
I had a friend who raised these birds in S. Oregon. When they are grown they are very large/tall and have the most amazing, huge glowing orange eyes! It's rather scary standing face to face with one as it seems like they might want to peck out your eyes, but my friend assured me that has never happened *L*
Awe Pauly is beautiful. . I’d love to meet her. I wonder what naughty little things she gets upto. They do have character. I’d love one.
i dont understand why anyone would buy an animal... Worst for having him/her as a wild pet? He/she lives as a pet without her/his own specie? I WISH THIS PEOPLE DIDNT EXIST.
By the way Paul is just right name for both man and woman. In France we just add E to the name. Paul and Paule ;)
my family - they were Paul and Pauline - they named their 1st child Paula - way too many Paul things going on there
Load More Replies...The egg industry entails so much animal suffering. Please don't support it. including by purchasing eggs for hatching.
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