What's That Funny Lookin' Bird?

One of the drawbacks of having property in the Santa Monica foothills is the extreme fire danger, and the resulting difficulty in finding affordable home/fire insurance. CalFair is required to offer insurance to all who are otherwise refused; but I decided a little over 10 years ago to take a different tack.

I became a "farm," eligible for farm insurance (and much lower rates with better coverage) by fencing some pasture area and running emus. Originally I was going to "board" another guy's breeder birds, but he flaked on me after I fenced in an acre-and-a-half or so. So, I ordered some emu babies from Kansas (it was much cheaper to buy the and fly them here than to buy them in CA, go figure).

Now the survivors (two were lost to coyotoes when small) have paired up and wander around the property, trading feed for insurance discounts.

They're not much good for grazing--- I was hoping they'd help with weed abatement, but no such luck. On the other hand, they're very easy residents. Once fully grown they require no shelter, no special attention, just food and water. They eat "Ratite Maintenence" pellets from Star Milling, and they love a treat of grapes now and then.

Emus pair up, so my two male/female pairs each stick together, occasionally chasing each other if they feel they're being encroached upon. The male sets the eggs; at their peak they lay about 30 big, emerald green eggs per season (Nov-Mar). Once the male feels he's got a clutch of eggs he'll set them for about 60 days, with very little movement, no food, no water to speak of. He just goes kind of comatose, rising once in a while to turn the eggs.

I don't raise chicks; I remove the eggs and give them to friends, donate them to museums and schools, keep a few for conversation pieces, etc. Four emus is all I want, and there's not much of a market for selling chicks right now.

Here's a quick video where I talk a little about "Blue," my most tame emu. They're all very docile, but he's downright friendly--- and lazy as hell, as you can see...



Thanks to Sean Arenas for the videocam work. You can see Sean's other work here.