About Emu Eggs

Emu Eggs Collected In A Morning At The Emu Oil Depot

The coffee cup and telephone are in the picture above for size reference. Emu eggs normally weigh over a pound. In nature, eggs are coated with a thin transparent film called a cuticle which protects the eggs. Chicken eggs that are sold commercially are washed and the cuticle is removed. For this reason a commercial eggs can go bad if stored for too long. If you get a natural egg wet, the cuticle will feel slimy.

All eggs are designed to protect the embryo inside, but to make it easy to get out of. When the emu chicks pecks the egg to break it, they do it with a side motion, not forward. There isn't a LOT of room inside any egg so HE created the perfect design!

Emu roosters hatch eggs and raise chicks, not hens. Unlike the ostrich, the more docile emu can be handled while sitting on eggs (pictured below).

Sherriee Magness With An Emu Rooster On Eggs

Emu hens start laying at the age of "coming two." Which means they are not quite two, but will be shortly. Mature hens start laying around November and can lay until March. Some earlier, some later, but that's the norm. Hens lay one egg every three days, and late in the evening. Roosters will gather a "clutch" of eggs and sit on them for fifty days on average until chicks hatch.

"Hidden" Emu Egg

In the picture above, Sherriee has found an egg that a rooster has hidden for gathering later.

Emu Egg Art

Emu eggs are also "blown" out and carved or etched as emu egg art. If you search "emu egg art" on Google you'll see hundreds of examples that are just as incredible as any art form you've seen before.

Carved Emu Eggs