Raising Rheas-From Eggs to Adults Video

http://www.virtualfarmtours.ca
A Canadian rhea farmer explains what it's like to raise these large, flightless birds.

Transcript:

Mary-On day 35 what I do is I candle the egg to see where if the chick is internally pipped yet. There is the beak right there, do you see that little point, looks like a pencil point, that's the beak. Then I bring them down here into the hatcher at approximately day 37 or day 38. They're in the hatcher for about two days. They touch each other, the eggshells can touch, they talk to each other through the shell. And are you ready to hatch yet? Yep, ok, we will start hatching. Because typically what happens is one will start hatching and then within an hour they're all out. But this one you can just see it moving, just there. and then I put them here into the brooder box. And we have a heater here to give them a source of heat. I've moved the chicks out here to the outside pen from the brooder box and we do this typically at about 5 days of age. So this is where they're going to eat and sleep and be for probably the next probably two to three weeks. And then we will put them into a longer pen. By the time they're about 6-8 months they're about their adult height and by the age of a year and a half to two years they are multiplying and producing on their own. They're adults on their own. An Adult will live to be about 20-30 years of age.