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Under the Canopy
On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy podcast, former Minister of Natural Resources, Jerry Ouellette takes you along on the journey to see the places and meet the people that will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature and Under The Canopy.
Under the Canopy
Episode 130: Emus, Rheas, And The Farm Life
A six-foot flightless bird doesn’t just change your pastures—it changes your business model. We sit down with an Ontario rancher who started with a simple idea in the early ’90s and built a resilient operation around emus and rheas, turning a niche into a livelihood with smart pivots, careful breeding, and products people actually want. From green, three-layer eggs prized by carvers to low-fat red meat and a surprisingly versatile oil, you’ll hear how every part of the bird can hold value if the process and markets line up.
We walk through the fundamentals: why emus prefer long, narrow pens, how they handle cold, what they eat, and what it really takes to keep predators out. Then we open the ledger. Emu oil—naturally anti-inflammatory and rich in omegas—becomes pure oil, salves, soaps, and creams for arthritis, tendonitis, burns, eczema, and psoriasis. You’ll learn how raw fat becomes refined oil, why processing scale matters, and how a three-year shelf life shapes inventory. We compare emus to rheas—faster stress, lower chick survival, different laying windows—and break down pricing, from $250 emu chicks to $800 rhea chicks, plus why rising demand pushed the farm away from meat and toward breeding.
Not everything fits the spreadsheet. Hides remain an untapped avenue without a local finisher, feathers sell best to crafters in small runs, and manure isn’t garden-friendly like alpaca pellets. Yet the model works because it’s grounded: steady farmer’s market sales, a clear website, and straight talk about margins, survival rates, and the patience required to make specialty agriculture sustainable. If you’ve ever wondered whether giant birds can support a modern small farm—or if emu oil can actually help sore joints—this story delivers useful answers without the hype.
Listen now, subscribe for more field-tested stories from the outdoor world, and leave a review with your biggest question about raising emus or rheas.
Hi everybody, I'm Angelo Viola. And I'm Pete Bowman. Now you might know us as the hosts of Canada's favorite fishing show, but now we're hosting a podcast. That's right. Every Thursday, Angela will be right here in your ears, bringing you a brand new episode of Outdoor Journal Radio. Hmm. Now what are we gonna talk about for two hours every week? Well, you know there's gonna be a lot of fishing.
SPEAKER_11:I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show. We're going to be talking to people from all facets of the outdoors. From athletes.
SPEAKER_02:All the other guys would go golfing. Me and Garcie and Turk, and all the Russians would go fishing.
SPEAKER_11:And now that we're looking reforesting away, things it's the perfect transmission environment for line with these.
SPEAKER_03:Chefs, if any game isn't cooked properly, marinated for me. You will taste it.
SPEAKER_07:And whoever else will pick up the phone. Wherever you are, Outdoor Journal Radio seeks to answer the questions and tell the stories of all those who enjoy being outside.
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SPEAKER_09:As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons of our natural world become harder and harder to hear, but they are still available to those who know where to listen. I'm Jerry Olette, and I was honored to serve as Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources. However, my journey into the woods didn't come from politics. Rather, it came from my time in the bush and a mushroom. In 2015, I was introduced to the birch-hungry fungus known as Chaga, a tree conch with centuries of medicinal applications used by indigenous peoples all over the globe. After nearly a decade of harvest, use, testimonials, and research, my skepticism has faded to obsession. And I now spend my life dedicated to improving the lives of others through natural means. But that's not what the show is about. My pursuit of this strange mushroom and my passion for the outdoors has brought me to the places and around the people that are shaped by our natural world. On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy podcast, I'm going to take you along with me to see the places, meet the people that will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature and under the canopy. So join me today for another great episode, and hopefully we can inspire a few more people to live their lives under the canopy. As always, uh, thank our listeners, Canada wide, everywhere else around the world, and the States and Switzerland and Ghana, Switzerland, through the uh Caribbean, et cetera, et cetera. You got any questions? You know what to do? Ask them. And suggestions for show, let me know. We'll see what we can do. And I've got to tell you a couple things. So first of all, Gunner and my chocolate lab loves his morning run. And today was a little bit special. I don't know if it was me, is normally I'm out there right at the first light. And just uh when it starts to get a little bit light, you can walk down the trails. So I'm usually the first one with him out in the trails, but whether I was a little bit uh later than normal or whether they were early, but his buddy Cooper showed up, which is another chocolate lab, Willie, which is uh German shorthaired, and then Winston, which is a little, a little, I'm not sure what Winston is, uh, and on the trail as well. So it's like dogopalooza there. And you know, I talk about Gunnar wanting his teeth brushed all the time, but it's the same when I I tell him he he just when as soon as I start to put shoes on or anything, he gives me that look like, Am I going? And he's my buddy, as I've said numerous times. So I just tell him, go get your harness. All I have to do is say harness, and he runs to get his harness and he tries to put it on and because he knows he's going for his morning run or whichever, or if it's he hasn't gone one through the day, I'll take him around the block at night. And I usually wait till there's no cars on the road because I don't do deal with them with uh a leash or anything. He's very obedient. So all I have to do is once I get his attention, I tell him to sit and uh let the cars go by, and of course I put a lighted collar on him. But he's got these toys, and everybody, when we first got him, got him a toy. And he had like at least twenty, if not thirty, different stuffed animals and all these different things. And and if you tell him now So he he's got a big box, and if you tell him go get rhino, he'll go through the box until he finds rhino and then he brings it to you. And then, you know, and there there's there's days when I just get home and I'm just like, oh, I just I need a break. Just like a lot of us do. And all of a sudden he shows up and he's got duck in his mouth, which means he wants to play duck, which is hide and go seek with the duck. And I'm like, Gunner, I need a break. And I don't know if he realizes I need a break and he says, Okay, you need to play. So then I'll go hide his duck and I'll tell him sit, and he sits, and I'll go hide the duck somewhere in the house and and tell him go get it. Well, it just so happened that we have three ducks, because everybody bought him a duck at the same time. So I go hide three ducks and he'll go just go find duck and he'll bring it back, and then I'll tell him go find duck and he'll go get the next one and all three. And he gets his break, and then usually by that time is like, okay. So we'll do that for a bit. But I gotta tell you one time it was in it was he was there, he looked at me with duck in his mouth, and he went and he hid duck somewhere, and he came back and looked at me. And it's just like, okay, it's your turn to go find duck. I said, What? But he's only done it a couple of times. So, you know, and I'll it's always he just loves it. And I I mentioned a number of times how if I'm in a hurry, I gotta close the bathroom door, if I'm just sprinkling some water on my face or brushing my hair or combing my hair. And anyways, because he'll walk in and he stands between the sink and me and looks up at me, which means he wants his teeth brushed. Now, a lot of people ask what toothpaste we use. It's called puppy polish, is the latest one. And but if you check around, we've tried number ones, uh a lot of different ones. And the puppy polish seems to be the ones he likes. But it it's a it's a different kind of toothbrush that he has. It's got uh like three sections to it. So if you took your your your middle finger and put the two around it, that's what it would look like. So the brushes actually uh uh work very differently. Uh so when I brush his teeth, and I only do his back teeth. So that works great. And it's a special toothbrush. It's hard to find. I haven't found any more as a replacement one. So we've had this one for quite a few years with them, and it works really good. Now, a couple of company uh companies, a couple of individuals have asked about uh uh there's the tea bag. So with uh the Chagga, we've we've done a bit of a change. We've gone to a a major uh company to do the loading for us, which has uh is been a godsend to be perfectly honest, because it's a much better quality tea bag, uh highly uh compostable. It's a German tea bag as opposed to the Chinese ones that I was using before, which I very much appreciate. But sometimes uh and it's a bit different when they load these because uh when the tea goes into the bag, so the way it works is they have this machine that has a huge hopper in the top, you put your blends in there, and they do all the blending there. So they've I guess they've got the green tea, which is a mofen green tea, a chai, and then they do the blends and we work out the details and all the percentages of the stuff that goes in. And uh then it goes around and it has a drop unit that drops it in, and then it's uh heat seals the the bags, um, and there's kind of like little serrations on the edges where it closes it. But because Cheg is so light, we had to work out specific details to try and figure out how to seal it because sometimes the powder got in the area that was sealed, and you can see these kind of like dark spots in the the edges of the tea bag, but we're working out the details and it looks pretty good. But sometimes that powder gets in there and doesn't allow it to seal properly, so the bag opens up a little bit, but we think we've got all the bugs worked out on it and it's going great now. You know, and and I have to tell you though, as an elected official and having served for uh 20 years basically, uh yeah, people still come to you all the time. Well, uh the local health department and this lady come to me two days ago, she says, I'm not sure what to do. She says, Well, the health department says that if I don't get my son's teeth fixed, he'll be suspended from school. And she's like, I said, What? What does the health department have to do with kids' teeth? Anyway, so apparently uh to school they bring in a dentist every other year, and uh and with her dental plan, her husband's dental plan, they had to spend two thousand dollars on their out of their own money to put caps on the kids' teeth. And the and these teeth are eventually gonna fall out or come out anyways, according to her dentist. But uh it just sometimes these things just drive me a little bit crazy. So it was a question's asked, so I'm helping her through some of that. And keep uh your information, follow the track, and we're working on it. So speaking to an individual that basically has some information that'll straighten that up, and we'll get that looked at because that sounds a bit excessive to me. But today we've got an interesting guest, just like we did last week. And this week we're gonna talk about their ranch. And welcome to the program, Russell. Thank you. Well, very good. Well, uh, tell us, Russell, first of all, so our international listeners know whereabouts are you say from Toronto? Because that's uh people in Switzerland don't really know a lot of the parts. So give us an idea of people so they know where you are located in Ontario.
SPEAKER_01:We're about a hundred miles east of Toronto, about halfway between Peterborough and Belleville.
SPEAKER_09:Okay, very good. Now, tell us about your business. And what are we going to be talking about today?
SPEAKER_01:We're gonna be talking about emus.
SPEAKER_09:E mus.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so we got into the business in 1990. Right. We had small kids and we had some land, and we were looking for things to do with the land. We looked at deer, we looked at worms, we looked at chinchillas, and then we went to a farm show and saw these great big birds. And uh my husband and I looked at each other and we knew that's what we needed to do.
SPEAKER_09:So emu. So it's so for people that don't know what an emu is, yeah, give us a what does it look like or what would they kind of relate it to?
SPEAKER_01:Uh they're about six feet tall, and they look like a big mushroom on legs with a long neck. Related related to the ostrich, but a little smaller.
SPEAKER_09:Okay. So you saw it at a farm show, and I guess uh these farm shows I didn't realize that they have all these different kinds of animals that people could get into there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and this was back in uh the early 90s, and the emus were just getting popular at that time.
SPEAKER_09:Whereabouts uh was the the farm show? Is it something that's it was in Lindsay? Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_09:So and how long does an emu live?
SPEAKER_01:Our oldest one was 30.
SPEAKER_09:30? 30, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:We had we had three between 27 and 30. Yeah.
SPEAKER_09:Really? I have no idea that they live that. And so basically it's kind of like a like you said, a mushroom with legs, but uh how tall do they get, like an ostrich?
SPEAKER_01:They're about six feet tall. They uh weigh between 75 and 90 pounds.
SPEAKER_09:And do they fly?
SPEAKER_01:No, they have uh wings that are oh maybe maybe six inches long, but they're they're not uh usable.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, really? Six inches long? That's not very big for a tall animal like that at all.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, they're ratites uh which are emuria and ostrich are flightless birds.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And they're the bigger birds. Oh, okay. So and how do they take the cold weather, Russett? Um they like it about the same as the rest of us do. Not much. Right. Actually, they do they prefer to be outside, but they have access to the barn at all times.
SPEAKER_09:Right. So they prefer and how many emus would you have?
SPEAKER_01:Uh in our heyday, we had about 90. Um, but since since then I've lost my husband, and my kids have grown up and moved on. So now we've downsized that uh we're just doing greeting, and so I only have 12.
SPEAKER_09:So you have 12. And how many acres does it take to raise emus, like roughly?
SPEAKER_01:Uh not very many, actually. We have about 11 acres, and uh we have we initially built big pens, but the pen emus don't use the whole pen, they walk the fences. So what you really need is long, narrow pens, and they'll do just fine.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, okay. So uh what do emus eat?
SPEAKER_01:Uh we have a pelleted feed that we buy. It's uh mostly proteins, uh mostly alfalfas and things like that.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, okay. And so it's not something that you can pasture on your own, or uh is that something that's available?
SPEAKER_01:Uh you could if you had enough land uh and uh it was summertime.
SPEAKER_09:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And so a lot of the time so they don't they can't eat hay or anything like that.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, they can't eat hay. So but they so they eat bugs and stuff like that, like chickens and things?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they eat bugs and frogs and all kinds of stuff like that.
SPEAKER_09:Okay. So what what materials do you actually get out of an emu then?
SPEAKER_01:Uh they have an egg, which is uh quite large and dark green in color. Um it has three layers, so it's quite popular with carvers. It has a dark green on the outside and then a turquoise and then a white on the inside.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Um, but they only lay for two or three months of the year.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And they only lay every three days. Uh they also have the feathers, um, which General Motors used to use um to dust off the cars before they paint them. And we use them in the computer industry because they're uh uh what do you call it? They're non-static-y.
SPEAKER_10:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Uh we have the oil, which is a natural anti-inflammatory. It has the three omegas, which are good for your skin, and it uh has its own natural vitamin E, and it's naturally an SPF 15. Okay, so of course there's this meat, which is a red meat, low in fat, low in cholesterol, high in iron.
SPEAKER_09:So how many eggs would they lay in a clutch when they lay? How many eggs would an email lay?
SPEAKER_01:They lay one every three days, and they'll probably through the season lay about 30 if you if you let them sit on them.
SPEAKER_09:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So the emus lay in the wintertime, so we don't let them sit on them because they freeze.
SPEAKER_09:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:We we also raise rias, which are similar animals who lay in the summer and we do let them sit on them.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, I see. So is it something that uh that uh you know, if you can candle or check them, uh that it can be making in omelets?
SPEAKER_01:Oh yes, they're quite they're quite edible. Yeah. They make an omelet big enough to feed five people. Uh yeah, we don't uh they're hard to candle because the skin the uh shells are so dark.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, that's what I was wondering. How would you be able to check to see if there was an embryo in there or not? Because uh you mentioned the three layers that carvers like to use.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. We we don't have the uh ability to do that, but uh some farmers do. They use uh oh, I don't know what it's called, but they have the ability to look through the eggshell.
SPEAKER_09:Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So now we're not we're not high tech.
SPEAKER_09:Okay, so so the rheas, what's a rhea? I don't even know what a rhea is, to be honest. I imagine it's similar to uh an emu, but I don't know the details about it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it looks like an ostrich. It's from South America, uh, and it's a little smaller than an emu. And it has a six-foot wingspan.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, instead of a six-inch, it's got a six, but can they fly? No. No? Okay, so they're and and how big are these animals? They're rias.
SPEAKER_01:Uh they're about five feet tall. And uh probably about the same weight, 75 pounds. Okay, but but they seem to be a lot more powerful than the emus.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, really?
SPEAKER_01:So how quite hard to handle.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, yeah. So when they're outside, how do they deal with predators like coyotes and stuff like that?
SPEAKER_01:Uh luckily our fences are pretty good. Um, we've only lost one bird to coyotes.
SPEAKER_09:Really?
SPEAKER_01:But they can, if they have the room, they can outrun them. Uh because they can c they can get over a six-foot fence, they can if they're frightened.
SPEAKER_10:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:They just walk right over the fence. Or off the fence and over.
SPEAKER_09:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So luckily, uh our predators are afraid of them.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, I was wondering because I I would have thought a coyote would look and go, what is that? It's not a turkey, which would be I imagine you got wild turkeys in your area.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, lots of them.
SPEAKER_04:Back in 2016, Frank and I had a vision to amass the single largest database of muskie angling education material anywhere in the world.
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SPEAKER_04:Thus, the Ugly Pike Podcast was born and quickly grew to become one of the top fishing podcasts in North America.
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SPEAKER_09:Okay, we've got Rob from Hamilton here, who's had some success with the Chaga cream. Rob, can you tell us about it?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I've uh used it on blemishes, cuts, uh just basically all around healing. Uh anything, anything kind of blemished, it speeds it up really quick. It speeds the healing box up. Uh the healing box is really well. It leaves no marks and doesn't stain or thanks Rob, appreciate that.
SPEAKER_09:Interrupt this program to bring you a special offer from Chaga Health and Wellness. If you've listened this far and you're still wondering about this strange mushroom that I keep talking about and whether you would benefit from it or not, I may have something of interest to you. To thank you for listening to the show, I'm going to make trying Chaga that much easier by giving you a dollar off all our Chaga products at checkout. All you have to do is head over to our website, Chagahealth and Wellness.com, place a few items in the cart, and check out with the code Canopy. C-A-N-O-P-Y. If you're new to Chaga, I'd highly recommend the regular Chaga tea. This comes with 15 tea bags per package, and each bag gives you around five or six cups of tea. Hey, thanks for listening. Back to the episode. So tell us a bit more about the rias, then I don't know much about them, so it's it's got a six-foot wingspan. And do you grow those as do you rear those as well?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, we do. Okay. Um they they start to lay in uh oh, usually March, and they'll lay through till August. And their eggs are bright yellow to start like a buttercup yellow, and then they fade to beige. Okay. And the incubation period on them is uh 39 days, where an emu is 50 days.
SPEAKER_10:Right?
SPEAKER_01:Uh but the uh emu chicks are quite hardy and they grow very quickly. The Rhea chicks are quite fragile and they grow very slowly. Oh yeah. And they have a higher mortality rate.
SPEAKER_09:So it's and that's just because they're so fragile. What makes what's the difference? I like maybe you can explain, or is there a known reason? It's just natural in their character.
SPEAKER_01:It's just natural in their character, I think. Um they stress out a lot more easily than an emu. And emu are pretty docile, or the rias are are not.
SPEAKER_09:And so how did you get into RIAs then? You mentioned it was at the same time you got into emus that just started with these RIAs?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we were looking for a pair of emus and there were none available, but we did find a pair of RIAs. So we ordered them. Unfortunately, they were both males. It was a slow start, but we got yeah, we got them home, and then we we uh finally got our emus and then we started raising both.
SPEAKER_09:So RIAs, what do what do they sell for and what does an emu sell for now?
SPEAKER_01:Uh an emu sells for about 900 to$1,000. Uh and RIA's uh I I haven't sold an emu uh RIA ma uh adult in quite a while, but the chicks sell for$800.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, really? And that's for RIA chicks, but now you sell um emu chicks as well?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they sell for$250.
SPEAKER_09:But uh the survival rate for the emu as compared to the RIA, what's what which is better?
SPEAKER_01:It's about oh, probably 85 to 90 percent for a uh emu and probably 30 to 35 percent for a RIA.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, really? So what why would people get into RIAs in the first place?
SPEAKER_01:Well, they have the same products as the emu, the the oil in particular, and of course the eggs and the meat. Um there aren't many people in the RIAs anymore. I think I'm probably one of the last. Uh we have a few small hobby farmers that are getting them now, uh, just to have something a little different, but I don't think there's any big breeders left.
SPEAKER_09:And so is there meat birds, or is there how does that work out, or feather birds? I'm not sure how that works.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we have the same well, we have our breeders, which are our better birds, and then we have the younger birds, which are the rias. I mean the uh the meat birds. And uh they we keep the meat birds for about 14 to 18 months before they're processed for meat.
SPEAKER_10:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Uh the of course the breeders will keep forever.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah. So now how many um you mentioned that you get about oh, is it about 30 eggs from uh from uh uh an emu?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_09:And uh those 30, how many would survive to reach processing size?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, probably 25.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, really? Okay, and so how many in a clutch of of rias then, and how many would survive out of a clutch of them?
SPEAKER_01:Uh in the rias, you might well the rias run in in uh groups, uh herds, so you get you know five five or six hens to a male, whereas the emus are in pairs. Okay. Um so you probably get you know 30 eggs under a male, and you might with any luck get 10 babies to survive.
SPEAKER_09:Right. Okay. And now, how is the oil extracted and what glands are they using for the oil for either or both?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we can get the oil when we process them for meat. Um, and it's uh um most of it is uh just on their shoulders. Um there's no breast, nothing on the breast or anything. Um we used to process it ourselves, but now we send it to the states because they're more high-tech and they can do it more efficiently than we can.
SPEAKER_09:Okay. So how much oil uh would you get per animal?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, probably probably about 10 liters, maybe.
SPEAKER_09:Per animal. Yeah. 10 liters, okay. So you send it to the States for processing. And what what is the oil used for and how do you use it?
SPEAKER_01:It's an anti-inflammatory, so it uh we have uh the pure oil, which we use for arthritis, tendinitis, sore muscles. It's great for burns, it doesn't uh stops any scarring. Um we also make it into salves uh or lip balms, we make it into soaps. Uh we have creams that are used for eczema and psoriasis, baby rashes, baby diaper rashes, that sort of thing. We make all of those products ourselves here on the farm.
SPEAKER_09:Okay, so once the oil is processed, how long does it last? Is there a shelf life of it?
SPEAKER_01:It has a shelf life of three years.
SPEAKER_09:Three years.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_09:Okay, and when you're doing your formula, is there a large percentage? So you get the what was it, 10 liters per animal? Um how many bars of soap, for example, would you get out of that? Oh golly, I've never done that calculation.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I just wondered, eh? It's just volume. We we sell our our pure oil in two ounce bottles.
SPEAKER_09:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Um, and so we get quite a bit. Um we of course it's hard to tell because we don't just do one bird at a time.
SPEAKER_10:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Right. There's a minimum, there's a minimum of uh that we have to ship to the processing plant. Okay. Um but it's it's it's fairly lucrative.
SPEAKER_09:And so how much would this uh two ounces of oil retail for?
SPEAKER_01:$19.
SPEAKER_09:$19.
SPEAKER_01:Uh uh that's what I retail it for. Um most other retailers around are charging$20 to thir$24 to$30.
SPEAKER_09:Okay. And so is there larger sizes or volumes that uh you have available?
SPEAKER_01:500 mils is generally the biggest that we go.
SPEAKER_09:Right. Okay. And how many ounces in 500 mils, do you know?
SPEAKER_01:Uh roughly 16.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, 16, okay. Okay. Um so out of one emu, how long does it take from start to to finish? And what products do you get out of it? So you mentioned the oil, the feathers, and the meat. Are there other things that uh are utilized out of the animal uh once it's been processed?
SPEAKER_01:Um well the there's also the hide, which uh has a nice has a nice leather, but we haven't been able to find anybody in Canada that actually does the final processing on the leather to make it wearable. We can get it tanned, but we haven't been able to get anybody who can finish it. So we haven't bothered with that.
SPEAKER_09:So what happens with the hides then?
SPEAKER_01:Um they just go in the garbage.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, really?
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Yeah. But uh if somebody had that ability, it would certainly be viable.
SPEAKER_09:So and how how how does this come? Well, I I I hear quite a bit about I think I hear about ostrich boots. But uh so they actually there are some sort of emu boots then as well.
SPEAKER_01:Um I've never seen them because the the hide isn't as thick as it is in an ostrich, but you could use it for a vest or something like that.
SPEAKER_09:Okay. So yeah, I never considered or know much about uh emu hides at all. Is it the same with Rhea's that they have uh a hide sales or potential for it?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yeah. We've never never uh pursued that.
SPEAKER_09:So which hide is actually uh would be more durable then?
SPEAKER_01:Probably the emu.
SPEAKER_09:Okay. All right, so you've got the hide, and then you've got the meat, the oil, and the feathers. So uh roughly um what do you think it would what what kind of margins would you make uh when you're rearing a an emu to for people who are thinking, well, it might be a good business to get into.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you have to remember it's farming.
SPEAKER_09:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:It's uh you have good years and you have bad years.
SPEAKER_09:So exactly.
SPEAKER_01:It's kind of more of a a way of life. Right. It's enough to I could send my kids to college, but it's all in years too.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah. Wow.
SPEAKER_01:You're not gonna get rich on it.
SPEAKER_09:No, well, that's the problem. A lot of people think uh the get rich quick stuff, just like the business I'm in. Uh, we spurred on a lot of individuals that found out this is hard work. It's not just hard work. Yeah, any business worthwhile doing, it takes a lot of work into it and to make it right.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, marketing is a big problem.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, not a lot of uh details. So is there an association that like you have your uh uh dairy farmers association or and all the rest of them out there? Is there the same thing with emus or rias?
SPEAKER_01:No, there used to be. Back in the 90s, there were 50 farms within a probably a 50 mile radius of us, and now I think I'm the last because they all got into it because the emus were selling for$500, but$5,000 each, and they thought it was a get-rich scheme, but yeah, they thought as they like your business, they found out it wasn't.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, yeah, it's not uh yeah, to make things work, it's a lot of a lot of hard work and a lot of dedication and to learn the hard way for a lot of cases. So, okay, so how much how much meat would you get off one of these uh birds? About 40 pounds. And that's the same for both of them? Yeah. Okay, so you got about 10 liters of oil, 40 pounds of meat, a hide that you can't find a market for, although let me work on that. With me, the the brain starts thinking right away. Um how many hides would you end up with uh in a say a year sort of thing?
SPEAKER_01:Uh well we're not doing the meat anymore, so we don't have any hides, but uh if you were doing 90 birds, you would probably have 50 hides.
SPEAKER_09:Okay. All right. So all right, and then the feathers. Uh is there like how do you find a market for that stuff? Is there somebody come to you or or is it something that you post or or is it, you know, when you sell the feathers, where do you sell that?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I just sell them uh for crafts, basically. I haven't found a big market for them or a steady market for them. But they take a die really nicely.
SPEAKER_09:So Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Huh.
SPEAKER_09:So yeah, so it's like a lot of stuff that there's uh you gotta find it and you gotta make it uh happen on your own because there's not a big demand for it, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's right. And it's a lot of work in feathers. You know, you have to collect them all and wash them all and sort them all. So Okay.
SPEAKER_09:So now a question. Uh last week we had uh the alpaca people on with Donna, and uh they were doing something, yeah, they were doing something a little different that I I was surprised about, but uh they were uh selling alpaca manure. Do you sell emurria manure?
SPEAKER_01:No, we don't. Yeah, because I've been asked for it, but we mix ours with shavings.
SPEAKER_09:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So the shavings kind of take any benefit out of the manure.
SPEAKER_09:Okay, yeah, because uh I I just thought, you know, because I'd heard of something called zoo poo. Some of the zoos were selling their fertilizer from the zoos and called it zoo poo, and we're making money that way. And then I was surprised when I asked Donna about it, and she said, actually we do in her farm store. So I wondered if the same thing.
SPEAKER_01:The alpaca poo is a pellet which is dry and easily handled. Yeah, the emu poo is is wet more like chicken.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, okay. Makes it a lot tougher. Especially when they don't barn or or uh to places to try and capture some of that if need be. Yeah. Well, very interesting. So chicks, you mentioned uh the chicks, but I don't remember if we mentioned what do the chicks sell for.
SPEAKER_01:Uh emu chicks sell for 250 and the RIAs sell for 800.
SPEAKER_09:Okay. Huh. And is there is there a a lucrative market for them?
SPEAKER_01:Uh well, I have a waiting list, so yeah, it uh it is getting stronger than it used to be. Okay. We used to. Which is one of the reasons we don't sell them for meat anymore.
SPEAKER_09:Right. Because you yeah, you can uh it's it's easier that way to to market your goods or to try and cover costs, at least now at this stage. Yeah. Very good. All right. Uh Russett, how can people find out more information or where can they see your products, or where are you promoting your products, and how can people find out more details or get in touch with you about it?
SPEAKER_01:We have a website called emusing.com, em-z-in-g.com. Uh, we're at the Peterborough Farmers Market year-round. We're at Craftworks in Peterborough, or they can call us at the farm. And uh my email is Really R-H-E-A-L-L-Y, emusing, e-mu-z-in-g at gmail.com.
SPEAKER_09:All right. Well, Russell, thanks very much. I really appreciate that. And uh I learned quite a bit. I I know actually the the uh the Rheas, I had no idea about anything about them at all. And it was very interesting. So I appreciate you taking the time. It's just something a little bit uh different that we're learning out there, out there under the canopy. Thanks, Russell.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks, Jerry. Thank you for having us. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER_09:My pleasure. Bye!
SPEAKER_08:How did a small-town sheet metal mechanic come to build one of Canada's most iconic fishing lodges? I'm your host, Steve Nitzwicky, and you'll find out about that and a whole lot more on the Outdoor Journal Radio Network's newest podcast, Diaries of a Lodge Owner. But this podcast will be more than that. Every week on Diaries of a Lodge Owner, I'm going to introduce you to a ton of great people. Share their stories of our trials, tribulations, and inspirations. Learn and have plenty of laughs along the way.
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