The emu breeder, Kip Venn, who delivered our new Emerys the other day, has given me permission to provide the following link to his website: http://www.emufarm.iinet.net.au/ Here is one of my favourite pictures from this website …
Kip gave me some very good advice and that was to spend as much time as possible with the new emus until they get used to the strangeness of human proximity, so I’ve been doing that and two of the emus will now allow me to pat them if I have a bit of food in my hand. I sit on an old tractor tyre and the biggest emu will run up to me, stare at me as if I am some sort of peculiar object, then take a bit of cabbage out of my hand, but if I say ‘hello’ – even if I say it really softly – he sprints off as if there has been an explosion!
Anyway, they are all settling in well, the only drawback being that during the evenings, nights and early mornings, they are ‘next door’ to the gang and Godfrey keeps poking his substantial beak, bill or whatever it is – I think of it as a ‘nose-in-the-air’ nose – through the fence that separates them and hissing.
Conversely, the Emerys are gentle, shy, unassuming and adorable! And it is comforting to know that when I turn my back, unlike Godfrey, they will not bite me on the bum!
jmgoyder 
That’s always a comfort!
yes – mmm
Very entertaining descriptions. It’s funny that the emu runs away with even a whisper. I wonder why? Is their hearing hyper-sensitive? Or is sound a trigger to their fight-flight response?
Not sure – he’s stopped doing it which is great. In fact they are all much less nervous.