“I take care of them like my own children”. The owner of the aviary in Staicele raises two emus in the incubator / Article

“I take care of them like my own children”. The owner of the aviary in Staicele is raising two emus in the incubator

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It is already customary that when entering a country house, the first thing that awaits you are the house guards – dogs, but in “Grāvīš” two very curious and friendly emu teenagers run towards you. “I wanted something more interesting, something more exotic for a long time. They are friendly, interested in everything that shines – colored nails, jewelry. They run fast, you can’t catch them when they start running, curious, yes, cute birds,” he described his pets Kovisar.

Although ostriches are no longer a rarity in the Latvian countryside, they are special in the Kovisārs homestead, because mostly these birds are not incubated locally, but brought in, but they have managed to grow them themselves. There was also an attempt to incubate an emu two years ago.

“The first time, the eggs were empty, there were no fertilized eggs. I broke the side – there was a completely healthy yolk inside. After two months in the incubator. Now it worked,”

he explained.

Now the eggs have been taken from the ostrich farm “Mazzariņi”, and the entire incubation period has been carefully monitored. “The emu incubates for two full months. The temperature is different from other birds – lower – 35.6 degrees, and then from the fifth week you can set it at 36 degrees. Humidity is low – only 30%. Chickens have 70%. If you do not observe this, then you may not incubate . I was advised by someone who also incubates emu, and then we both achieved such miracles. She succeeded last year, I failed, and now we both succeeded,” he said.

Kovisar discovered that when the fifth week passed, the eggs began to move, after which it was clear that this time there would be emus, and it was necessary to think about their successful hatching. “Then there was happiness in full. Babysit like my own children,” he laughed.

But emus are not the only inhabitants of the Kovisara Bird Garden, there are also other poultry of different species and breeds, although at first the thought was only about chickens of different breeds.

“I’ve been interested since childhood, I’m also interested in wild birds. Maybe that’s why I’m interested in chickens and all domestic birds,” he explained, noting that he started slowly collecting chickens of different breeds about six years ago. At first they lived in a barn, but three years ago a homestead was built.

Latvijas Radio visited Mārtiņš also about two years ago, and during this time other residents, not only poultry, have added to the aviary. “Here is a Vietnamese guinea pig. We wanted something different, more interesting. There are some chickens that had never been there, ducks are new.”

During the visit of Latvijas Radio, the two teenage emus came everywhere with them and every now and then we had to stop the conversation, because the ostriches, which are very friendly with humans, do not like chickens very much. “I don’t know why. You don’t catch cats and dogs, you catch birds,” explained the owner of the aviary, admitting that there is something the emu teenagers don’t like about chickens – maybe they think they are competitors.

The bird garden is Kovisara’s hobby, because his daily work is in the joint stock company “Latvijas valsts meži”.

Initially, he planned the bird garden only for his own pleasure, but seeing people’s interest, he also welcomes visitors on holidays. Now they plan to add more peacocks to their aviary and continue to increase the emu family, as both boys need a girlfriend.

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