2019 Emu Hatch-A-Long

[Kalifornsky]

@AlishaRichard Yes they get wry neck. Treat it with vitamin E, which can be put in the water. I had a chick around a month old get it, and it went away after a week of treatment. I used something called E Oil from CVS. You might be able to feed it some directly if it's not drinking much.

Hope the baby gets stronger! It's rough if it's not eating as much

 

[Kalifornsky]

Update on the hatch: A surprise!

The 4th chick hatched white! We didn't even think it was possible, since we're pretty sure the parents are regular x blonde. Either the white emu snuck eggs into the nest or the regular bird has blonde genes somehow?

The recently hatched 5th chick is a blonde. It's so strange that the regular-colored chick is in the minority!

So, I do have a question/concern- I think there's one last egg that's hatchable. #6 has internally pipped since I can hear it chirping, but it hasn't externally pipped yet. The clutch started hatching yesterday afternoon, so it's possible it may be over 24 hours since it's internally pipped, and with it being the last egg I'm suspecting it's the weakest. I'm going to guess I should wait another 24 hours before even starting to worry but I don't want this last one to suffocate. I'm hoping it'll break through tonight, but if anyone has thoughts please let me know!

 

[aart]

Could it be an albino....or a 'sport'?

 

[Kalifornsky]

@aart It's not albino- emus come in three colors: regular (brown), blonde, and white. White birds are the rarest and I assumed you needed at the very least a blonde x blonde pairing to get a white, but this pairing was regular x blonde.

White birds typically have clear color/blue/grey eyes while regular birds have brown eyes that turn amber/red. The mature white bird I have has mismatched eyes, one clear and the other now a more yellow color.

 

[Pyxis]

Update on the hatch: A surprise!

The 4th chick hatched white! We didn't even think it was possible, since we're pretty sure the parents are regular x blonde. Either the white emu snuck eggs into the nest or the regular bird has blonde genes somehow?

The recently hatched 5th chick is a blonde. It's so strange that the regular-colored chick is in the minority!

So, I do have a question/concern- I think there's one last egg that's hatchable. #6 has internally pipped since I can hear it chirping, but it hasn't externally pipped yet. The clutch started hatching yesterday afternoon, so it's possible it may be over 24 hours since it's internally pipped, and with it being the last egg I'm suspecting it's the weakest. I'm going to guess I should wait another 24 hours before even starting to worry but I don't want this last one to suffocate. I'm hoping it'll break through tonight, but if anyone has thoughts please let me know!

Awesome, a white!

My theory is that standard, blonde, white breeds like BBS in chickens. So if that's true, the little one could be from the white bred to a blonde, or two blondes, or two whites.

It turns out that in wild emus it's common that females sneak eggs into the nests of males that aren't their mates, so this one might not be the hatching father's chick. And sometimes females are mating with more than one male, too, and have eggs in both males' nests. I'm not sure what you have for females, but maybe the white did sneak an egg in, or a blonde that was mating with another blonde. If the suspected mother of this clutch was blonde, she might have also been having a tryst with a blonde or white male.

I did a safety hole on egg B. I took a drill and a small drill bit and just gently and carefully put a hole in the shell. If you're worried, you could do the same without hurting anything.

 

[backyard pigeons]

Update on the hatch: A surprise!

The 4th chick hatched white! We didn't even think it was possible, since we're pretty sure the parents are regular x blonde. Either the white emu snuck eggs into the nest or the regular bird has blonde genes somehow?

The recently hatched 5th chick is a blonde. It's so strange that the regular-colored chick is in the minority!

So, I do have a question/concern- I think there's one last egg that's hatchable. #6 has internally pipped since I can hear it chirping, but it hasn't externally pipped yet. The clutch started hatching yesterday afternoon, so it's possible it may be over 24 hours since it's internally pipped, and with it being the last egg I'm suspecting it's the weakest. I'm going to guess I should wait another 24 hours before even starting to worry but I don't want this last one to suffocate. I'm hoping it'll break through tonight, but if anyone has thoughts please let me know!

Very cool!

 

[Kalifornsky]

@Pyxis
It's definitely possible the white hen was laying, but I assumed she wasn't since she didn't seem to lay eggs last season either. Maybe she duped me and was Denali's secret second partner, or the younger emus were laying too. There's only one white bird on the property, so it wasn't a white x white pairing. It's fun to speculate!

Thanks for the advice! I went and checked and it's actually two more eggs, both of which have internally pipped. I'll give them another day since it might be that they're just slightly behind the others. Fingers crossed they bust through just as easily as the others!

 

[N F C]

Update on the hatch: A surprise!

The 4th chick hatched white! We didn't even think it was possible, since we're pretty sure the parents are regular x blonde. Either the white emu snuck eggs into the nest or the regular bird has blonde genes somehow?

The recently hatched 5th chick is a blonde. It's so strange that the regular-colored chick is in the minority!

So, I do have a question/concern- I think there's one last egg that's hatchable. #6 has internally pipped since I can hear it chirping, but it hasn't externally pipped yet. The clutch started hatching yesterday afternoon, so it's possible it may be over 24 hours since it's internally pipped, and with it being the last egg I'm suspecting it's the weakest. I'm going to guess I should wait another 24 hours before even starting to worry but I don't want this last one to suffocate. I'm hoping it'll break through tonight, but if anyone has thoughts please let me know!

Wow, I've never seen a white emu before!

 

[drumstick diva]

Mazel Tov (congratulations) on your hatch Kalifornsky. Sending great hatching vibes your way +

 

[aart]

@aart It's not albino- emus come in three colors: regular (brown), blonde, and white.

Ahhh, thanks, I did not know that.