Emu Egg Hatch-along

[LB RN]

I wanted to post the video but for some reason it won’t let me.
This is a picture of one of the babies who identified as a rabbit, preferred to be with them more than me or its siblings.

 

[sourland]

Good luck for a successful hatch.

 

[saracarver3]

Following

 

[MGG]

The first year I did everything your doing, base weight, weekly weigh ins, keeping track of weight loss in a note book. The second year I realized I really was only doing that because I couldn’t candle them.
So I didn’t do any of it, I knew I wasn’t going to give up on any of them until the bitter end anyway and had the same hatch rate.
You will notice one end higher than the other as the air sac enlarges & the chicks get bigger.
When they start wobbling, I start playing the Emu sounds from YouTube and just set my phone inside the incubator for them. It definitely increases their activity & whistling!
I let them hatch right in the incubator & use a packnplay that I picked up from a yard sale site for $20.
I will look for pictures.

Ok, thanks! Fingers crossed. Yeah it's so weird to me to not be able to candle them. So much waiting
I'm mostly worried about humidity since I have always just been able to watch air cells in the past. What do you keep yours at? I'll probably keep weighing just to keep an eye on how my humidity is doing.
Haha! How long can they stay in the pack N play before they outgrow it?

Great project, and I really hope that you will hatch two very well travelled emus soon!



You mentioned that the birds just started laying, so the smaller size of your emu eggs seems rather natural to me.

Fingers crossed

Thank you! Me too
Yeah I think it should be normal hopefully. If they were any bigger they wouldn't fit in my incubator so I can't complain

I wanted to post the video but for some reason it won’t let me.
This is a picture of one of the babies who identified as a rabbit, preferred to be with them more than me or its siblings.

Aww hahaha! To post videos you have to upload to YouTube or another video platform and copy/paste the link here.
That's so cute

Good luck for a successful hatch.

Thanks!

Following

Thank you!

 

[LB RN]

I kept them in the packNplay between 4-6 weeks depending on the outside temps. I’ve been trying to think of other things I have learned along the way.
They are very prone to spraddle leg because of their size/weight, make sure they have anti slip from hatch.
They take a bit more effort to get to eat after the first 48-72 hrs than chickens do. I found using a chopstick to tap their food dish to mimic papa emu is very helpful.

 

[Fowl Explorer]

I'm interested! Good luck! And Emus don't necessarily kill each other. Best thing to do is find someone in the area where you live that you can call on!

 

[chickyturkeyemulady]

Lucky you! I have 3 geriatric emus now, aged 24 (Dookie - male, hatched and raised at home), 25 (Ianna - female, acquired at age 1 year) and 33 (Earl - male, acquired at age 12 years). In his younger years Earl was a great emu dad and raised several broods. Sadly he lost his mate Princess to a freak accident. Dookie and Princess (Earl's mate) were hatched here in a styrofoam tabletop Hovabator.
I would love to hatch and raise emus chicks again after many years, but I'm concerned that if I did they will likely outlive me.
I've never had one with a nasty temperament toward humans, but it is not unusual to need to separate any that are not mated pairs as the females attack each other as well as males that are not their mate.
I will be waiting to see those sweet little fuzzy striped footballs with chubby little dinosaur feet. They are adorable. Hope they hatch!

 

[TexasSlim]

I've got a long wait ahead, but thought it would be fun to start a thread to document things and hopefully get help if I have any questions. Everyone is welcome, but I'll add some tags at the end too. I'd greatly appreciate anyone that has hatched emus successfully to follow along too.

Back story : I went to the east coast the past couple weeks which was super fun, I've never been on that side of the country before. The first part of the trip I went to Cape Cod with my dad and hunted sea ducks. Our guide had a pair of emus that had just started laying for the year, and gave me two eggs. It was a bit tricky having them the rest of the trip since we also went to Connecticut and then to New York a couple times. These poor eggs have been all over the place.
I did my best to store them properly, I managed to keep them in the low 60s and turned them a few times a day. We finally flew back yesterday, and got them through security which was pretty funny. All of the TSA workers were quite amused. It'll probably be a miracle if either hatch and I don't even know that they're fertile, but I'm going to give it a go. I've never hatched emus, but I've hatched just about everything else.
I've read a few of the articles on here by @Pyxis and @yinepu , and decided to start incubation at 96.5 and 35% humidity. They were set last night at 7 P. M., and weighed in at 308 grams for egg #1 and 329 grams for egg #2. If my calculations are correct, egg #1 should lose a total of 47 grams for an end weight of 261 grams, losing approximately 6.33 grams per week and 0.9 per day. Egg #2 should lose a total of 49 grams for an end weight of 280 grams, losing approximately 6.60 grams per week and 0.94 per day.
I managed to fit them in my NR 360, by taking out the egg tray and sitting them right on the water channels. (not obviously filling that channel) I'm hoping this is OK, it seems fine to me and I think there's plenty of air flow around them. If this is a bad idea for some reason I haven't though of please let me know, haha. I have two big styrofoam incubators I can use as hatchers if the time comes, but I kind of hate them and really don't want to mess with keeping them stable the whole time. If they can stay in the NR 360 this way that would definitely be best. I have the vent all the way open and am turning them 5 times a day.

Incubation period at 96.5 degrees should be 52-54 days, with a due date of March 9th-11th.
Wish me luck!

Egg #1 View attachment 4029958

Egg #2 View attachment 4029957


View attachment 4029959View attachment 4029956


@Pyxis @Kiki @EverythingDucks @TheOddOneOut @EmmaRainboe @OneHappyDuckie

Beautiful eggs, thanks for sharing!

 

[MGG]

I kept them in the packNplay between 4-6 weeks depending on the outside temps. I’ve been trying to think of other things I have learned along the way.
They are very prone to spraddle leg because of their size/weight, make sure they have anti slip from hatch.
They take a bit more effort to get to eat after the first 48-72 hrs than chickens do. I found using a chopstick to tap their food dish to mimic papa emu is very helpful.

Thanks! What do you feed your chicks? Is shelf liner sufficient in the brooder to give them traction? I usually use puppy pads for my other birds but those can be slippery sometimes. Maybe shelf liner on top would work.

 

[MGG]

I'm interested! Good luck! And Emus don't necessarily kill each other. Best thing to do is find someone in the area where you live that you can call on!

Thank you!!! Not sure of anyone here that has emus besides the zoo. I'll look around though and see.