Emu hatching and incubator help

[Lewil25]

Hello emu lovers, I've been attempting to hatch emu eggs but have not been successful and am looking for some advice. For background: I work at a small zoo with some younger emus (probably around a year now), and some of our older emus out in the safari have been laying eggs and I've been asked to try and hatch them. Well the only thing I've hatched before are tortoise eggs, and these are quite different!

I've done the research on here and thought I got everything set up correctly, but am having trouble with my incubators. I will post pics at the bottom. The main one is a huge commercial chicken one that came to us second-hand and with no instructions! I do have directions on the panel though, so have been able to set the temp at 36.4C for a 50 day hatch and a target weight loss of 15%. The smaller incubators we just added for the extra eggs, and they are also difficult to keep stable. We weigh the eggs daily (and manually turn 3x a day during the work day) and adjust humidity as needed.... but here is where I'm stuck. We started with a batch of 6 (and now have like 20.... they keep giving me eggs to add) and the weight loss is ALL over the place. Like within the 6 original eggs in the large incubator, one might lose 0 g and one might lose 4 g and one might lose 6 g, then the next day the one that lost 6 g didn't lose any and the one that lost 4 g somehow gained 2 grams? (Could also have an inaccurate scale?). So I tried to take averages for how to adjust humidity, but it's so all over the place I'm not sure how to regulate it. It's not like one egg is consistently losing more than the others... I was hoping that the larger losses and random 0g losses would balance each other out, but they are all now lower than the target weight.

Being that these are large eggs and I now have quite a number of them, I'm not quite sure what alternatives I have for an incubator. Don't think I can convince management to buy a new one. Any ideas on how to improve this one?

Anyway, is this wonky humidity enough to halt development on the eggs? We are now at Day 60 for the original eggs and I am not convinced they will hatch... Is 65 usually the limit you wait? I want to open them to see if they are even fertile/have developed any but obviously don't want to kill anything that might still be living inside...

Also, some of our eggs had some holes in them that didn't go all the way through, is there any chance of these eggs making it? Is there anything I should do about that?

I'm open to any suggestions, as I would love to hatch some of these eggs but don't know how to proceed given my limited control on the incubator I'm using.

Edit: adding photos. The smaller incubator says 92F because I just took the lid off, that's not what it is set at!

 

[Pyxis]

I'd set the humidity at 36% and then just leave it alone there. When you're doing large quantities of eggs, that's kinda what you have to do, just set it somewhere that should work for the majority of eggs and then keep in there.

This year I've been incubating all the eggs from my own pair, and I haven't weighed the eggs at all. Too much work to do all of them. So far I've hatched three out of four eggs that have been due (the fourth got too cold before I collected it and froze, never developed), and the next two are wiggling and should be hatching on Valentine's Day, so this humidity is definitely working out - as I was pretty sure it would, because it was advice from seasoned emu breeders to get it to 36% and then leave it alone.

Does that incubator have any sort of way to add a humidity pump? You could try getting something like the Humidikit that Incubator Warehouse sells to manage the humidity.

 

[lost-duckling]

I once had a duck egg from a nest that the rest had hatched and some had been abandoned so i put them in a bator and a few more hatched and almost a week after the first ones and main bunch hatched i went to dump it out and when an egg cracked open there was a duckling inside that wasnt quite ready yet and it died right then and there.

 

[GusFromBuckeye]

Haha I'm on my first attempt of hatching 3 eggs. I ran into the Same problem with the weight I thought I was going crazy.

1 egg did not make it and had that scrambled stuff coming out. I kept it in the incubator for a few weeks but I cracked it open today and it looks like scrambled egg. See the pic I posted

I'm on day 45 and I'm hearing some wiggling in the incubator hopefully the last 2 hatch.

Don't quote me on anything but I think you can put fresh eggs in a fridge for some time to hold them for storage before incubating. I was reading that hatch rates can increase if you let an egg airate and sit before starting incubating. I need to try and find where that information came from.

 

[Why and Dotte]

How did they turn out?

I know I'm too late but figured I'd respond for future hatches.
I would not consider myself "experienced" as I've only hatched out four Emu in a simple styro foam hova bator with no issues but I will relay what I learned.

We weigh the eggs daily (and manually turn 3x a day during the work day) and adjust humidity as needed.... but here is where I'm stuck. We started with a batch of 6 (and now have like 20.... they keep giving me eggs to add) and the weight loss is ALL over the place. Like within the 6 original eggs in the large incubator, one might lose 0 g and one might lose 4 g and one might lose 6 g, then the next day the one that lost 6 g didn't lose any and the one that lost 4 g somehow gained 2 grams? (Could also have an inaccurate scale?). So I tried to take averages for how to adjust humidity, but it's so all over the place I'm not sure how to regulate it. It's not like one egg is consistently losing more than the others... I was hoping that the larger losses and random 0g losses would balance each other out, but they are all now lower than the target weight.

I struggled with maintaining humidity initially but after some research found that dry hatching works just fine for Emu, I omitted water and it stayed around 20-25% until hatch then I upped it to 30-36%.
Of course this would depend on your climate.

I would definitely not rely on the incubator's humidity readings alone though, I used a digital temp/hygrometer combo from Govee link should be good for 10% off.

Have you checked the scale accuracy?

From what I have read most breeders don't bother with weighing especially with a larger hatch. I did personally since I only had four to mess with.

Looking back though I felt it caused me to worry about the one that was not losing as it should and led to me adjusting the humidity too much.
I felt the stability was better than all the fluctuations I was incurring trying to make the weights "right".

The one egg that wasn't losing at the correct rate was actually just a large chick and hatched first to my surprise!

Being that these are large eggs and I now have quite a number of them, I'm not quite sure what alternatives I have for an incubator. Don't think I can convince management to buy a new one. Any ideas on how to improve this one?

If you're not able to procure another incubator these eggs sell for as low as $40 up to $200 each, I'm sure there are certain rules you have to adhere to concerning things like this but just thought I'd put that out there, I bet that someone would trade an incubator if you had fresh fertile eggs to barter with.
You may even be able set it up as a "fundraiser".

Anyway, is this wonky humidity enough to halt development on the eggs? We are now at Day 60 for the original eggs and I am not convinced they will hatch... Is 65 usually the limit you wait? I want to open them to see if they are even fertile/have developed any but obviously don't want to kill anything that might still be living inside...

70 days has been the longest I've seen anyone report an incubation period lasting.

If you use social media you might consider joining Backyard Raties , Emu Owners Club and Emu Keepers and Breeders Community Worldwide.
There are some very knowledgeable people in those groups and they have all been helpful and friendly in my experience.

 

[Lewil25]

How did they turn out?

I know I'm too late but figured I'd respond for future hatches.
I would not consider myself "experienced" as I've only hatched out four Emu in a simple styro foam hova bator with no issues but I will relay what I learned.


I struggled with maintaining humidity initially but after some research found that dry hatching works just fine for Emu, I omitted water and it stayed around 20-25% until hatch then I upped it to 30-36%.
Of course this would depend on your climate.

I would definitely not rely on the incubator's humidity readings alone though, I used a digital temp/hygrometer combo from Govee link should be good for 10% off.

Have you checked the scale accuracy?

From what I have read most breeders don't bother with weighing especially with a larger hatch. I did personally since I only had four to mess with.

Looking back though I felt it caused me to worry about the one that was not losing as it should and led to me adjusting the humidity too much.
I felt the stability was better than all the fluctuations I was incurring trying to make the weights "right".

The one egg that wasn't losing at the correct rate was actually just a large chick and hatched first to my surprise!



If you're not able to procure another incubator these eggs sell for as low as $40 up to $200 each, I'm sure there are certain rules you have to adhere to concerning things like this but just thought I'd put that out there, I bet that someone would trade an incubator if you had fresh fertile eggs to barter with.
You may even be able set it up as a "fundraiser".


70 days has been the longest I've seen anyone report an incubation period lasting.

If you use social media you might consider joining Backyard Raties , Emu Owners Club and Emu Keepers and Breeders Community Worldwide.
There are some very knowledgeable people in those groups and they have all been helpful and friendly in my experience.

Thank you everybody for your responses!

I have an update: Bad news is none of the original batch of eggs hatched, still incubating some of the later ones they gave me. Good news is I figured out the problem--turns out that large incubator straight up cooked the eggs. I got a temp gun and when I put it on the eggs it was over 100 F! Want to say like 104 or 105. Poor guys never had a chance. I'm not sure if it's just a faulty incubator (it ended up melting the plastic tray that it came with) or if it was on my end of not understanding how the incubator works, but either way I will not be using it again!

Better news: One egg is hatching now! I believe the *only* egg that was only in the small Nurture Right 360 that was never in the large bator.

@Pyxis: That's good to know that you were able to "set it and forget it"--I think I will try that next time. Hope your Valentine's Day eggs hatched nicely!

@GusFromBuckeye how did your other eggs turn out? That pic is like what one of my eggs looked like!

@Why and Dotte That's really good to know, thank you for the info! We just found a few eggs that a male abandoned so I'm going to try again, and I think I will put them in the Nuture Right and try to dry hatch. I also definitely am going to get some other methods to read temp and humidity because clearly the incubators can't be trusted. I'm pretty sure my scale is not accurate (it only ever gives even numbers!), but figured if I use the same scale every time I could at least see how much an egg loses relative to how much it normally loses. I think I will continue to weigh these new ones, maybe once a week though instead of every day? If only for myself haha. I think it also caused me to worry too much and mess with humidity more than I needed to.

I never considered trading eggs for an incubator, that's a great idea! I'm not sure if their laying is seasonal but we had a good number eggs for a while there. I'll look at those groups too. Thank you so much for such a thorough and informative answer! Also that pic is super helpful having all the info together in one spot!

 

[Why and Dotte]

Oh exciting, I'm glad you at least get one for your efforts! You're very welcome!
It is so difficult to not worry with weight fluctuations lol, I think once a week is sufficient though.

They are seasonal layers, though I am unsure of exactly when since I got mine in December and still see other's laying now so I'm sure it varies by bird and region.
Keep us updated when you get another batch going!

 

[Lewil25]

Here is the (to my knowledge) healthy baby! Just put the 3 new eggs into the Nurture Right 360, so hopefully little dude will have some friends in few months!

 

[CluckerMath]

Here is the (to my knowledge) healthy baby! Just put the 3 new eggs into the Nurture Right 360, so hopefully little dude will have some friends in few months!

Awe...so cute! I'm glad you got one.