Humidity and Ostrich egg incubation

[Nicophorus]

So, here is the pickle.

Seems humidity levels in my house are around 40ish percent, and that's during the "dry" season here in Florida with the windows open for the beautiful weather.

I close all the windows and reluctantly turn the AC on and humidity levels in my incubator still refuse to dip below 30% (33% seems to be where it stays).

This is in a new GQF sportsman cabinet model, and yes there is no water tray in it.

I'm told Ostrich eggs need LOW humidity, 25% or lower (preferably lower). I'm I really looking at sealing this incubator off in one of my spare rooms and buying a dehumidifier for the room? sheesh, getting kind of ridiculous.

I suppose I have no choice and I'll have to go buy one today. Is this what all of you have done when incubating ostrich eggs?

 

[29PalmsRanch]

Yolksacks seem to be doing fine, but new problem: One of the chick's legs is/has turned out to sort of a 90 degree angle, you all know what I'm talking about...

Is this ever a temporary thing? Or basically no hope/a sign it must eventually be culled?

When a leg turns outward, it is because the connective tissue at the front of the thigh has disconnected. The first thing to address is the type of floor they are on. What are you using? Second thing to address is the effect of the lack of connective tissue. Just like with a prolapse, you can get the bird healthy again. You just need to make it so that you have something else holding that leg straight while that connective tissue reforms. The most common cause of an "spradle leg" is a situation where the bird has slipped on a slick surface. If they have to struggle to get up... then you need to change your flooring. The previous poster who commented that you should hobble the chick is exactly correct as is your conclusion that your exposed yolk sack is due to too high humidity levels during the incubator/hatch period. The time frame involved in the hatch leads me to believe you had a temp issue there as well. In any case, if you hobble it and put the bird on a surface that ensures there is no slipping possibility, you should be good to go with it in a few weeks. Glad that you had a relatively successful hatch. The first one is always a challenge/learning process.

 

[ES Emus]

sounds like you are doing the right thing(s)... good luck

 

[moonjelly]

I'd like to stress again to make certain you do not put them on sand, shavings, or any other substrate. They are way too young and are going to get impacted. It's almost guaranteed. I raised mine on concrete and I don't think there's anything better if you want to be as cautious as possible.

 

[ronott1]

So, here is the pickle.

Seems humidity levels in my house are around 40ish percent, and that's during the "dry" season here in Florida with the windows open for the beautiful weather.

I close all the windows and reluctantly turn the AC on and humidity levels in my incubator still refuse to dip below 30% (33% seems to be where it stays).

This is in a new GQF sportsman cabinet model, and yes there is no water tray in it.

I'm told Ostrich eggs need LOW humidity, 25% or lower (preferably lower). I'm I really looking at sealing this incubator off in one of my spare rooms and buying a dehumidifier for the room? sheesh, getting kind of ridiculous.

I suppose I have no choice and I'll have to go buy one today. Is this what all of you have done when incubating ostrich eggs?

The de humidifier is the way to get.

@ozexpat does this in the Philippines and it has made a big improvement in hatch rates for him.

 

[Nicophorus]

So the results:

1 hatched out by itself on day 42
2 on day 43

on day 44 one more hatched out and another got stuck and needed help.

The 3rd and last egg died sometime in the shell before external pip, it was fully formed.

The two live birds from day 44 both have some external yolk on their navel. I've since moved the first three healthy chicks to their brood pen and they seem to be doing ok. These other two with the external yolk I'm keeping in the incubator and have been trying to keep things sanitary with iodine and more recently antiseptic blue/coat.

These two worry me because the navel opening is still fairy big, maybe a inch across so its not like I can just tie off the external yolk and remove it. I administered some antibiotic today and honestly I've seen no reduction in the amount of external yolk between hatch and now, two days later. At most it dried out some and shrunk due to water loss.

I am convinced this poor hatch out over all (5 out of 6 eggs live, but 2 of those 5 with external yolk and signs of edema in the legs) was due to humidity being too high over the course of incubation.

Even in a dedicated room, with AC running and a separate dehumidifier going 24/7 the humidity averaged maybe 25 or 26 percent. I think Ostrich needs lower then this and when I hatch again I'll try to work something out to achieve closer to 20 percent humidity.

Has anyone delt with the kind of external yolk sack im describing? Two days later and navel is still open and fairly dry portion of yolk still outside the abdomen. Will the navel eventually close on its own and the body shed off the external yolk or what?

 

[Nicophorus]

Ended up going to the vet, she said the external yolks should shrivel and fall off soon, so fingers crossed.

 

[Nicophorus]

Yolksacks seem to be doing fine, but new problem: One of the chick's legs is/has turned out to sort of a 90 degree angle, you all know what I'm talking about...

Is this ever a temporary thing? Or basically no hope/a sign it must eventually be culled?

 

[ronott1]

Yolksacks seem to be doing fine, but new problem: One of the chick's legs is/has turned out to sort of a 90 degree angle, you all know what I'm talking about...

Is this ever a temporary thing? Or basically no hope/a sign it must eventually be culled?

I do not know about Ostrich's but for Emus it is a bad thing and does not recover. It gets to be very bad when the bird is bigger because of the weight the leg has to hold up.

Sorry to hear of the problem with the leg!

 

[moonjelly]

You can hobble the chick and see if it can be slowly rotated back while he's still young. How old is he right now?