An Emu Egg Emergency [Please help?]

[Erka97]

So, I came home today to find my incubator has somehow become unplugged. It had been maybe six hours and the temperature on top of the eggs was 75 degrees. They are on day 11. How likely is it that this killed my eggs?

 

[eggbert420]

There is a chance the eggs will be fine.

 

[Erka97]

Thanks for answering.. I've heard stories of eggs surviving, but usually it was much later in development, so I'm so very worried, and it's worse because I can't just shine a light in there and check like any other egg. I'm trying to get another egg or a few just in case, but the laying season is basically over for these..
Do you keep and hatch emus too? I'd like to see how others do with eggs so I know what is normal and all that.
I think I'll try an experiment on a chicken egg, leave it out until it feels as cold as my emus do and then see if it still hatches.

 

[Erka97]

Alright, I did the Chicken egg experiment and the result as of now are: My home is 68-70 degrees F and three eggs were tested at day 10-11

3 hours out: All embryos still moving but slowed, one was returned to the incubator and returned to normal movement.

5 hours out: Embryos still moving slowly. Egg that was replaced in the incubator quickly returned to normal movement

9 hours out: The last egg was returned to the incubator. I would not have kept it out so long but I fell asleep for a while. It seems fine anyway. It has been marked egg number five and will be watched.

This result seems promising since the temperatures in my incubator were still slightly above the norm in my home, and beyond that while chicken eggs are more advanced at day 11 and therefore likely more hardy, their normal temperature is higher than that of emus by a few degrees and more importantly they cool much faster since they're so much smaller, have thinner shells, and were left outside the incubator rather than in it as I presume the incubator is at least moderately insulated. Only time will tell. Lots of time. A month to two months to be exact. I hope these emus are worth the stress they've caused me.

 

[eggbert420]

Good luck

 

[EmuMama89]

How did your emus turn out? I'm so nervous that something could have happened to my emus. The temp dropped to 86 for about 20 minutes last night ..

 

[juliefpc]

No worries EmuMama, you should be just fine. I had an incubator blow on me last week with chicken eggs which were cold after it blew around 10 pm when I turned them until about 8 am the next morning. After candling and weigh in, they all seem fine. 20 minutes should not affect the emu eggs at all. the temp in my emu incubator fluctuates as I turn them 4 times a day and it regulates itself immediately. But I really wouldn't worry about 20 mins at 86 degrees.