Anyone Interested in a 2017/18 Emu Hatch Along?

[shelby hayden]

The power was only off about 3.5 hrs. lucky this time, they got to the problem and restored the power quickly. eggs felt cool when we checked after the power was back. After warming up they are still wiggling away. At this point, all seems fine. Of course all remains to be seen. I think this is day 46, dang I just cant remember that. I'll have to look but it hould be this week one way or another. Then, BOOM!!! chickies. Well, i suppose more like squeak squeak instead.

I know im like others, the excitement builds as to time for hatching becomes closer. Makes you want to sit and stare. Just watching for the first signs of a crack. Not quite a crack heard around the world but it will be as important to me. I just want to slip those little prehistoric darlings outta their shells and say hello! I cant hardly wait. Dont worry The birth announcement and pics will follow the big event.

Im so glad to hear they are okay. I have had my homemade Bator reset over and over leaving them to cool for a few hours or so each time and never had any issues as long as you know the babies are at that certain point I don't see there being any issues so you shouldnt have to worry about that but with it being this week you never know I wouldn't put all your eggs in one basket it could be up to 60 days but just keep an eye on them and you'll know when to stop turning once you hear that whistle back so once it hits day 50 start whistling at your eggs before you turn them. so whistle then listen put your ear to the egg and listen if you hear the baby do not turn if you don't hear the baby turn.

 

[West ky tim]

Im so glad to hear they are okay. I have had my homemade Bator reset over and over leaving them to cool for a few hours or so each time and never had any issues as long as you know the babies are at that certain point I don't see there being any issues so you shouldnt have to worry about that but with it being this week you never know I wouldn't put all your eggs in one basket it could be up to 60 days but just keep an eye on them and you'll know when to stop turning once you hear that whistle back so once it hits day 50 start whistling at your eggs before you turn them. so whistle then listen put your ear to the egg and listen if you hear the baby do not turn if you don't hear the baby turn.

Well thats good to hear my mind was on the correct path with the temp issues. I'll remember the whistle back check as I get closer to those magical days....

 

[West ky tim]

Well after our power outage scare over the weekend everything seems to be ok. Still have wiggles, maybe even closer to dancing around when whistled to.

The most egg-citing thing today was one of our two egg also began to chirp and cheep while dancing around.

I think fun is around the corner!!

 

[shelby hayden]

Well after our power outage scare over the weekend everything seems to be ok. Still have wiggles, maybe even closer to dancing around when whistled to. The egg that is sounding should externally pit within 24 hours in Hatch right after

The most egg-citing thing today was one of our two egg also began to chirp and cheep while dancing around.

I think fun is around the corner!!

 

[shelby hayden]

Pip lol

 

[pillageTHENburn]

I realize I'm late to this thread, I've been lurking for a while and I'm on day 41 with two eggs today. I've had some very helpful offline conversations with Shelby (thank you again!) but I figured I'd post some of my news here in case it's helpful for others (and incase others can help me!!).

Short synopsis:
Two eggs from the same hen, they were laid a couple miles from my house (no shipping). According to some advice I read here I started them dry but when they each lost 4 times what they were supposed to lose in the first day I knew something was awry. I immediately added water and brought the humidity up to about 25%. They continued to lose too much but loss slowed to about 3g per day (goal was 1.7g per day). Fast forward to day 25ish, by this time I had increased humidity to ~55-65% in desperation because they had a lot of tape on them and were still losing too much! I just checked and one of the eggs lost the "correct amount" of weight only 7 of the last 41 days! Anyway, day 30, both still underweight, at this point I was basically panicking and decided that it was safer to increase humidity way beyond the suggested range, than it was to tape over almost the entire shell. I was worried about suffocating them with tape! So, humidity was up to 72% for a little bit, and that was the only time during the entire incubation that they both consistently lost an "appropriate" weight. However, during those few days I had some conversations with Shelby who said to reduce humidity, turn off the fan, and cover them with tape. No fan is not an option because my incubator temp plummeted and I couldn't keep it in range, so the I reduced the fan by 80% and made it run intermittently (it's only on for the moments that the lights are on (for temp regulation)). Temp stabilized and I slowly brought humidity down to 40-45%.
Day 33 I saw one wiggle! The egg that had been losing the most weight (GG) wiggled on day 33 and the other egg (MB) started wiggling on day ~35. Day 37 was the last time I saw GG wiggle. I'm very sad about it. Day 39 I was able to hear a heartbeat and hear "thumping" when MB wiggles, but GG sounds silent. I've not given up all hope but I'm 98% sure GG is dead. MB is quite wiggly these days and responds to voice or whistles or just wiggles for the heck of it.
I'm pretty torn up about GG, but for now I'm treating it the same and still turning and talking and listening.
On Shelby's advice both eggs are 95%+ covered in tape, humidity is stable at about 40-45% and temp has been pretty stable the entire time (97˚F). They are both still losing more than they should and I am quite worried I will lose MB too.

Here's a chart of their progress as of last night's weigh-in:

You can see both are dangerously underweight. The "Probably dead" line is 20% loss.

Interestingly if I ignore the first day loss of 6/7g then that brings my actual weight (the blue line) much closer to the target window (at least for MB).

Anyway, I fear that one is dead and I'm terrified that I'm going to kill the other one. I feel like I'm in the home stretch but knowing that they could easily die at any moment is terrible! I'm worried about too much tape, I'm worried about too much weight loss (still).

I welcome any advice or input that anyone might have!
Thank you!
-Logan

 

[shelby hayden]

Okay so just calm down. I had my number 2 wiggling then stopped for the last 10 days but he hatched just fine. If your babies are still loosing to much be prepared on hatch day with a mix of Pedialyte baby vitamins with no iorn vitamin E. If you can bring the humidity up a little at a time you do not want to do this quickly as the instant change will do more harm then anything. Don't give up on your egg as I have seen plenty of wiggle and then nothing but on that day you hear it whistling back at you ready to hatch. Once you hear that whistle remove the tape cuz that's when they will be breathing actually air. Hang in there you are doing just fine.

 

[shelby hayden]

I realize I'm late to this thread, I've been lurking for a while and I'm on day 41 with two eggs today. I've had some very helpful offline conversations with Shelby (thank you again!) but I figured I'd post some of my news here in case it's helpful for others (and incase others can help me!!).

Short synopsis:
Two eggs from the same hen, they were laid a couple miles from my house (no shipping). According to some advice I read here I started them dry but when they each lost 4 times what they were supposed to lose in the first day I knew something was awry. I immediately added water and brought the humidity up to about 25%. They continued to lose too much but loss slowed to about 3g per day (goal was 1.7g per day). Fast forward to day 25ish, by this time I had increased humidity to ~55-65% in desperation because they had a lot of tape on them and were still losing too much! I just checked and one of the eggs lost the "correct amount" of weight only 7 of the last 41 days! Anyway, day 30, both still underweight, at this point I was basically panicking and decided that it was safer to increase humidity way beyond the suggested range, than it was to tape over almost the entire shell. I was worried about suffocating them with tape! So, humidity was up to 72% for a little bit, and that was the only time during the entire incubation that they both consistently lost an "appropriate" weight. However, during those few days I had some conversations with Shelby who said to reduce humidity, turn off the fan, and cover them with tape. No fan is not an option because my incubator temp plummeted and I couldn't keep it in range, so the I reduced the fan by 80% and made it run intermittently (it's only on for the moments that the lights are on (for temp regulation)). Temp stabilized and I slowly brought humidity down to 40-45%.
Day 33 I saw one wiggle! The egg that had been losing the most weight (GG) wiggled on day 33 and the other egg (MB) started wiggling on day ~35. Day 37 was the last time I saw GG wiggle. I'm very sad about it. Day 39 I was able to hear a heartbeat and hear "thumping" when MB wiggles, but GG sounds silent. I've not given up all hope but I'm 98% sure GG is dead. MB is quite wiggly these days and responds to voice or whistles or just wiggles for the heck of it.
I'm pretty torn up about GG, but for now I'm treating it the same and still turning and talking and listening.
On Shelby's advice both eggs are 95%+ covered in tape, humidity is stable at about 40-45% and temp has been pretty stable the entire time (97˚F). They are both still losing more than they should and I am quite worried I will lose MB too.

Here's a chart of their progress as of last night's weigh-in:
View attachment 1280330

You can see both are dangerously underweight. The "Probably dead" line is 20% loss.

Interestingly if I ignore the first day loss of 6/7g then that brings my actual weight (the blue line) much closer to the target window (at least for MB).

Anyway, I fear that one is dead and I'm terrified that I'm going to kill the other one. I feel like I'm in the home stretch but knowing that they could easily die at any moment is terrible! I'm worried about too much tape, I'm worried about too much weight loss (still).

I welcome any advice or input that anyone might have!
Thank you!
-Logan

What was the beginning weight also as I can give you the accurate weight loss for each egg.

 

[West ky tim]

Here’s what I’ve got going today!

 

[shelby hayden]

Here’s what I’ve got going today!

Is that you whistling or the egg