Anyone Interested in a 2017/18 Emu Hatch Along?

[West ky tim]

Is that you whistling or the egg

That is the egg itself

 

[pillageTHENburn]

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

I set them at 577g (MB) and 566g (GG)
For a 49 day incubation and a 15% weight loss goal my math comes to:
MB
Start Weight = 577g
Target final weight = 490.45g
Target weight loss = 86.55g
Daily weight loss goal = 1.77g
Weekly weight loss goal = 12.36g
ACTUAL average daily loss as of day 41 = 2.45g
ACTUAL weight on day 41 = 484.4g

GG
Start Weight = 566g
Target final weight = 481.1g
Target weight loss = 84.9g
Daily weight loss goal = 1.73g
Weekly weight loss goal = 12.13g
ACTUAL average daily loss as of day 41 = 2.32g
ACTUAL weight on day 41 = 468.2g

So they both actually weigh less now on day 41 than they were supposed to on day 49.
I talk and whistle to them many times a day and MB is still quite wiggly and GG is still silent. I can hear a heartbeat with a stethoscope in MB but still not in GG. GG was the first to wiggle around day 33 but I have not seen a wiggle since about day 37.

I have kept very accurate records, I have incubator temp, incubator humidity, and room temp recorded at least three times per day and they have been weighed every single night.

 

[shelby hayden]

I set them at 577g (MB) and 566g (GG)
For a 49 day incubation and a 15% weight loss goal my math comes to:
MB
Start Weight = 577g
Target final weight = 490.45g
Target weight loss = 86.55g
Daily weight loss goal = 1.77g
Weekly weight loss goal = 12.36g
ACTUAL average daily loss as of day 41 = 2.45g
ACTUAL weight on day 41 = 484.4g

GG
Start Weight = 566g
Target final weight = 481.1g
Target weight loss = 84.9g
Daily weight loss goal = 1.73g
Weekly weight loss goal = 12.13g
ACTUAL average daily loss as of day 41 = 2.32g
ACTUAL weight on day 41 = 468.2g

So they both actually weigh less now on day 41 than they were supposed to on day 49.
I talk and whistle to them many times a day and MB is still quite wiggly and GG is still silent. I can hear a heartbeat with a stethoscope in MB but still not in GG. GG was the first to wiggle around day 33 but I have not seen a wiggle since about day 37.

I have kept very accurate records, I have incubator temp, incubator humidity, and room temp recorded at least three times per day and they have been weighed every single night.

I'm seeing the same for target loss. Just keep hanging in there. I had one that I swore I seen wiggle but it wasn't even fertile. So just hang in there you are in that home stretch.

 

[shelby hayden]

That is the egg itself

If that's the egg your baby should of hatched by now.

 

[pillageTHENburn]

I'm seeing the same for target loss. Just keep hanging in there. I had one that I swore I seen wiggle but it wasn't even fertile. So just hang in there you are in that home stretch.

Thank you, it's getting close now (today is day 46)!
The one that is no longer moving was most definitely moving at one point! I have video of it moving plus both of my daughters and my wife all saw it wiggle for about 3 days... Either way I'm still whistling and talking to it many times a day, who knows! Interestingly it's weight loss has slowed while the live one is still struggling to keep it under 1.9g loss per day.

 

[shelby hayden]

Thank you, it's getting close now (today is day 46)!
The one that is no longer moving was most definitely moving at one point! I have video of it moving plus both of my daughters and my wife all saw it wiggle for about 3 days... Either way I'm still whistling and talking to it many times a day, who knows! Interestingly it's weight loss has slowed while the live one is still struggling to keep it under 1.9g loss per day.

So the last days they should loose the most of their weight. And with the struggle so far it will happen either way I would go ahead and get things ready to rehydrate.

 

[Destornis]

Thank you, it's getting close now (today is day 46)!
The one that is no longer moving was most definitely moving at one point! I have video of it moving plus both of my daughters and my wife all saw it wiggle for about 3 days... Either way I'm still whistling and talking to it many times a day, who knows! Interestingly it's weight loss has slowed while the live one is still struggling to keep it under 1.9g loss per day.

I had the same issue with the weight loss. How high is your elevation? I'm up in the Rockies at 7,700 feet, and I've heard with higher elevations it's better to have more humidity. I'm testing my four eggs at 40-45% humidity, since they kept losing so much weight with 25-30%. I'll weight them later today and I hoped it helped some. They were losing a little more than double the amount they should be, and so I even taped them in stripes so they can have an even air distribution within the egg, (well that was my goal.) How are they? Still wiggling?

 

[pillageTHENburn]

I had the same issue with the weight loss. How high is your elevation? I'm up in the Rockies at 7,700 feet, and I've heard with higher elevations it's better to have more humidity. I'm testing my four eggs at 40-45% humidity, since they kept losing so much weight with 25-30%. I'll weight them later today and I hoped it helped some. They were losing a little more than double the amount they should be, and so I even taped them in stripes so they can have an even air distribution within the egg, (well that was my goal.) How are they? Still wiggling?

I heard that too, but I heard it very late in the game. I'm at the Eastern base of the Sierra Mountains, my house is at 5,500 feet. This is the high desert, so it is dry here. The thing I didn't understand is that the humidity in the incubator should not care what the humidity is outside of the incubator (yes, they ARE correlated and incubator humidity is affected by room humidity), what I mean is 30% RH at 97˚F here should be exactly the same environmentally as 30% RH at 97˚F at sea level. At least I think that's true. I understand that we are discussing altitude not just the RH but I'm not sure I understand how they relate to each other.

As far as the eggs go, well I have some bad/sad news. At the end of day 50 at about midnight I still heard a heartbeat in the one egg. Not much wiggling but a heartbeat for sure. I had already removed some of the tape (the air cell end had no tape) but there was still tape on the rest of the egg. There was no sign of an internal pip (I don't really know what I'm checking for other than a chick who whistles back). The next morning at about 6:30am there was no heartbeat. I couldn't hear anything at all and I got zero wiggles.
My heart sank.
I took the rest of the tape off and immediately bored a small "safety hole", I knew it was probably dead but figured I had nothing to lose by trying.

And that's where I am today, I think today is day 53 and I'm pretty certain they are both dead. I was going to open up the egg yesterday but didn't. I will probably open them both tonight.

I had lots of tape on them and was running at 50-60% RH at 97-97.5˚F for the last third of incubation time. Even then my daily losses were more than they should be.

Before I started I had read one seemingly reputable write-up that said to "start them dry" and several other accounts saying the same thing (retrospectively I think the other accounts were merely citing the initial write up). So I did just that - started them dry - they lost nearly four times the desired daily weight loss in the first day! That single day was detrimental and I tried to catch up every day after that with no luck. That article should have said "in my climate at an average humidity of X and an altitude of Y it works best to start them dry and only add water if needed". I am not trying to blame that bit of mis-information on the loss of my chicks but if I take that single data point out then the final weight loss is right around 17% (still too much, but possibly survivable) but with that first day the final weight loss was just over 19%. I clearly had lots of time (49 days or so) to fix the problem but struggled hard to keep loss below 2.5g daily!

I regret not adding tape sooner and I regret not starting them at at least 30% humidity. And I regret being so afraid to cross that mythical 40% RH boundary. If I ever try again (I hope to) I will be sure to aggressively handle weight loss early on and I will be less afraid of high humidity. I might know more after the autopsy.

Sorry for the long post.
I hope yours do better than mine!
-Logan

 

[featherz]

Just started my first two Emu eggs, have the weights recorded and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Egg 1 is 664g, egg 2 is 586g. Using a Sportsman cabinet incubator.

 

[bubbachicken]

We have 5 eggs in the incubator. We got a breeding pair in Jan. Got first egg on March 10 and last one on March 24th. Temp is at 97.5 and Humidity around 20%. They have all lost 9% seem to be on track. The male bird we have follows us around like a dog and lays his head on your shoulder. Love these birds.