Anyone up for a Hatchalong?

[Irine]

That's one lucky guy

personally.. I would wait until day 48 or 49 and then drill a small hole into the air cell end if you think he may run into problems.. that would give him a couple of days to turn around between now and then.. since it's a football shaped egg and he may try to pip on the wrong end you can keep listening to his peeps and see if he tries to orient himself the right way.. hopefully he does.. but I had one that never pipped the shell with his beak and never turned around.. instead he kicked his way out of the shell with his big ol feet..

 

[msheets]

With emu eggs, would pipping at the wrong end be any different than the aircell end? Since once they sound their body fills the entire egg anyway? I know most birds like chickens zip around the aircell then pop the top off, but with emus it seems they more or less pip a hole in their shell then break out by shattering (poor word choice I think) it...don't they? If so then is it still bad for them to pip at one end over the other? This is just my assumption, I'd really like other's takes on it...I'm such a worried "momma" right now, even though nothing has actually gone wrong yet lol.

 

[kathyinmo]

They're on day 46 today

WOO HOO ! ! ! It is getting near! I am so excited for you!

Sorry, I have no advice. I have only hatched the 2 I have, and I did not do anything at all. They totally hatched on their own. Honestly, I don't think I could drill a hole or anything. That would scare me. So, I am very happy they did it all on their own.

 

[yinepu]

With emu eggs, would pipping at the wrong end be any different than the aircell end? Since once they sound their body fills the entire egg anyway? I know most birds like chickens zip around the aircell then pop the top off, but with emus it seems they more or less pip a hole in their shell then break out by shattering (poor word choice I think) it...don't they? If so then is it still bad for them to pip at one end over the other? This is just my assumption, I'd really like other's takes on it...I'm such a worried "momma" right now, even though nothing has actually gone wrong yet lol.

for the football eggs it's pretty normal for a chick to pip and successfully hatch from the wrong end.. just sometimes they need help and there is a higher risk of one dieing from pipping the wrong end since the blood vessels at that end take longer to close off

the reason they end up needing help is that there is less room for their head to pull back and use their beak to hammer the shell to pip it.. plus the overall shape of the egg makes it harder for them to kick and break the shell or turn around... so in a perfect world all emus would lay the normal "egg shaped" egg. You just need to pay special attention to any egg that is football shaped

quail chicks make a perfect circular opening when they zip.. it looks like the egg has a little flip top lid

chickens do the regular pip and zip

emus though tend to pip a hole and then break the shell .. some break in a circle around the shell.. others just break off large pieces.. I think that's probably the main reason why humidity at hatch doesn't matter as much... the membrane turns papery and the way that an emu breaks open the shell is so different from a regular barnyard bird that shrink wrapping isn't an issue


just as a note:
another big difference is that emus have a flat breast bone and all red meat similar to beef.. where chickens have a keel bone and the meat is a lot different (dark and white).. I think most people expect them to be a lot like chickens because they are birds and lay eggs.. but that's pretty much where the similarity ends.. I tend to think of them as being different animals completely .. I also read a theory where they suggest that the sex of Ratites CAN be determined by temperature much like a crocodile.. (page 31 of "Ratite Egg Incubation" D.C. Deeming)... it's not a proven fact yet.. though data shows that it seems to be possible.. perhaps I'll try it in a few years when my birds are laying eggs and I have some I can experiment with

 

[yinepu]

That's one lucky guy

yeah he is.. he's still a little maniac too.. one of the craziest of the bunch when they are up and running around.. I swear he acts like a little emu on caffeine sometimes!

 

[msheets]

Thanks so much Kathy! Now it's day 47 with egg B already whistling back at me & I'm just beside myself in excitement! Yesterday I could only hear the chick on the wrong end of the egg but today I can hear it wherever I put my ear, so I'm not sure what that means...I can hear it pecking the shell with it's beak sometimes, then when it whistles back to me it just melts my heart. I'm still real worried though where it's the football shaped one, if it were any of the other 3 I wouldn't be worrying. They I don't think have sounded yet so they'll probably hatch closer to day 50. I'm not sure why egg B is so ahead of them, maybe it's shape or that it's a longer thinner egg it developed faster? Oh my I'm on edge right now, I can't remember what it means when you can hear them whistling or how many days they can peep before they're in danger. My phone won't let me download the Emu Handbook, what a bummer :/

 

[msheets]

Thank you for the reply yinepu! If I buy you a plane ticket, will you bring your chicks & emu book to WV & hang out with me throughout my eggs' hatch? It'll just be for the next 3-5 days...lol just playing around, but it would be nice if you were my neighbor!

 

[kathyinmo]

Thank you for the reply yinepu! If I buy you a plane ticket, will you bring your chicks & emu book to WV & hang out with me throughout my eggs' hatch? It'll just be for the next 3-5 days...lol just playing around, but it would be nice if you were my neighbor!

I'll be thinking about you this week, for sure. I do know how nerve wracking this time is!

Best wishes for a wonderful hatch for you!

 

[msheets]

Ok I just checked my other 3 eggs and A & C are whistling back as well! I'm pretty sure I know the answer but I'm going to ask anyway, that means they have sounded/broken into the aircell doesn't it? Egg E's aircell end is still cool to the touch so I'm assuming it hasn't yet but I can't believe 2 of the regular shaped eggs are whistling back as well! I may have already asked but I didn't know eggs A & C were sounded so maybe its a lil different answer with normal eggs but how long is normal for them to be sounded before they pip the shell? I'm not rushing them just want to stay in the know lol, I didn't know it would be this nerve racking but omg it definitely is!!!

 

[kathyinmo]

I got my emu sexing results today.
Lucky me! I have a pair; one of each sex!