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KadenL said:
On a bit of a.. different.. note.
I'm new here but will be hatching *hopefully* two emu if things go right in incubation. I'm in the process of purchasing, and if I wind up with a male and female, I could sell fertile eggs if anyone was interested. It takes one or two seasons before they start breeding to lay truly fertile eggs, but I just thought id let fellow Arizonians know of that future possibility!
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Hello and welcome! Emus? Wow! Those are some big chickens.
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DesertChic said:
Hello and welcome! Emus? Wow! Those are some big chickens. ;)
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haha yes they are and I can't wait! It's going to be amazing! I've heard so many good things about their temperment and that they're good with children. My brother wants kids eventually and with how long emus live I might have some kiddos running around after them in the future haha
 
KadenL said:
On a bit of a.. different.. note.
I'm new here but will be hatching *hopefully* two emu if things go right in incubation. I'm in the process of purchasing, and if I wind up with a male and female, I could sell fertile eggs if anyone was interested. It takes one or two seasons before they start breeding to lay truly fertile eggs, but I just thought id let fellow Arizonians know of that future possibility!
Click to expand...
that sounds like a lot of fun, and not to mention some hard work! :welcome
 
BlueBaby said:
You will have to show us that huge incubator that you will have to be putting them into!
Click to expand...

I actually made the incubator im putting them in and I definitely need to post pictures but it's a strange little contraption. I'm super paranoid about hatch rates, as my last batch's seller said they had only a 50-70% (which isn't that bad but it isn't great) due to human error. So, naturally, I decided there would be NO human error, and instead of paying $500 for a self-monitoring incubator or something crazy, what I do is use a rechargeable back heating-pad to help with muscle relief, you know? And I basically cut part that Velcro's and measured my waistline, added that amount of elastic, sewed it on, added a pouch to the large, heated zone, and then used a plastic bowl of a medium size to cap the top off, and then added a small capped container to the inside with holes in the top and used a very small, 1/2 in I think, hose I got from home depot and attach it to one of the holes in the life of the container, then extend it out through the cloth sack, as a waterline. I recently bought a new digital thermometer off Amazon for $12 that is also a hygrometer and i will be adding that when I adjust the size of the egg pouch.

This seems like a lot of work but when you pay $50 per emu egg it's better to be safe than sorry.. haha.

So you strap the back heater to your stomach before you put the eggs or water container in. Once you get it comfortable, add the water container and secure it to the sides of the pouch. Add a piece of fabric (I used an old T shirt that had become too small and had torn a bit) to the inside of the container. Add the water and some dummy eggs roughly the size of the eggs you plan to use, heat the belt up and wait. Fiddle with the heat setting and the amount of water you're using until you get the perfect amount, mark that amount on the container and keep it as constant as possible. Take the dummy eggs out and add the real eggs and start incubation. I use it attached to me so that in the case of the belt failing, my body heat would make up for it until I can go purchase another heat belt. It's pretty simple tbh and just sounds more complicated than it is. Keep it under a sweatshirt and use a thin, porous fabric to let the eggs breathe. You can chose to have a fan but you don't necessarily need one if you're moving around.
 
Basically I wound up with a 95% hatch rate on the eggs that should have, according to the hatchery, only have had a 50-70%. But it depends on the size of the eggs, the brand of rechargeable back heat belt and it's a lot of tinkering. Also, large eggs or a late number of eggs excrete lots of CO2 so be careful of that and make sure to air the eggs out by moving the pouch around every couple of hours. It'll drop the temperature a bit but won't hurt the eggs.

Finally dug it up and figured out how I made the old thing. It's pretty prehistoric in relation to all of the technologically advanced incubators out now but it works like a charm
 
Last edited:
KadenL said:
I actually made the incubator im putting them in and I definitely need to post pictures but it's a strange little contraption. I'm super paranoid about hatch rates, as my last batch's seller said they had only a 50-70% (which isn't that bad but it isn't great) due to human error. So, naturally, I decided there would be NO human error, and instead of paying $500 for a self-monitoring incubator or something crazy, what I do is use a rechargeable back heating-pad to help with muscle relief, you know? And I basically cut part that Velcro's and measured my waistline, added that amount of elastic, sewed it on, added a pouch to the large, heated zone, and then used a plastic bowl of a medium size to cap the top off, and then added a small capped container to the inside with holes in the top and used a very small, 1/2 in I think, hose I got from home depot and attach it to one of the holes in the life of the container, then extend it out through the cloth sack, as a waterline. I recently bought a new digital thermometer off Amazon for $12 that is also a hygrometer and i will be adding that when I adjust the size of the egg pouch.

This seems like a lot of work but when you pay $50 per emu egg it's better to be safe than sorry.. haha.

So you strap the back heater to your stomach before you put the eggs or water container in. Once you get it comfortable, add the water container and secure it to the sides of the pouch. Add a piece of fabric (I used an old T shirt that had become too small and had torn a bit) to the inside of the container. Add the water and some dummy eggs roughly the size of the eggs you plan to use, heat the belt up and wait. Fiddle with the heat setting and the amount of water you're using until you get the perfect amount, mark that amount on the container and keep it as constant as possible. Take the dummy eggs out and add the real eggs and start incubation. I use it attached to me so that in the case of the belt failing, my body heat would make up for it until I can go purchase another heat belt. It's pretty simple tbh and just sounds more complicated than it is. Keep it under a sweatshirt and use a thin, porous fabric to let the eggs breathe. You can chose to have a fan but you don't necessarily need one if you're moving around.
Click to expand...

So, does this mean that you will basically be looking like a kangaroo with this thing on until they hatch?
 

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