Can you recommend me an incubator?

[yinepu]

I love that we are starting to get a good discussion going on this subject.

What is a good number of eggs to do at once? for those of you that have done Emu eggs a couple of times, how many eggs have you set to get "X" number of chicks?

Are you setting like 8 to get 2 ? I have zero experience and no idea of what to expect.

Shipped eggs is the wild card.


Show pics of your setups so the people see the choices

This year mine are all shipped..

from some sellers I can get 100% hatch rates on emu eggs.. on others it's 0.. just depends .. but i have noticed that eggs that ship the furthest (for me last year) gave me the worst hatch rates.. The eggs I got from Kansas and Alabama did great..
the local eggs last year were a mix.. some were fresh and others that were given to me were very very old and rotten...

From last year:


3 eggs kansas
2 hatched

2 eggs california
0 hatched.. all were scrambled

1 egg alabama
1 hatched

2 eggs california
0 hatched .. all were scrambled

1 egg alabama
1 hatched

4 eggs kansas
3 hatched

2 eggs alabama
1 hatched

1 egg local
1 hatched

3 eggs local
1 hatched.. 2 were rotten

3 eggs local
0 hatched .. all were rotten

this year I have 4 wigglers out of 4 eggs from kansas
2 shipments of eggs from california:
1st shipment had gotten lost in the mail.. four eggs total: one egg arrived broken another arrived chipped.. out of those 4 eggs 2 are wiggling
2nd shipment .. two eggs total.. 1 egg is wiggling

 

[Grassman 52]

Purchased from 4 different sellers - only received eggs from two - still waiting on two more drops - I am setting 20 eggs total. On the other thread I will list them from state shipped.

 

[yinepu]

Purchased from 4 different sellers - only received eggs from two - still waiting on two more drops - I am setting 20 eggs total. On the other thread I will list them from state shipped.

ok.. I gotta ask..

if they were all to hatch.. what will you do with 20 emus?




now for the record I have no problem with people having large numbers of them so long as they have a plan in place for keeping them.. the emu meat and oil farmers do it all the time..
lol.. just call it curiosity on my part

 

[Grassman 52]

I think it is safe to say that i would be lucky to get 10 to hatch - then lose some as they grow. I would like to have two breeding pairs.

Now I am very lucky to have access to over 7 acres of pasture + 3.5 of my own - I will be all set.

If I get more than I can handle I will try to sell a few or hold until 14- 16 months and use for meat.

All my birds are kept for meat and eggs - not one of them have a name (except one barred rock that was re-homed and I promised to keep as a pet)


My fear is that I will go through all of this time and expense and not get the chicks I want.

 

[yinepu]

I think it is safe to say that i would be lucky to get 10 to hatch - then lose some as they grow. I would like to have two breeding pairs.

Now I am very lucky to have access to over 7 acres of pasture + 3.5 of my own - I will be all set.

If I get more than I can handle I will try to sell a few or hold until 14- 16 months and use for meat.

All my birds are kept for meat and eggs - not one of them have a name (except one barred rock that was re-homed and I promised to keep as a pet)


My fear is that I will go through all of this time and expense and not get the chicks I want.

Oh i know that feeling!

Out of the 10 that hatched out last year i got ONE female

 

[Raptor65]

Last year I set two and got two, though one later died. This year I set three and so far only one shows movement.

Personally, I wouldn't set any more eggs than you're willing to keep because if you only want 2 birds and all 8 hatch then you've either gotta find homes for the other 6 which means you're gonna have to decide which ones go and which ones stay and after a week of spending so much quality time with them you may not want to see any of em go so you're gonna have to figure out how you're gonna keep all of em.

 

[Grassman 52]

If all the eggs I set hatch I will keep the birds my self - I am buying from different sellers so I have a better chance of getting unrelated pairs. I have hatched hundreds of birds - ducks - chickens etc... no stranger to taking care of them and culling to get the birds I need. All farms and breeders have to choose which ones stay and which ones get processed.

 

[BayGoose]

OK received the new incubator and set my first eggs.


The one on the left is the 2X2 - two incubation racks and two hatching trays - full with geese and Muscovy eggs
The one on the right is the 3 tray (no hatching tray) model - EMU and other large eggs (also remove the PVC and can be used down to quail eggs)
You can see on the right that the trays have 6 inches of clearance between racks and come with PVC rod dividers

Both hold rock solid temp control and one is setup with the humidity system

They look nice! Pics always help, thanks! I was on his website and think if I decide on his, I'd choose the 2x2. Think I'm going to contact him.

 

[BayGoose]

If you're only wanting to incubate 6 emu eggs at a time.. and want something small.. how about a Reptipro?

How is the reptipro with humidity? After I'm done with emus, I would use it for waterfowl. Including swans. Reptipro looks like it would be the perfect size. By the time I decide on a cabinet, emu season will be over!


Also, I saw you said you have gotten eggs from Kansas. Are they from emufolks? I have one of their eggs in the bator. It was lost in the mail for a few days so I hope it'll hatch

I'm only on day 8 with it. It's the first time I bought from them. I'm only incubating two right now but would like to incubate more at a time. And a friend of mine is interested in getting emus now too and I do all the hatching

 

[Grassman 52]

He is a nice guy if you explain what you are going incubate he will set you up with egg holders and everything you need - he answers his phone himself 6 days a week until 10pm at night. All his parts are the industry standard GQF - just his cabinets are made from wood and the quality is outstanding for less money. Order on Monday and be setup by Thursday.

Search dickeys incubators on this web site (BYC) and you will see how many people use them - that's how I found him.