Emu egg developed a crack

[UPchiX]

First off, I am new to this site and new to Emu’s and new to incubation.
We decided to incubate Emu eggs and ordered a few from different sources. I have 3 eggs and they were started 5 days ago. All eggs were inspected and weighed and left at room temperature for a couple days prior to starting the incubation. Today I went to turn one and I felt the egg shell shift slightly and knew instantly it was a crack. It was not there previously and we have been extremely careful while turning the eggs by hand. My question is can this egg still develop or do I need to just remove it and concentrate on the two remaining eggs? I don’t want to give up if there is a chance but I don’t want to risk the remaining two if it’s a lost cause.
Thank you for any help I can get!

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

@Pyxis might be able to answer

 

[Pyxis]

You might be able to patch the crack with some tape or wax and save the egg. However, I'd be concerned about why it cracked. It shouldn't just spontaneously crack for no reason. I'd be worried that it was bad and a build up of gas caused the shell to crack - but I'd expect it to smell pretty bad if that was the case.

 

[MissouriNewb]

First off, I am new to this site and new to Emu’s and new to incubation.
We decided to incubate Emu eggs and ordered a few from different sources. I have 3 eggs and they were started 5 days ago. All eggs were inspected and weighed and left at room temperature for a couple days prior to starting the incubation. Today I went to turn one and I felt the egg shell shift slightly and knew instantly it was a crack. It was not there previously and we have been extremely careful while turning the eggs by hand. My question is can this egg still develop or do I need to just remove it and concentrate on the two remaining eggs? I don’t want to give up if there is a chance but I don’t want to risk the remaining two if it’s a lost cause.
Thank you for any help I can get!

This reply is late. But...did you decide to keep?

This is one of those things were tape or non scented wax would have worked well. Emu eggs are expensive enough where it is worth a try. And since you are turning by hand you would have noticed a foul smell if this started going bad.

The bigger thing I would mention is emu eggs are extremely tough. Turning it and cracking a healthy egg would be nearly impossible.

I would contact the seller, likely it got damaged in shipping (in which case there was likely shipping insurance) or was a fragile egg as the parent just layed one that was not as healthy.

Hope you get all worked out.

Btw, it the eggs were handled roughly enough in shipping all the eggs could be damaged. Cracks or not.

So lastly make sure on delivery to do a really good go over to ensure no shipping damage.

It you got these eggs locally obviously all this last part was wasted breath !

 

[UPchiX]

I did decide to keep it. I tried the nail polish and didn’t think it would be good enough so I used my wife’s hard wax and it seems to be holding fine.
I do smell each egg every time I turn it and so far so good there but it does lose weight faster than the others according to my weight loss chart I made up for each egg. If this continues I’ll use some tape and try to slow it down a bit but my other two eggs are right on pace or just slightly slow.
As for the shipping, I had two eggs from that breeder and one completely busted and this one didn’t develop a crack until after my claim. I only got about half of the cost in the claim from USPS. I’m in the upper peninsula of Michigan and I’m not aware of anyone locally that has eggs so i have ordered those I have and will likely do so again until we get our own.
Thanks for the replies!

 

[MissouriNewb]

I did decide to keep it. I tried the nail polish and didn’t think it would be good enough so I used my wife’s hard wax and it seems to be holding fine.
I do smell each egg every time I turn it and so far so good there but it does lose weight faster than the others according to my weight loss chart I made up for each egg. If this continues I’ll use some tape and try to slow it down a bit but my other two eggs are right on pace or just slightly slow.
As for the shipping, I had two eggs from that breeder and one completely busted and this one didn’t develop a crack until after my claim. I only got about half of the cost in the claim from USPS. I’m in the upper peninsula of Michigan and I’m not aware of anyone locally that has eggs so i have ordered those I have and will likely do so again until we get our own.
Thanks for the replies!

Quick extra suggestion. You mentioned loosing weight quicker. Emu eggs need a lot of oxygen. So don’t tape up too much in an effort to try to keep fluid at the expense of oxygen exchange.

When the egg hatches let us know please !

 

[UPchiX]

Update: the crack was found on day 5, it’s now day 22 and everything has remained consistent. I have three eggs going and one is losing weight slightly slow, one is almost exactly on pace and the cracked one is fast. Still no odor from any of the eggs and I did not tape the egg up extra from the wax. The first is supposed to lose 1.85g per and is only losing 1.64g, second is supposed to lose 1.69g and is losing about 1.65g and the cracked egg is supposed to lose 1.74 but has averaged 2.33g. They have not always been exactly these but they have consistently been slow, right on and fast, even before the crack showed and it was about the same over give or take a couple tenths of a gram.
Question I have is is it normal to have several eggs in the same incubator consistently losing at higher and lower rates than they should or is the weight loss telling me I may have issues? I do rotate eggs so they are not in same location in the incubator each day.

 

[Pyxis]

Question I have is is it normal to have several eggs in the same incubator consistently losing at higher and lower rates than they should or is the weight loss telling me I may have issues?

It depends. Any that I have had that have been losing weight extremely rapidly and much more than what they are supposed to be losing have been empty eggs. It wouldn't surprise me if that was the case with your cracked egg, because good eggs don't usually spontaneously develop cracks for no reason, so that's also a bad sign, at least to me.

Smaller eggs tend to lose weight faster than bigger eggs and might need a higher humidity to keep them on track. Different shell textures can also play a role in how easily they lose weight, with a smooth texture losing weight less easily than a shell with a rough texture.

If I had my Emu Farmer's Handbook right with me I'd take a picture of the section that describes this for you. Unfortunately I don't, but I'll try to get it for you.

 

[UPchiX]

Day 39 and we tied talking and slight tapping the eggs and two of. Three wiggled. The cracked one and the one right on for weight loss both wiggled. The weigh loss of hecrackedoe slow egg up a smidge but is still faster than it should be.
What is the danger for this egg losing weight to quickly? It’s wiggling so should I be less concerned? Still a ways to go and fingers crossed for all.

 

[UPchiX]

Final update. The egg that was right on track hatched on day 52. The other two eggs didn’t hatch at all. Checking the eggs after, the slow loss egg was a scrambled egg and never started developing. The cracked egg that lost weight quick had a fully developed chick with lots of yolk and a large air pocket. The cracked egg did wobble a few days around day 39 to day 42 but then stopped so maybe this is about when it died. Wondering if it lost weight to quick had anything to do with it. Anyhow, the crack occurred early on and still developed until around day 42 so it seems feasible that a patched egg could hatch.