Emu Egg Hatch-along

[Strawberry74]

Haha! Are those yours in the video? That's an awesome pen. We live right next to a cattle rancher, I wonder if he'd let me share his pasture
Too bad they probably couldn't live with little ducks, I have an aviary with a pond and everything but it already has 153 ducks in it and I've heard emus aren't real careful. View attachment 4043334View attachment 4043336View attachment 4043335

I do have tons of fencing stuff though so I'm sure I could make something nice temporarily.
Wow that's quite a few! That would be awesome, thanks so much. Fingers crossed, mine are good though. They take sooo long, I don't know how much more waiting I can endure

And here I thought I had a duck problem when I had 48 at one time I love your Aviary and pond. I wish I had one like it! My ducks enjoy their setup but I wish we had a permanent pond instead of filling pools every few days.

 

[FNF]

We only have one full bath in this house so I don't think the family would love me taking it over much
I have a duck shed though that's only really used in the winter and then later summer for ducklings so I'm sure I could keep them there. It's all insulated too and super easy to heat. All three pens can open up into one big one too. That thing in the middle is an old sink that I use as a duckling tub but I usually just keep it covered if no ducks are in there. View attachment 4043338View attachment 4043339

This is perfect!

 

[MGG]

They both look to have a little lean to them but it could just mean their air cell is growing like you said. I've had some that never lean that are empty and a few that have a slightly that are empty as well. As I said it's just kind of a hopeful indicator for me but no guarantee.

Yeah, it's just tricky to tell. Fingers crossed. I can't believe it's still not even 20 days yet. This has been the longest few weeks ever
Which riser did you get for your NR 360? I think I'm going to get one, just not sure which. I think it'll be nice for my duck eggs too, some of them are bigger and I always worry about them having enough room while hatching.

 

[Strawberry74]

I think it's 48" (the old fence might be taller I'll have to look when I go back out) - the old fence has a strand of barbwire which I wouldn't add but again, the prior owners had it and the emus are used to it so we didn't mess with it. We added another fence to keep our ducks enclosed and it's definitely 48". Both are woven wire. We've had no problems with it probably because they were accustomed to it. I guess if you're putting in a new fence taller is better though.

I would think they would get used to their area but I also don't want to end up with escapes either. I have seen others add T post extenders and two or three lines of wire or horse tape for visual boundaries and they seem to work pretty well. These will be raised with my my chickens, turkeys, and Sebastopol geese. I've seen several members commingle their flocks and as long as the Emu are exposed to them at a young age they become part of the flock and they don't try to kill them, hopefully.

 

[FNF]

I would think they would get used to their area but I also don't want to end up with escapes either. I have seen others add T post extenders and two or three lines of wire or horse tape for visual boundaries and they seem to work pretty well. These will be raised with my my chickens, turkeys, and Sebastopol geese. I've seen several members commingle their flocks and as long as the Emu are exposed to them at a young age they become part of the flock and they don't try to kill them, hopefully.

I've heard that too. Mine share a fence with the ducks and chickens but I don't have them together since those birds came later. If I had kept the babies though I would probably have raised them amongst the ducks and chickens.

 

[MGG]

And here I thought I had a duck problem when I had 48 at one time I love your Aviary and pond. I wish I had one like it! My ducks enjoy their setup but I wish we had a permanent pond instead of filling pools every few days.

There get to be so many so fast
I sold just over 50 to a guy that drove up a couple months ago and when I was feeding that evening I realized there were still so many so I decided to count them and got the 153 number. They're so hard too count so I might be a few off, I just take photos and count them on my laptop later. But I think it was pretty close. Before I sold off the 50-ish young ones I would have had over 200
The pond is awesome and really didn't cost too much to have done. I can drain it to the ditch and I even sculpted the little rocks and stuff out of the concrete when they poured it for photographing them on. I even had them dye the concrete brown so it was more natural looking.

 

[Strawberry74]

Yeah, it's just tricky to tell. Fingers crossed. I can't believe it's still not even 20 days yet. This has been the longest few weeks ever
Which riser did you get for your NR 360? I think I'm going to get one, just not sure which. I think it'll be nice for my duck eggs too, some of them are bigger and I always worry about them having enough room while hatching.

On Amazon.​

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1.5" Riser for Nurture Right 360 Incubator - Nurture Right 360 Incubator Riser for Hatching Eggs - Durable Egg Incubators Riser with Easy Installation - Nurture Right 360 Riser​

 

[CCsGarden]

I've got a long wait ahead, but thought it would be fun to start a thread to document things and hopefully get help if I have any questions. Everyone is welcome, but I'll add some tags at the end too. I'd greatly appreciate anyone that has hatched emus successfully to follow along too.

Back story : I went to the east coast the past couple weeks which was super fun, I've never been on that side of the country before. The first part of the trip I went to Cape Cod with my dad and hunted sea ducks. Our guide had a pair of emus that had just started laying for the year, and gave me two eggs. It was a bit tricky having them the rest of the trip since we also went to Connecticut and then to New York a couple times. These poor eggs have been all over the place.
I did my best to store them properly, I managed to keep them in the low 60s and turned them a few times a day. We finally flew back yesterday, and got them through security which was pretty funny. All of the TSA workers were quite amused. It'll probably be a miracle if either hatch and I don't even know that they're fertile, but I'm going to give it a go. I've never hatched emus, but I've hatched just about everything else.
I've read a few of the articles on here by @Pyxis and @yinepu , and decided to start incubation at 96.5 and 35% humidity. They were set last night at 7 P. M., and weighed in at 308 grams for egg #1 and 329 grams for egg #2. If my calculations are correct, egg #1 should lose a total of 47 grams for an end weight of 261 grams, losing approximately 6.33 grams per week and 0.9 per day. Egg #2 should lose a total of 49 grams for an end weight of 280 grams, losing approximately 6.60 grams per week and 0.94 per day.
I managed to fit them in my NR 360, by taking out the egg tray and sitting them right on the water channels. (not obviously filling that channel) I'm hoping this is OK, it seems fine to me and I think there's plenty of air flow around them. If this is a bad idea for some reason I haven't though of please let me know, haha. I have two big styrofoam incubators I can use as hatchers if the time comes, but I kind of hate them and really don't want to mess with keeping them stable the whole time. If they can stay in the NR 360 this way that would definitely be best. I have the vent all the way open and am turning them 5 times a day.

Incubation period at 96.5 degrees should be 52-54 days, with a due date of March 9th-11th.
Wish me luck!

Egg #1 View attachment 4029958

Egg #2 View attachment 4029957


View attachment 4029959View attachment 4029956


@Pyxis @Kiki @EverythingDucks @TheOddOneOut @EmmaRainboe @OneHappyDuckie

Never seen emu eggs! Following along!

 

[FNF]

Haha! Are those yours in the video? That's an awesome pen. We live right next to a cattle rancher, I wonder if he'd let me share his pasture
Too bad they probably couldn't live with little ducks, I have an aviary with a pond and everything but it already has 153 ducks in it and I've heard emus aren't real careful. View attachment 4043334View attachment 4043336View attachment 4043335

I do have tons of fencing stuff though so I'm sure I could make something nice temporarily.
Wow that's quite a few! That would be awesome, thanks so much. Fingers crossed, mine are good though. They take sooo long, I don't know how much more waiting I can endure

This is spectacular! I only have six

 

[Strawberry74]

Emu's do love water! Perhaps if you allowed supervised visits while you're in there they might get used to the Ducks. It wouldn't be a long-term solution but while they're smaller it might be an option and provide some additional entertainment.