Emu egg incubation and weight loss.

[Rockporters]

We decided to go ahead and incubate the 2 emu eggs. I wasn’t going to because our cabinet incubator hasn’t given us great hatches, and I wanted to get it checked out. Egg or incubator problem, who knows?! The other incubators are full, and we need the auto turn because we aren’t here 2-3 days per week.

Anyway- We are on week 2 of incubation, and the eggs aren’t losing as much weight as they should. The incubator reads 18% humidity, which is pretty close. The eggs are on the first (top) turning rack. All of the vent plugs have been removed. Neither egg has hit its loss goal yet.

Attached is a screen shot of the weights/goals spreadsheet. The incubator is a GQF 1502. We have it in the basement. Room temps stay around 66-68 degrees. We turned on the de-humidifier last night. I haven’t checked weight loss since turning it on.

Any input or suggestions? We are clueless! This is our first time incubating emu eggs. Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

There is a species chart in the following link. It has ostrich so I would think other ratites would be similar.
https://poultrykeeper.com/incubating-and-hatching-eggs/weight-loss-method-forl-incubation/
As you'll see, they need slightly lower temperature.
I would check the weights right away.
Good Luck.

 

[Rockporters]

Forgot to attach this earlier.

 

[Pyxis]

Hi!

I'm not sure I would worry too much just yet. Often they start to lose more weight faster as incubation goes on. You can see if you can get the humidity lower, by using the dehumidifier like you are, and sometimes putting a bag of rice in the incubator can help suck some moisture out of the air too.