Emu Eggs Typical Smells?

[Haida]

I know you guys have all heard this before, but I'm new to ratites... Not new to incubating eggs, though!

Last Friday, my Uncle in Law got a call from a guy who lives down the road from us regarding emu eggs... I guess his pair had finally started laying, and my UIL wants emus. He asked me if I could incubate them for him, and I couldn't say no (he was so excited... plus I love incubating!).

My incubator is about 96.4°F - 97.6°F with about 20% humidity. I put the two emu eggs in there on Saturday, so it hasn't really been that long. Hand turned 4 times a day (back and forth). I also weighed them before I put them in there and plan on weighing them again on this coming Saturday.

My question is, do emu eggs smell? I've noticed an interesting smell coming from them since yesterday. It isn't a bad egg/rotten smell, its more like... salt? Bird-smell? Kind of reminds me of the ocean. It's really hard to describe!

I have noticed the same kind of smell coming from turkey eggs that were getting close to hatching. I'm not sure if this is normal or not. I worry they're slowly going bad, but it's only been six days, I've never had an egg rot in six days...

I hope I don't sound crazy! If anyone knows what I'm talking about, I would be so happy.

Thanks for reading!

PS: I forgot to mention that we have very hard well water. Its filtered, but has tons of minerals in it. It does not have any chemicals added... could this be the source of the stink?

 

[birdeo]

many times infertile ( and fertile ) eggs will smell like that, just keep an eye on them for any oozing to be safe.
20% humidity is prob. too low , you may want to weight them today and check so you can raise it if you need too.
The sooner you can correct the humidity the better.
you also should be using distilled water in your incubator, especially if your water is hard. It keeps the minerals etc. from building up on your incubator elements.

 

[yinepu]

Keep in mind too that the first few eggs are usually infertile...

 

[Haida]

many times infertile ( and fertile ) eggs will smell like that, just keep an eye on them for any oozing to be safe.
20% humidity is prob. too low , you may want to weight them today and check so you can raise it if you need too.
The sooner you can correct the humidity the better.
you also should be using distilled water in your incubator, especially if your water is hard. It keeps the minerals etc. from building up on your incubator elements.

I had an egg weep on me last year. Grossest thing I have ever seen! I don't want to encounter that again! LOL! And thanks for the input about humidity... I wasn't sure what to do.. I've seen numbers all over the board, and the guy I got them from was like "the lower the better." But I'll up it and go grab some distilled water, too.

I'll weigh them when I get home today--oh, how do you keep your eggs warm when you weigh them?

Keep in mind too that the first few eggs are usually infertile...

I am really hoping these aren't the first he's collected!!

I forgot to ask (and I forgot to ask him when they were laid).

I hope they're fertile, emus sound like a blast!

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
the amount of time it takes to weight the eggs won't be enough of a cooling to matter..

 

[Haida]

Ah, okay. I'm just paranoid about temps and stuff! Thanks!