Emu incubation

[cnicoley505]

at his age best guess would be a retained yolk sac.
Wheezy chirping, dull dry feathers, fat/tight. distended belly at all , skinnier shrivelled up legs more that the others, swelling of inner eye lids... gummy eyes at all ?
Not much you can do to help that ( if that's what it is ) short of surgery which is very expensive and not guarantee it'd work.

None of thos symptoms. Have started treatment for wry neck, with vitamin e and Selenium paste and nutri Drench. He is starting to act normal again. Up walking and eating drinking on his own. He was getting all balled up while standing up. Since we started the vitamins and electrolytes I've only seen him do it once today. The pictures are the position I would find him in standing up, he would remain in that position after I picked him up until I straightened him out.

 

[RWM03]

Hey all!! I have decided to take the jump into emu incubation and I must admit I may just be a worried new mama. I have been wanting an emu for a while now, for my birthday my husband bought me 7 eggs to incubate. I am not new to incubation we have Qual chickens turkeys and peafowl along with 8 horses a pig that thinks she a dog 4 dogs that think they are pigs and several cats, I've bottle fed and hatched just about every creature a farm could have, except the illusive Dino bird. I set my eggs in two rounds as they arrived in the mail. They were given 24 hours after shipping to warm up and settle. The first round one had wiggles and the other two didn't. They are now at 55 days and no movement, and no signs life. The second batch went on lockdown yesterday and 3 of the 4 eggs are very responsive to whistles. I am hoping they continue to show signs of life. My concern is I know how notoriously hard they are to incubate, so how long do you leave them past the predicted hatch date? With my other birds I give them extra days but it's easier to judge based on the mass hatch and when it tapers to nothing before I call the rest of the hatch set duds. Also for the 3 I know are wiggle buts when do I worry something has gone wrong? I have had a very hard time controlling humidity with these eggs and I fear any move I make could end up with no hatchling babies. I may be paranoid and I knew it was an uphill battle but I figure 3 out of 7 is probably not a bad hatch rate for my first go around. I've become attached to the little wiggles and want tomake sure the ones I know are alive make it out of the shell. Thank you so much!!!

Hi Cnicoley505,
My name is Ray and I live in Eloy, AZ. I've been raising Emus for 6 years now. It's a lot of fun if you don't mind having 3 year olds running around all the time even if they are 7 years old (my starter birds). I'm going to give you a couple of tricks that I've learned along the way. Right at the time that you're going to start incubating the emu eggs, wipe the eggshell off with a paper towel that is wet with Hydrogen Peroxide. This cleans off any pollutant that can possibly kill growing chicks. It also allows oxygen to pass through the shell which greatly helps the chicks develop. I get better hatches when I set my incubater at 99.5 F. That temp can float a half of a degree either way during incubation. Don't let inactive eggs worry you. Also, if they don't whistle back to you towards the end of the incubation period don't right them off yet. I've had eggs that made no movement or noise that hatched fine. I give my incubated eggs 65 days to hatch. I've had them hatch strongly at 45 days and some slow growers take 65 days. At the end of 65 days I cut open the eggs to see what was going on inside of them (this will teach you a lot about fertile and non-fertile eggs. I keep very good egg records each year and this will show you how healthy your adult birds are through the years. Important; I give my Emus, what I call a salad once or twice a week during egg laying time (Novemer-?May). My salads have Spinach, apples, cucumbers, blue berries, rasberies, black berries, sunflower seeds (in the shell), grapes, peanuts (no salt); I cut everything up into bite size prices (if you don't cut the salad up then I find that they through it around instead of eating it). This year my momma bird is still laying and she lays every 3 days like clock work. She has laid 34 eggs, so far. It's her record breaking year. Her eggs are dark Jade green and as big as a large fist. Sometimes they start out slightly small and you'll see the size difference with your eye. Having eggs that are wiggling and chirping back at you is a great sign!!! And don't think that they're going to all hatch at the same time. I find that each little chick wants his own spotlight for the big day. I hope that you have kids because little kids get such a joy out of seeing the emu chicks for the first time. They are ugly and beautiful at the same time. I love this part of my life working with Emus. These are my kids because unfortunately I don't have my own kids but I share my girlfriend's adult kids adventures with her. And that's a story for another time. Remember, a 45% hatch is considered a great hatch. Also, the eggs are like duck eggs, a little on the heavy side. One egg scrambled will easily feed 5 to 6 people. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I wish you great happiness raising your Emu birds.
Ray Merker