I am new to Emus....

[Oakridgefarms]

but I took the plunge!

I have 3 emu eggs incubating now and I am on day 18. I was just curious when should I start to see wigglers?
The anticipation is killing me!

Thanks
David

 

[Haida]

I kept mine at 96.5° and they began wiggling around day 31... but very tiny wiggles... I could barely see them. At day 35 you should be able to clearly see them. Its so much fun to talk to them and make them wiggle!

Mine just hatched last Thursday. They're so amazing. This is my first time with them, too. I don't think it will be the last.

PS: The tom in your avatar is gorgeous!

 

[Oakridgefarms]

I am very excited about them, I really want to know if there is anything developing in the eggs. They don't smell so that is a good sign. I had to band one of the eggs cause it was loosing way to much moisture.

The tom in my avatar picture is a Harvest gold his name is Copper, for obvious reasons...lol

 

[GreenAcresChick]

Just hatched out 2 chicks this week. Anyone know how to tell the sex?

 

[birdeo]

if you are well versed in vent sexing, go for it.
Other than that, try sending in a sample to Zoogen or another reputable lab for accurate sexing.
Or better yet, wait until they are coming two's then you'll know for sure and at no stress to the birds/cost to you .

See you're showing head shots, please don't count on the head patterns being reliable.... old wives tale.

Congrats on the hatch !

 

[briefvisit]

Haida, serious question:

do the eggs really wiggle in response to being talked to? I wonder how Dad knows when it is time to up stakes and move at the end of the hatch. I am privileged to have seen exactly this in the wild, but at that time I was ignorant of the whole Wiggling Thing.

Now I guess that Dad is getting signals underneath him during the entired second-half of the hatch -- must help him from getting bored!!

And now I see how Dad knows that -- when he has hungry thirsty newly-hatched chicks standing about him -- that the last egg or two is infertile simply because it's not signalling.

Watching Dad during the hatch if flat-out funny: when he stands, he doesn't move his feet, so he won't step on the chicks. He stands looking in under himself, down at the chicks milling around his skyscraper legs.

[and Boy Emu was observed eat the membrane of the eggs.]

se

 

[EmuChemainusBC]

[and Boy Emu was observed eat the membrane of the eggs.]

se

Wow that's interesting.
Like ewes after birthing, they clean up after themselves. Not sure if it's the nourishment that they are after or the removal of the evidence to keep the little lambs safe from preditors. Possibly both.
Lois

 

[briefvisit]

E.C.,

I got to learn lots of cool stuff during that period. There are a few old-timers from that period still here.

We used to do 'audits,' which means that you gather data by being out in the bush before dawn in (including winter).

Well, one morning while Boy Emu was sitting -- he was only about eighty yards from the house, tucked away in the bush -- I walked past him.

Smell!! I could smell him from 120 feet. So, I'd guess the membrane-eating is a nutritional thing, not a concealment thing. Predators gotta know from smell where a nesting male is.

se

 

[EmuChemainusBC]

E.C.,

I got to learn lots of cool stuff during that period. There are a few old-timers from that period still here.

We used to do 'audits,' which means that you gather data by being out in the bush before dawn in (including winter).

Were you working for a wildlife organization?

 

[briefvisit]

No EC

The whole was accidental. I rented a house in the bush And there was an emu
Eric
The female hrre today is his five year old daughter
SE