Pyxis' Emu Chat Thread

[Fields Mountain Farm]

 

[SilksterTN]

Me too!!

 

[WVduckchick]

Medical tape should be fine since we wear it on our skin, I would think? You dont wanna make the egg slippery since she has to weigh them.

True. I've used tape on chicken eggs with no problem. I was thinking about it impeding the hatch, if its hard to peel off later (after its been on longer period of time).
Just thinking out loud.
But I'm sure someone would have already come up with something better if it was out there.

 

[pillageTHENburn]

Although....I wonder if there would be something else, like maybe Vaseline or some such, that could do the trick? Some type of safe paint/paste? Hmm.

I am FAR from an expert on the matter but it seems to me that the temporary (and removable) nature of tape has many advantages. (I am personally on day 47 with two emu eggs so that's all the experience I have so far)
I've heard of people using paint or wax to seal pores but since weight loss (at least for mine) has been a bit of a finnicky matter having the ability to gradually "adjust" the amount of the egg that's sealed (+ or -) is beneficial. Plus I plan to remove the tape completely near hatch as to not impede the chick in any way. I know paint or wax wouldn't impede hatching as much as tape but I like having the option to remove it all...

Just my 2 cents.

At this point I'm 98% sure one egg is dead (it wiggled for 3 days around day 33 but hasn't moved since and I can't hear a heartbeat) and the other egg has consistently lost too much weight and could be in the danger zone at hatch time but it's super wiggly!

Good luck @Pyxis! Thanks for the updates!
-Logan

 

[Pyxis]

I might go ahead and give taping a try. Not like I have anything to lose - it might already be a bad egg, and if it's not, with all the weight loss it's having it won't make it to hatch if it is a good egg. So, no real harm in trying.

 

[Destornis]

Hi guys! Mind if I join this thread? I'm a little late this year, but I have 4 emu eggs in the incubator, with the first two that started 8 days ago and the other two that started yesterday. I'm using a Brinsea Octagon 20 for them, hand turned. I have a large fan in the same room to circulate air as I know it's very important for them to get the most oxygen they can. How's everyone else's? What day's are you guys on?

 

[Pyxis]

Hi guys! Mind if I join this thread? I'm a little late this year, but I have 4 emu eggs in the incubator, with the first two that started 8 days ago and the other two that started yesterday. I'm using a Brinsea Octagon 20 for them, hand turned. I have a large fan in the same room to circulate air as I know it's very important for them to get the most oxygen they can. How's everyone else's? What day's are you guys on?

Hi! This isn't actually the hatch a long thread There is a hatch a long thread though, it's here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-in-a-2017-18-emu-hatch-along.1212082/unread But definitely feel free to post here and follow along if you'd like!

My eggs are on day 20 and day 9. You and I are using the same incubator - well, two of mine are in a Brinsea 20. The other two are in a homemade Emubator.

 

[WVduckchick]

I am FAR from an expert on the matter but it seems to me that the temporary (and removable) nature of tape has many advantages. (I am personally on day 47 with two emu eggs so that's all the experience I have so far)
I've heard of people using paint or wax to seal pores but since weight loss (at least for mine) has been a bit of a finnicky matter having the ability to gradually "adjust" the amount of the egg that's sealed (+ or -) is beneficial. Plus I plan to remove the tape completely near hatch as to not impede the chick in any way. I know paint or wax wouldn't impede hatching as much as tape but I like having the option to remove it all...

Just my 2 cents.

At this point I'm 98% sure one egg is dead (it wiggled for 3 days around day 33 but hasn't moved since and I can't hear a heartbeat) and the other egg has consistently lost too much weight and could be in the danger zone at hatch time but it's super wiggly!

Good luck @Pyxis! Thanks for the updates!
-Logan

Good points. I have used different tape on different chicken eggs. (cracked/chipped ones) One was not easily removable at hatch time, and scared the bejeebies out of me, but it ended up ok. I've never and will never hatch emus, but the pics I saw of eggs all taped up like a leaky football just made me cringe. I do feel better about tape than wax, etc. I just was trying to think outside the box.
But like I said before, if there was something better, I'm sure you guys would know about it, so I'm glad its working for you.
Good luck with your hatch!!

 

[Pyxis]

Well, I ended up putting some tape on A. We'll see what happens. In 15 days, the eggs might start moving, so I might be able to finally tell if we have developing eggs or not at that time!

In not emu related news, I found my first goose eggs of the year from my Lacie goose today! Those will be going right into the incubator. And they will still hatch before the emus do

Oh, and I hatched this little one last Saturday:

 

[Pyxis]

The Brinsea lost its emu egg privileges today. I watched the temperature keep creeping up even though I kept turning the temperature knob down. Finally when I caught the thermometer reading 98.8 I was done fooling around with it and all the eggs are now in the Emubator.

I think the Brinsea is old and dying. It is six years old now and has seen a lot of hatches, so it's a distinct possibility that it's just giving up the ghost. Which is a problem because it's my hatcher.