Shipped Emu Hatching Egg

[Sneakyturtle]

I ordered an emu hatching egg and it’s supposed to be delivered tomorrow. Should I let it sit wide side up for 24 hours like with regular shipped chicken eggs, or should I go ahead and put it in the incubator when it gets here?

 

[Sneakyturtle]

Current stats on the Emu eggs:

Hoping for a baby emu in a month or so

I'm ready for baby emu cuddles again... Here's a pic of when my current emus were babies in January (ignore the mess, they like to drop their kale everywhere and kick their shavings out of their brooder):

 

[Sneakyturtle]

My third egg arrived today! Unfortunately, it was 18 degrees here when I went out to take care of the chickens this morning so that might affect the viability of the egg.

The seller sent good instructions, which is nice:

I’m leaving it out at room temperature today then before I go to bed I plan on putting it in the incubator.

Right now it weighs 630.5 g.

 

[Nyhillbillies]

Following….
Question: why emus? I know zero about them.
Cute& cuddly, for sure!
Are they….what do they….
Um……

 

[Everose]

I have no advice because I've never hatched emu's before, but I'm following out of curiosity

I have an NR360 and to keep humidity up I put a few damp towels in there, and I change them out with clean ones regularly. But you may run into problems with the egg turner if you use a towel.

 

[Sneakyturtle]

I have no advice because I've never hatched emu's before, but I'm following out of curiosity

I have an NR360 and to keep humidity up I put a few damp towels in there, and I change them out with clean ones regularly. But you may run into problems with the egg turner if you use a towel.

Thanks, I might try that! From what I have read, humidity with hatching emu eggs is supposed to stay pretty low, around 25-35%. So I just add a little water whenever it gets below 25%, but as soon as I add water it goes up to 35-40%, so I can only add a very small amount at a time.

 

[Sneakyturtle]

So far the weight loss seems to be relatively on track. It definitely is fluctuating a bit, but I haven't been weighing it at the same time every day due to being in and out of the house a lot lately. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something is developing inside, but trying to not get my hopes up too much. I want a baby emu so badly, it's so hard to wait!

 

[Sneakyturtle]

Do you have other poultry? Are emus poultry? I see other hatching emu threads at the bottom of the page here!

I think they are poultry... but they are also considered ratites, which is the group of large flightless birds including kiwis, emus, cassowaries, and ostriches.

I have looked through the emu hatching threads and gotten some good information. But I don't think anyone has started one for this year yet.

 

[Nyhillbillies]

Haha they are just pets for me. If you raise them to be processed, you can get different products from them (emu meat, emu oil, emu leather), so some people do that. I just like them because they are entertaining and friendly. You can breed them and sell their offspring, so I might do that when mine are older.

They are just a little more calmer and better pets than my chickens and ducks. If I go out in their pasture and sit down, they will come up to me and plop down next to me to be petted. Some of my chickens will tolerate petting for a minute, and my ducks will tolerate it if I'm feeding them mealworms, but my emus seem to actually enjoy the affection. They are very curious and always come up to the fence to be petted when we have people over. They also will randomly get the zoomies and its super cute.

We’re vegetarians, the closest we will ever get to ‘processing’ any animal is collecting eggs daily to eat or feed to our little flock.
Are they natural guard animals like llamas?

 

[Sneakyturtle]

We’re vegetarians, the closest we will ever get to ‘processing’ any animal is collecting eggs daily to eat or feed to our little flock.
Are they natural guard animals like llamas?

They definitely can be, they will chase off anything small that gets into their pasture. They are fenced off from my other poultry though because I don't trust them not to chase and hurt my other poultry because they are so big. But they have the back 3 acres of my 10 acre property, so foxes and coyotes never make it past the emu pasture before they get chased off. At least I have never seen a fox or coyote closer to my house where the chickens/ducks/guineas are, but I have seen them in the back of the emu pasture before, and I have seen the emus chase them when they are spotted.