EMU Egg update!
I weighed the eggs last week and they have all lost about 15% of their original weight. I had to use a different scale though as I think the first one I used was rounding the weights up to the nearest 50grams which is throwing everything off. I was able to calculate what the original weight of the eggs most likely was using a formula I found online.
In any case, the eggs are rolling along nicely. Sure wish I could candle them, but I'm fairly certain I have viable eggs. When I turn them now I notice that they try to rotate back to the position they were previously in. Based on experience with my chicken eggs, I believe this is because the growing embryo inside weights the egg as it settles which causes it to want to stay in the same position. So, I have to prop them up a little bit to keep them from rolling back. I take this as a good sign that all is well and I have baby Emus in all of my eggs! (just a theory..
lol)
My younger son came in with some duck eggs a few days ago (we have three Rouen ducks, 1 drake and 2 hens) He asked if we could try and incubate the eggs so they are now in our spare incubator! Timing wise they won't hatch on Easter, but what the heck!
We had our chicken coop decimated the day after New Years. A dog got into the coop and gorged on our chickens. We lost all but two. Luckily the dog left the ducks alone and our beautiful Royal Palm turkey flew away to safety. It was a hard blow and the kids were super upset. So when my son asked to hatch a couple duck eggs, how could I say no??
On a sorta semi-sweet note, the night the dog killed our chickens I found one lone egg in the nesting boxes. I heated up the incubator and hatched the little sweetie. We are calling her "Legacy" in remembrance of our lost chickens. Not sure who her parents are, but she looks like our old EE roo and maybe the golden laced hen we had.
She's darn cute no matter what!
So that is the EMU egg update and a little more....