The life of Daryl the emu

[mich9510]

I's like to discuss the pipping process this post....I was a basket case the whole time...lol.
Lockdown started at noon on day 49 and from then on I just had to wait. From what I've read, there should be no changes in humidity like with chickens and ducks. I tried to get the humidity to around 30% which is the humidity recommended for incubating emus. Day 50 came, no pip. Day 51, no pip. Day 52, Yay! Daryl has internally pipped! It was around 9pm on day 52.
After internal pipping, it should be 24-48 hrs until external pipping. The next day (day 53) still no external pip.
During this time, the yolk sac is being internalized which requires a lot of oxygen. Soooooo....time to switch things up a bit. If you remember from one of my previous posts discussing humidity, a higher humidity reduces oxygen. Retained yolk sacs are likely due to low oxygen consumption. I decided to dry up the incubator completely which reduced the humidity to about 20%. It only took about a minute. I did this around noon on day 54 and at around 10 pm Daryl had externally pipped!


I added some water to the reservoirs in the incubator to help prevent the shell membrane from drying up. Time to let Daryl do his thing!





Still waiting......

at 3am on day 54 (January 26) Daryl the emu is born!!!



Happy birthday Daryl!

I left him in the incubator until he dried off and then moved him to the brooder. I do have some videos as well but I don't know how to get them uploaded to BYC.

The next post will be about Dary's first few days of life outside of the egg.
I would also like to say that if anyone has any questions or comments they would like to add please do so.
Thanks for reading!

 

[N F C]

@mich9510 thanks for sharing Daryl's hatch pictures. Is he your only emu? (Sorry if you've already said.)

 

[mich9510]

Yes. Daryl is my only one. I had two eggs but only one developed. He was very lonely so I went to rural king and bought him some friends.

 

[N F C]

Yes. Daryl is my only one. I had two eggs but only one developed. He was very lonely so I went to rural king and bought him some friends.

Love the photo...sort of reminds me of that old Sesame Street song, one of these things is not like the other, lol.

I asked because I was wondering if emu were flock animals like chickens. Thanks for answering my question!

 

[pattyhen]

I love all the pics of Daryl and all the information about his hatch. That is so sweet that you bought some baby chicks so he could have company. Does he get along well with the chicks? Thank you so much for sharing this experience with us.

 

[mich9510]

I brooded Daryl the same way I would chickens. He started drinking on day 3, started eating on day 4 of life. I can tell you that Daryl does not like his ratite starter crumbles. I have been giving him chicken eggs, beef, soldier fly larvae, red wiggler worms, spinach, kale, apples, spring mix, and occasional bananas. I chop them up (except for the worms, he eats them whole). Then I wet them, crush up his crumbles and sprinkle the crumbles over the wet chopped up food. He is so spoiled...lol.








Daryl was very lonely after a few days so I went to rural king and bought him some chicks.

 

[drumstick diva]

I'm in too! Sheriff( user name has a thread "Stella's Social Club," at one time she had purchased emu eggs and was very methodical re: what weights the egg should at certain days, heat/humidity etc. She ended up with two pairs. As I understand it, I don't think they are ready or lay or breed till about 3 yrs. old. At any rate I think one female would not let males near her, and the other female was a beautiful flirt but neither male was interested. I don't believe she ever got fertile eggs from them.

I tried to go back through the very long thread to find the several videos she posted but, no luck. I believe she had also put some on an emu thread. Hers were Louis & Loca,
The other male I believe was Stuart but for the life of me can't remember the females name. She really was beautiful and put on quite a show. Quite a few chicken folks became interested in having emus due to her. I was just fascinated with their personalities.

 

[mich9510]

My little guy is so adorable, curious, and sweet. The original plan was to have him for meat and oil but now I'm in love with him and doubt if that will happen.

 

[N F C]

Daryl has his own wading pool, too cute! Has he tried to get out of it yet?

 

[pattyhen]

Daryl is so cute. I love the little stripes on him. Thanks so much for sharing him with us. Is he very tame? Does he like for you to hold him and pet him. I would have to hold him if he was mine.