The Ins and Outs of Emu Egg Hatching - Part 1




Source: Backyard Chickens, Corny Caleb NJ Mar 26 2014



Most emu farmers would agree that incubating eggs is both a science and an art form. It is much more than just leaving it up to the incubator if you are interested in maximizing your hatch rate. We need to start with a strong foundation of "eggology" (not my term but I like it) and then we can tweak our reactions (this is the art) to problems as they arise. More on the scholarship but first some craftsmanship.


Nguna nynda ?, carved emu egg 2003,
 Barry Bellotti



Barry Bellotti's carved emu egg won the 20th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2003. According to Australia's Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory website, Bellotti is a self-taught artist from Carnarvon, WA. Wow, the detail is amazing. The artistic message communicated to this emu farmer is one of caution: "these little beings will be in your charge....be respectful."



Source: The Digital Morphology Library

And on the flip side or the inside as it were another form of artistry is captured in the 2D and 3D visualizations of the internal structure of vertebrates as performed by Digital Morphology, part of the National Science Foundation Digital Libraries Initiative. Here we can see how the fully developed emu chick is positioned. At hatch it will pip in a downward motion through the internal membrane to reach the air supply. A second pip of the outer shell will expose the beak and one foot. With a push, the second foot and spine will fracture the shell and release the chick fully breathing and able to stand in only a few hours.

So let's start with an overview of the anatomy of an egg:
 




Egg Anatomy. Source

http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/avianreproduction.html

An egg consists of 4 primary components:

 a yolk which provides the food supply to the embryo

the albumen is the source of water supply and also a shock-absorber

the shell membranes protect the egg from external bacteria and help prevent rapid evaporation of egg moisture

the egg shell has thousands of pores which allow for gas exchange



The diagram shows a generic avian egg and we should ask the question as to whether generic avian eggs and their development would be the same for emus. According to the Laboratory for Early Embryogenesis, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, Kobe, Japan "emu and chick embryogenesis proceeds through similar stages, but developmental heterochrony between these two species is widely observed." In other words the developmental stages are the same but the timing of size and shape will differ.

Having said that, this video depiction of the development of a chicken embryo will help with our science of emu egg hatching. 

So stay tuned for the next blog when we will talk about managing the necessary egg weight loss as the embryo develops during incubation.

Hatching Emu Eggs

Source: Wikipedia

The physical characteristics of an emu egg introduces a unique set of challenges for the farmer. The average emu egg ranges from 550-700 g with a multilayered shell about 3/4 mm thick. In addition it takes about 3 times as long as that of a chicken egg to hatch. So what are the egg hatching options?




Natural Incubation  Source: Wikipedia

After 6-10 emu eggs have been laid the male goes broody and sits on them for approximately 50 days. As the female averages 20 eggs a season it wouldn’t be practical for an emu farmer with segregated breeding pairs to cut the production of fertile eggs by a possible 60%. So each egg on our farm is collected every 3-4 days and stored until a workable hatch volume can be started. 

 
During the early 1990's hayday of emu farming typically the farmer’s business plan was to hatch as many eggs as possible. The chicks would then be sold to entry level emu farmers. Proven breeding pairs were going for as much as $40,000.00. As an emu egg is quite large, the garden variety chicken and duck incubators if modified would not produce the volumes necessary. So highly priced incubators came on the market and it was not uncommon to spend $10-15,000.00 for a machine that held hundreds of eggs. A few examples:



Hatchrite Incubator



N'Kobi Big Bird Series Incubator

Now 20+ years later most of these manufacturers have gone out of business. If one can acquire a used machine stored in a shed somewhere and is mechanical or has a friend, these cabinet incubators can be functional again. We had our N’Kobi Big Bird incubator in for repairs at Boulter Machine Works in Duncan this egg laying season and we were told that it was extremely well made and we should expect to use it for a good long time. The Hatchrite has a very strong following with a lot of people still using them since the 90’s. There is an enthusiast in Washington who has instruction manuals, parts resources and wiring diagrams etc, etc. His name is Kevin G. McCoy. Kevin has also recorded some YouTube videos that might help with Hatchrite refurbishing.

On a smaller scale the very reliable GQF incubator does come in an emu egg version. There are specific trays that can be purchased separately and it can hold 36 eggs at a time.


GQF Cabinet Incubator 1500

Large Egg setting tray and positioners

  

Still another option would be to import from another country such as China.

One of many designs from Alibaba

The price is often affordable and shipping by sea inexpensive if you have lots of time. However keep in mind that their mass target market is chicken and duck producers. One needs to ensure that manufacturer customisation of the egg trays and rotating shelves for emu incubation will do the job correctly.

Now finally, on a very large scale an insulated room can be dedicated for incubation and hatching. We toured this California emu farm linked here and were very impressed with their facility.

So as you can see there are many incubation options available. Start by deciding what size of an emu farm is it that you want and can afford. Then do your research. Remember that incubation is only one part of the infrastructure costs.

This final point brings up a whole other strategy to increase the size of your "mob".  You can source out a farmer that is selling hatched chicks. They are usually sold no younger that a week old from the farm gate rather than shipped. The going rate of around $100.00 factors in the partial expenses of the breeding pair and the operating costs of the 7 weeks of incubation. Sexed chicks would be more as this information would provide one extra leap forward in the plan.

Source: Wikipedia



Would you like some ham with that ...... green egg?

Yes we are livestock farmers here on Mt. Sicker Road and raising emu for their meat and fat. But as it is Spring and the Easter weekend we should probably talk about eggs.


By Zureks at Wikimedia Commons


An emu egg is about 10 times the size of a large chicken egg so one emu egg omelette will probably feed the whole family.  It has a very thick (3 thick layers and 4 paper thin layers) shell as the 125 lb. Emu Dad will be sitting on it and rolling it around for 52 days before the chick is hatched. Some people carve designs in the shell which exposes the lighter shades of green underneath. The inside looks very much like a chicken egg except that the paler looking and milder tasting yolk is almost half of the contents. It stands to reason as the yolk is used to nourish a developing emu chick and that takes 3 times as long as a chicken.

For cooking purposes the white has a little less water content and so will beat to a fluffier texture and the larger yolk is great for baking cakes.  Some mail order companies such as Clarence Court outside of Plymouth UK send out their edible emu eggs nestled tight in fancy boxes. Their website has fantastic egg recipes from quick and easy to complex. 

And from a health perspective, Japanese researchers report in 2010 that emu egg white has an unusually low allergenicity and suggest that emu egg white could replace its chicken equivalent in “industrial products”.

So no matter what kind of egg experience you have this Easter weekend we at Mt. Sicker Family Farm wish you a happy one.