An ostrich cannot always fully plant eggs. In such cases, they resort to incubation of ostrich eggs, but this must be done according to a special scheme. The process itself is complicated, because it is necessary to choose the right incubator, maintain optimal temperature, timely spray, arrange lighting in order to get well-developed ostriches.
Incubator selection
The choice of incubator should be taken very seriously, because the health and survival of young animals depends on this. What to look for when choosing an incubator:
- Manufacturer country. Many models are released by China, but domestic models will be better.
- Guarantee. Even the best and most expensive models can break. If the warranty period has not yet expired, and the incubator is broken, then it will be repaired for free.
- Heating elements. The most durable element is thermofilm, it evenly heats the eggs, while spending a little energy.
- Sizes and flipping eggs. Incubators for ostrich eggs are larger than for chicken or goose eggs, so it is important to pay attention to the internal dimensions. The size of the incubator for ostrich eggs should be at least 100x70x70 cm. It is better to buy an incubator where coups occur automatically.
- Thermostat.In order for the chicks to grow viable and healthy, it is important to observe the correct temperature regime. Sensors must be selected without error, since it can play a deplorable role in incubation. There are 2 sensor options: manual and automatic, the first option is inexpensive, but the second option is more accurate.
- Humidity controller. It is better to purchase a model with a psychrometer and an automatic humidity controller. To save budget, you can stop at the mechanical adjustment.
- Body material. The best material is considered to be high-strength steel or plastic with additional foam insulation. In this case, the heat will be evenly distributed in the incubator, while less energy is wasted.
Selection of eggs for further incubation
For incubation, it is necessary to choose fertilized eggs, for this it is necessary that both the female and the male are in the flock. But even in such flocks, 25% of all eggs are spoiled, that is, unfertilized.
Ostrich oviposition begins in April and ends in October; in one cycle, the female is able to bring 20 eggs. Eggs should be picked up immediately after laying so that the incubation quality does not deteriorate.
Ostrich eggs are still divided into two classes: the first and second, depending on size. Large eggs belong to the first class, and small ones to the second. The egg weight of an African animal should be 1126-1800 grams, and emu 350-750, the shell of the first has a white color, and the second is dark green.
The table below shows the class of the hatching egg:
Bird name | First Grade Egg Weight | Egg weight in grams of the second class |
Ostrich | from 1500 to 1800 | from 1126 to 1520 |
Emu | from 550 to 750 | 350 to 570 |
It is necessary to load eggs with approximately the same weight into the incubator. The best conclusion will be if the bookmark is incomplete.
Bookmark and storage features
Before laying eggs in an incubator, you need to make sure that the trays are large enough to place eggs in them, both in the lying and standing positions. The egg is laid either with a blunt end up or lying down. The best time to lay eggs is 6 pm.
In an ostrich egg, it is almost impossible to distinguish where the blunt end is and where the sharp one. In this case, an electronic lamp or an ovoscope will come to the rescue.
The eggs of these animals are tender and sensitive, because they do not have a protective film. For this reason, they can quickly and easily acquire pathogenic microorganisms. The pores are open, so before carrying out any manipulations, you must wash your hands with soap and, better yet, work with gloves.
Initially, eggs of the first class are laid in the incubator, and then only the second.
It should be stored with the blunt end up, but if it is difficult to make out where the blunt end is, it is preferable to keep them in a lying position. Before incubation, you can store up to a week. To avoid damage to the product, it should be stored at low temperatures of about 15 degrees Celsius, and humidity within 75%. While the eggs are stored outside the incubator, they should be turned up to 3 times a day.
Egg and incubator disinfection
Before laying in the incubator, the egg must be disinfected, and also washed with dirt. Scratching the shell with a hard brush is unacceptable, since this is a direct path to the death of the embryo, because the pores are clogged during the process, and the embryo ceases to receive air.
You need to wash the egg with a special solution. To prepare it, you should purchase Virkon powder in the store and dissolve 3 grams of the substance in a liter of warm water. Cold water will not work, because the flow of air to the embryo will decrease, and pathogens will enter the egg.
Recommendations for washing an ostrich egg:
- when cleaning dirt, you need a soft brush;
- the resulting solution should have such a temperature that it is 5 degrees warmer than the egg itself (the temperature of the egg can be checked with a tonometer, and if this is not available, then just warm the water to a warm state);
- after all the dirt has been removed, the egg is well dried on all sides, that is, first it must lie on one side until it completely dries, then turn it to the second side and wait until the egg is completely dry.
It is also important to disinfect the device itself before laying eggs for incubation, because after the previous hatching of the chicks there may be traces of blood and other dirt. There are many ways to disinfect, consider the most common:
- Chloramine solution. This drug can be purchased at any pharmacy in the public domain. 10 tablets are dissolved in a liter of water and shaken. The solution is poured into a spray bottle and sprayed throughout the machine. After a few hours, it is washed off with plain water and aired during the day in the open state.
- Formaldehyde vapor.This method uses incineration inside the incubator, resulting in smoke disinfection.
- Vapor formalin.First, the room is washed with plain warm water, then a solution of 50 ml of 40% formalin and 35 mg of potassium permanganate is prepared. The incubator should be heated to 38 degrees and placed there for 40 minutes, the prepared solution in a bowl. At the end of the procedure, the incubator is ventilated.
- Ultraviolet radiation. This procedure is also carried out after preliminary cleaning of the device, after which one or more ultraviolet lamps are placed inside and left for 40 minutes to destroy pathogenic microorganisms.
Turnovers and spraying
Over the entire incubation period, the egg should be turned over to the other side 7 times a day with your hands or with a special device purchased in the store. On day 39, the eggs are stopped turning over, but they are transferred to the hatcher section and laid flat.
If the required humidity decreases, then the eggs must be sprayed with warm water. All objects around the eggs must also be sprayed with water.
Incubation Tables
Incubation always happens in different ways, it all depends on the materials that were laid, the period of the process, as well as the species (African ostrich or Emu). Modern incubators are equipped with many functions, so you can automatically control the entire process. After all, they can set the optimum temperature, humidity and even automatic egg flipping. The table describes the necessary conditions at various periods of incubation of the ostrich:
The incubation period in days | Incubator temperature | Humidity percentage | What is the position of the egg | How many times is the egg rotated over the entire period |
from 1 to 14 | 36,3-36,5 | from 20 to 25 | vertical-horizontal | 23-25 |
from 15 to 21 | 36,3-36,5 | from 20 to 25 | vertical | 23-25 |
from 22 to 31 | 36,3-36,5 | from 20 to 25 | vertical | 4 |
from 32 to 38 | 35,8-36,2 | from 20 to 25 | vertical | 2 |
from 39 to 40 | 35,8-36,2 | from 40 to 45 | vertical-horizontal | not executed |
from 41 to 43 | 35,8-36,2 | from 60 to 70 | vertical | not executed |
The following table describes the criteria by which to get a healthy emu ostrich:
The incubation period in days | Temperature in degrees | Humidity percentage |
from 1 to 27 | 36-36,2 | from 24 to 30 |
from 28 to 39 | 35,6-32,6 | from 24 to 30 |
from 40 to 46 | 35,6-32,6 | from 24 to 40 |
from 47 to 55 | 36-35,3 | from 58 to 61 |
When the eggs are in the incubator, they definitely need ventilation, because the embryo will need oxygen during development.
Stages of development and transmission
When translucent ostrich eggs in an incubator, you can notice several stages of its development:
- A week later (from the day the material was placed in the incubator), an allantois shadow is visible in the egg, which covers 20 percent of the surface of the egg shell.
- In the second week, the shadow can be easily distinguished, because it is larger than it was and already occupies half the surface of the shell. The longer the period, the greater the shadow.
- On the 24th day after the process, one sixth of the material is occupied by the air chamber, and one second part by the embryo itself.
- After 35 days, almost nothing is visible, because the embryo is in the entire egg.
It is recommended to weigh the eggs daily, this allows you to track whether the egg is losing weight correctly. In one day it can lose 0.3% of the total mass, that is, in 7 days it will lose only 2%. If the material loses more weight than it should be, then humidity should be increased, but if on the contrary the losses are small, then humidity decreases.
Hatching dates
African ostrich chicks are born 40 days after laying the eggs in an incubator, and emu chicks on day 56. The height of the newborn African ostrich is 20 cm, while the weight is from 500 to 900 grams, and the weight of the emus will ostrich from 200 to 400 grams. If you follow all the rules, you can get a lot of healthy and strong chicks.
What to do after the birth of chickens?
At the first bites in the incubator, the humidity should be increased to 30%, if there is not much material, then the temperature rises by half a degree, and if there are a lot of eggs, then it decreases on the contrary. When the chickens are already breaking the shell, the humidity rises to 60%, this will help the chicks to be born more easily.
Unnecessarily, a person should not interfere in the natural process of childbirth, especially when he is still in a protective film. You can help him only if the chick is in the wrong position or can’t hatch himself. In this case, the person must lengthen the line of the puncture.
As soon as the ostrich has hatched, it is placed in a brooder, which is a cage with a pallet. In the cage there are metal rods (gratings) and heating trays. There they are three hours for heating and drying. The ostrich should be immediately weighed so that further weight gain can be controlled. Further, the umbilical cord is disinfected - these manipulations should be carried out daily until 3 days are reached.
The first days of life will ostrich
From the first days of birth, ostriches grow by 1 cm per day, until they reach 150-180 cm on the first day, the chick can lose 20% of the total body weight, and this is normal. The fact is that they do not eat complementary foods for several days, but live off the accumulated yolk mass. Starting from day 7, ostriches can already be fed.
The first weeks of the life of the chicks must be kept in a warm place, whether it is winter or summer. The shed should have a light mode and lamp heating, any drafts are also unacceptable. At that moment when the birds need to eat nutritious food, they initially eat their mother's dung to colonize the intestines with beneficial microflora.
Starting from a week of age, ostriches are given crushed alfalfa leaves, a crushed boiled egg, which is sprinkled on the ground about 8 times a day and tapped with a pencil so that the kids can see where it is. Feeding troughs and drinking bowls of babies should be constantly full so that at any moment they could come up and feast on food and drink water.
Common mistakes for beginners
Taking babies out in an incubation way requires caution and skills, so beginners often make mistakes, the main ones are:
- Wrong material, because the shell strength has not been tested before embedding the egg. If the shell is loose, the embryo may die in the first days. A loose and poor-quality shell could result from improper feeding of the ostrich; there was not enough minerals in the diet. Read more about proper feeding of ostriches in this article.
- Incorrect position of the air bag.
- If the egg was unheated or overheated at least a little, the embryo may die. With underheating, the baby can be born, but for a long time it still will not live.
- If the humidity is below normal, the ostriches will hatch early and die almost immediately.
- Increased humidity is harmful to the health of babies.
- With a lack of ventilation, babies can be born with abnormalities that are not compatible with life.
Possible problems of embryo death
Often the death of future ostriches occurs for the following reasons:
- Infections. With fungal or bacterial damage to the egg, the protein becomes cloudy, a rotten smell appears. Nodules (raw) are formed which are dead tissue.
- Genes. This category includes underdevelopment of the nose, organs, embryo intergrowth.
- Dystrophy. This pathology occurs if the parents did not eat properly. Embryos lag behind in development, in growth, and they also have poor absorption of nutrients. The yolk is thick, and in newborns paralysis will ostrich.
Incubation of ostrich eggs is becoming popular all over the world, because the bird in this case can continue to lay eggs, and the number of live chicks increases due to the correct content in the incubator. It is important to follow all the rules, set the exact temperature, humidity and air exchange. You need to be prepared for the fact that not all chicks can hatch alive and healthy, because there are a number of problems on which the embryo can die.
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