About Ostrich Eggs

Incubating

• The female ostrich, the hen, lays between 12 and 15 eggs, laying one egg every other day. The nest for her eggs is a shallow hole in the ground. Both the female and male ostrich sit on the ostrich eggs as they incubate. The males generally take the night shift and the female does duty during the day.

Artificial Approach

• However, in the United States, commercial ostrich egg producers prefer artificial incubation. Eggs are removed from the nest each day, which results in larger production of eggs. When this approach is used, the retrieved eggs are placed in an incubator where they are positioned with the large end up or on their sides.

Temperature and Retrieval

• The eggs must be retrieved and placed in the incubator within four days of being laid. Otherwise the likelihood that they will hatch is significantly reduced. In the incubator, they are cooled to approximately 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

Clean

• In order to incubate successfully, the eggs must be whole and clean. If manure or dirt is on the egg, it should be wiped off before it's put into the incubator or the dirt can be removed using sandpaper. Do not use a cloth to clean the egg because this can shove bacteria deeper into the eggshell pores, which increases the likelihood of infection.

Technique

• Sometimes it is necessary to wash dirty eggs. When washing, use a sanitizing agent in water that is 10 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the egg itself. Agents that you can use include compounds that have iodine, synthetic phenol or chlorine in them or ammonium compounds. It's better not to clean the ostrich egg at all than to clean it wrong. Wear latex gloves to keep the oil on your skin from penetrating the egg.

Time

• It takes six weeks or 42 days for ostrich eggs to incubate. The incubator should be between 97.5 and 98.5 degrees Fahrenheit, and the humidity should waver between 35 and 40 percent the first 40 days and between 83 and 88 percent the last two days.

Grand Entrance

• Eggs that are fertile will hatch on the 42nd day, with the chicks usually hatching without any help within 12 hours after they break (or pip) the shell.

  Do not take the chicks out of the eggs too early because this can cause blood vessels to break. The chick needs to have suitable time in which to struggle, which causes the yolk sac to be drawn into the chick's body. However, if a chick is struggling for 20 to 30 hours, you can carefully remove a few pieces of the shell to assist the chick. If shell pieces are cutting the chick's bill, remove them.

Before Moving

• Allow the hatched chick to dry for three or four hours in the brooder, which should be 90 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. When you place the dried chicks into a pen, put no more than three birds together in a 4-foot-by-5- foot area.