, 1885-12-15
YOUNG osralo4ss N CALIFORNIA.
suoce.. OF the Enterprise at the
Farm Habits OF Ostrich Chickens
TCor' San Franclseo HuIIe'In'

Success Of the Enterprise at the Anaheina
Farm Habits OF Ostrich Chickens
Icor. San Francisco Bulleiinl
Last spring, when there were young
ostriches to DO looked after, II was
found necessary TO close the farm
against all spectators. The parent birds
became so much excited on the approach
Of a stranger that they stepped on the
chickens and killed them. Since then
precautions have been taken to protect
the parents from annoyance. A little
more than three months ago eleven eggs
were allowed a pair of birds in a corral
on the south side OF the Enclosure.
These were placed in a nest followed
out in the sand. The natural way of
Matching had been concluded 10 be the
best. In fact, the artificial %incubators
on the farm have been taken to pieces
and apparently discarded. The eggs
were sat upon by the male ostrich at
night and by the female ostrich by day.
In six weeks eleven strengthening
little ostriches struggled out through
the thick shells and began to strug-
gle for a living. They were not larger
than a black Spanish game fowl, per
haps not so large, but still Of sufficient
size to make it a wonder that they
could have been contained in such sized
eggs. They stood on their feet after a
few trials and presented a comical sight.
They had quilts more like those of a
%porcupine. only stubs. than like feath-
ers. They soon went to eating and
were fed Egyptian corn, not cobble
stones. They were eleven odd chickens,
growing bigger every day, and contin-
ually developing something more like
feathers. For the first week the happy
father brooded them. The corral was
open to the air day and night. There
was no covering overhead. and tho wind
blew between the Stats as il would. But
the chickens passed the age which is said
TO be the most critical, six weeks. IL had
been demonstrated that the California
winter, with what rain may fall, and
there was enough of it in 1888, does not
hurt ostriches. So these young ones
went along without eoddling as others
have done.
The chickens to-day are not so large
as a prize Thanksgiving turkey. but they
are already equal to an ordinary turkey.
They are all gray. All ostriches are
this color until later, when the males
grow black with some white feathers.
They have the inherited tendency of
their kind as markedly developed as the
baby elephant has when he begins to
weave as soon as he can stand on his
post-shaped legs. They feed with their
parents, but that the parents feel any
pride in their offspring is not evident.
The big bills of the old birds shut upon
the alfalfa and cabbage with n brisk,
swapping sound. The little birds APP
pear to have the same yoracious appe-
tite. How much they eat daily is a
question with an unsatisfactory answer,
for they trample over their food.
If the en- aver clucks TO her chickens
after the manner of domestics fowls, or
If they pipe or peep IN answer, upon
this occasion they were silent. The at
PENDANTS say that the big ostriches do
not call to the chickens. Tho parent
birds did not scratch in the sand for
delicacies for the chickens. Such n
proceeding with their big and bony
legs, would have sent the alfalfa and
pieces of cabbage flying about as if dis
charged from a mortar. In fact, tax
ing the customary procedure of domes-
tic fowls as n comfortable predecent for
the guidance of other birds. the sooia-
bility existing in the ostrich family is
at a very low ebb. The care of tho
family, so far as the attendance is con
eerned, consists in keeping strangers
and dogs away from the c%orrals, and in
throwing over to them their green food.
There are no ostrich diseases known.
If 1t rains the chickens will get wet and
will dry when tho sun shines.
Very Don the chickens will go by
themselves in a separate corral. When
they are about ! year old they will be
plucked for the first time. They are
supposed to have attained their full
size when they are . years old, though
sometimes they seem to grow a little
after that. They carry their stomachs
on their backs and are all legs and neck.
The head is n funny little affair, about
equal in size to that of n young gosling.
The head Of a full-grown ostrich is not
much larger than a gander's head,
though perched on a neck several feet
long. The brain of an adult is not
larger than a walnut.