The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-05-05
AN OSTRICH FARM.
PROGRESS OF A SUCCESSFUL
INDUSTRY IN CALIFORNIA.
A Visit to the Long-LeSsed Birds
in their Pens-How the Birds are
Plucked-Facts and Figures
Full Of Interest.


Plucked-Facts and Figures
Full Of Interest.
A correspondent of the San Francisco
Call sends that paper an entertaining de-
scription of the celebrated ostrich farm
| near Anaheim in Southern California. The
writer says:
The ostrich ranch presents an attrac'
tive appearance, from the extreme neat
ness of its arrangements, and is large
corral, embracing about two hundred
acres, divided up into many smaller
ones, the house of the gentlemen IN
charge being in the centre. Upon enter,
ing, two large corrals are seen, in which
were birds three or four years old, walk
ing about with a mincing gait. They
were perfectly tame and pecked at my
hands with evident curiosity.
The southern half of the farm is de-
voted to the breeding pens, with the
exception of one corral that held q flock
of young that raised their wings,
rs they are alleged to do while "sailing'
y in the desert, and ran quickly away, pre-
senting curious appearance. The
breeding hens were numbered from one
up, each being separate enclosure.
The females were smaller than the males,
and of brownish gray hue, while the
! latter, that stood at least seven or eight
feet in height, were distinguished by
their dark or black plumage, the wings
and tail being white. The birds were
| continually in motion, the males aggres-
s;ve, and the demonstrations of rage of
the males during the breeding time are
said to be amusing.
/ 1t is extremely dangerous to enter a
corral, the powerful leg with its two
claws, one two inches in length, being
capable of killing man by a forward
, kick. Even horses have been disem-
bowelled by the birds in Africa. DR..
Livingstone once saw native instantly
killed by an ostrich, and Verreaux re-
cords similar case. At the time of my
visit a female was laying, and in another
corral pair were nesting. The female
sits all day, the male relieving her at
sundown. The nest ia this corral was a
mere shallow hollow in the sand, about
four feet in diameter and six or eight
inches deep. In their wild state the birds
lay about. ten eggs, but on the ranch
they lay from fourteen to sixteen, and
when the eggs are taken for use in the
incubator as many as thirteen are OBJ
tanned. The eggs are laid every other
day, and good first class birds often lay
three patches year, or about ninty eggs,
weighing in all about three hundred and
sixty 70 lnds, the average egg weighing
from three and half to four
pounds. The average number of
chicks per year is about seventy.
Much appears to depend upon the feed
ing of the birds. About one hundred
acres OF the farm are given over to alfal-
fa Qucerne). Forty pounds of this green
food is given to each bird daily. and the
breeding birds are fed twice day regu-
larly. This forty pounds is exclusive of
corn, cabbage, carrots and turnips that
is also given them in greater or less guam
titles. The farm team goes to the sea
shore once week for a load of shells,
which are gronnd up and given the
ostrichcs. Each adult bird eats about
nine or ten tons of fodder a year.
In entering the pen of the breeder, a
ten-foot pole with crotch at the end Of
it is used, and when the male charges the
crotch is pushed against the neck. In
plucking the birds are run into small
enclosure, so that they cannot kick, and
sometimes the men rush in on them and
hold them in a rough and tumble. Full
grown birds are plucked every seven or
eight months, each bird of both sexes
producing about twenty-five plumes,
valued at from So to $5 each on the bird.
Chicks are not plucked before the sew
enth month and when two years old the
feathers are worth about 81 apiece, and
when nearly four they produce perfect
feathers. The fact that the ostrich will
live nearly one hundred years and breed
when over eighty; that there is no sick
ness to which it is liable here, and that it
increases rapidly, points to the assump-
ton that America will soon produce her
own feathers.
In Africa the ostrich industry ranges
next to the diamond, and enormous for
tunes have been made since 1865, when
farming was first commenced in that
country. About the same plan is adopted
as here. The large farms are divided
into two branches; one raises feathers,
the other birds are for sale. On farms
where the birds lay more eggs than can be
covered the remainder are Matched by an
incubator. A South African authority
SAYS: "One set of three birds-a
cock and two hens-durins the period
from June 80, 1872 to Junde 80, 1878,
laid 1873 eggs, which produced 1873
chicks Of these eighteen died, leaving
115 young birds. OF these, seventy-four
were sold al three months old at $50
each. and, allowing the remaining forty
one to be worth only $50 each, we have
a return Of $S, $50 from one set of birds.
The next year the same set laid 113 eggs,
producing seventy-seven chicks, and the
! first six months of the third year they
laid ninety-seven eggs, producing eighty
one chicks, being over eighty per cent. u
! Ostrich farming is carried on success
fully in AL seria and Buenos Ayres, and
! even ia Africa the business was not orig
! mated by the whites, certain tribes
having kept ostriches for their feathers
for long time, and even used artificial
incubation. The tribes of Soudan. the
upper Senegal, and the Algerian frontiers
raise them as we do chickens, the birds
wandering about the camp perfectly
tame following the men on the march,
and when leaving the camp at day re.
turning at night.
The male ostrich utters a sound that
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