The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-10-09
OSTRICH.FARMING.
The Leading Features ofa Very Profitable
and Pleasant Business.

When they first come out Of the
shell the chicks are almost l~ifeless, but
their parents cover them with their
large wings, and, thanks to the warmth
thus received, they are in a very few
hours full of life and animation. They
begin at once to run about, but as they
have not yet learned how to keep their
balance they move with a rush and
topple ove every yard o rtwo. By the
end of the day, however, all awkward
ness of this sort disappears. During
the first twcnty-four hours after being
Matched they will eat nothing, and
they should not be allowed to drink
any thing. Their first food is a little
grass cut up very fine and mixed with
bread crumbs. The chicks soon begin
to rdn about after flies and small in
sects, which they swallow with much
gusto, as they also do little pebbles,
which seem to aid them in digesting
their food. In n very short time there
need be no difference made between
the food given them and that provided
for Older birds, except that care should
be taken to see that it is cut up into
smaller pieces. The birds are very
delicate until they are three months
old; after that it is very rare for
them to be attacked with disease of
any sort, the ostrich being naturally
hardy and robust. 1t often happens
that the birds get wounded in the head
or neck from trying to force their way
through the inclosure Of q park or by
fighting among themselves, q fight be-
tween the male and fcma'c being q
common incident during the breeding
season. Such wounds easily heal,
especially in the case of the older birds;
but wounds in the legs are more dan
gcrous and a broken leg is fatal. AS
it is impossible to set the fracture,
there is nothing to do but to kill the
wounded bird.
This does not necessarily entail any
loss on the breeder, for the reason that
a dead ostrich is worth quite as much
as a live one-that is to say, from Sl6C
to $240. This is one of the advantages
of ostrich breeding over other similar
ventures; the capital represented by
the flock of birds can not be lost, mol
can the breeder be ruined even if ar
epidemic should kill all the birds. The
cost of feeding birds, if the park be To-
Gated on a tract of land which is irri
gable, does not exceed six cents a piec,
per day, while the profits they yielc
are enormous. A pair of adult birds
will give 800 worth of feathers a
year; but the most important prof
comes from the rapid increase of thu
iock--that is to say, of the breeder
capital, The increase, if the farm i
well managed, is almost fabulous. !
female ostrich will lay on an average
thirty eggs year, q lhouSh shc Cal
not hatch them all, the others can be
Matched in the incubators. A flock con
tanning ten adult females will there
fore increase at the rate of 800 a year
and at the end of eight years will yiel'
500. 600 worth of feathers and repre-
sent a capital of $l,0O0,OO While TIL
number Of eggs laid is rarely less thai
thirty, it is sometimes as high as sixty
AS the parents arc not able to cove
more than ten eggs with their bodie
in sitting, artificial i]ncubators are nee
essary adjuncts to the business OF oS
trich breeding, for without them two
thirds of the eggs would be lost u. Il
Haynie, IN San francisco Chronicle.