Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-03-30
RAISING OsTRICHEs.
The Young Birds Matched In Large
Incubators.
a Business That Yields an Enormous
Profit, But Requires the Great
est Care-HoW the Pluck
Ing L. Done.

er IN Cape Colony compares the young
ostrich that has just cleared its nest to
a hedgehog mounted on stills and pro-
vided with a long neck. The feathers
are nothing more than grayish bristles,
while head and neck are covered with a
| fine, speckled down, soft as velvet. a
| difference of the sexes is not yet dis
cernible in the plumage.
Very few ostriches are born nova
days out of captivity, for the fashion of
the day has developed ostrich breeding
| into one of the best-paying industries,
which yields handsome revenue to
several countries, especially the deserts
and waste lands CT southern Africa.
The valuation of the South African
export of ostrich feathers amounts to
five million dollars per annum. Hunting
the birds has ceased entirely, for they
threatenedS to become extinct in
some localities and a rational breeding
is by far the most remunerative pro-
ceeding. The value of the feathers
varies with their quality. During the
second year of his existence male bird
furnished two hundred and fifty thou
sand dollars worth of frst-quality
thousand dollars worth of second grade.
An ostrich farm yields from thirty to
fifty per cent. on its original invest
ment, and in prosperous times as high
as one hundred per cent, says the st.
Louis Globe-Democrat. The rational
breeding of the ostrich is of vast i'm
portance to Cape Colony. Years ago
birds were exported to Australia with
such a favorable result that the govern
ment OF the cape imposed a tax of five
hundred dollars per bird and twenty
five dollars for every unmatched egg for
expectation tariff, in order to protect
it's own industry. This killed the ex-
port entirely.
tame ostriches in the cape reached the
astounding sum of thirty-two thousand,
although the breeding of ostriches WIS
not commenced until 1868. To-day that
number has more than doubled itself,
for in the meantime the incubators
have been largely improved.
During the laying season, which
comes with the end IF the rainy period,
the ostrich hen lays one egg every day
until she has deposited from fifteen to
twenty eggs in the sand-pile nest, a
quantity just large enough to cover the
same with her body when Matching.
By gradually taking away one egg after
another, as we do with our hens, the
big bird can be induced to lay on an
average of thirty eggs, and in excep- |
tional cases even sixty eggs have been
accumulated. These surplus eggs are |
a.. L l.
but the eggs must be turned every day. |
In from eight to ten days the first signs |
of life are noticeable. Shortly before |
the young bird is ready to break the |
shell of its prison, which is between the |
forty-fifth and fiftieth days, squeak |
ing noise is heard within and a constant |
pecking against the shell, which is as |
hard as a rock. In a little while he
succeeds in punching a triangular
hole through the shell, which the lit
tie inmate tries hard to enlarge, in
order to become entirely liberated. If |
he is not very strong he must be helped
in his attempt to escape. The artificial
hatchings are always preferred to the
natural ones. 1t happens that just
during the breeding time the ostrickes
have the most beautiful plumage,
which suffers greatly from the hatch
sand and dust. At the time when
ostriches became priced very highly
and artificial incubators were proper
tionately rare the surplus ostrich eggs
were Matched by Hottentot women in
large feather beds, an occupation which
was much to the liking of these danes,
so prone to dolce far niente" of such
a prolonged period.
The raising of the young ostriches re-
quires great care and patience and
large percentage of them die annually
from diseases and other accidents. The
ostrich is full-grown when five years Of
age. 1t is then that the male bird has
the most beautiful plumage of a black,
satiny sheen. The female birds
feathers are hght-gray. The most
plumes hang in delicate
fringe all around the body of the bird.
When the bird is nine months old it's
feathers are plucked for the first time.
At that time they are still stiff and
with pointed tips, and do not
yet give any idea of the beauty of the
later crops. During the second year
they become much more likely, although
still narrow and pointed. But at the
third plucking they are soft and broad.
as they should be.
On the large breeding farms men
on horses drive the birds
together for the picking, for the
ostriches are apt to stray far away
from home. They are driven in de-
first into large fold and
from this into very small pen, the So
called picking-pen. In this latter the
birds are so densely packed together
that the dangerous individuals have no
room for kicking, for the ostrich has
power enough in his long legs to deal
blows with them.