The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-11-03
OSTRICH FARMS.
Interesting Account Of the Habits Of
Curious Birds.
Methods Employed by Keepers in Sc
Travellers Tales Regarding the Crea-


Travellers Tales Regarding the Crea-
lures That Need Correcting.
From the Strand Magazine.
An ostrich farm in South Africa is a
place well worth visiting.
You arrive at the homestead, a square,
red brick building, with sigh of relief,
and glad to be out of the binding glare
and sandy plain. On every homestead the
same familiar sights meet the eye.
On the one side of the house stand the
kraals; on the other the shed and wagon
house. In the front stands the dam, ad-
Joining the vegetable garden and lands,
with, further away, the camp.
Behind the house are the chaffhouse,
tramp floor and butchers shop, whore
the niggers are rationed. In the camp
run the large stock and cattle, ostriches
and horses, and on the fats and noun
tains the sheep and goats. In this arti-
Gle I shall confine my remarks to os-
triches.
A well fenced and secure Enclosure is
quite luxury in the colony, and is only
to be met with on the Weather farms, the
owners of which can afford to keep them
in repair and to place in them stock of the
more expensive kinds.
Every ostrich farmer has his camp
which varies in size considerably, from
5000 to 5000 acres, and in it he keeps his
300 birds, as well as a few cattle and
horses. A camp is always selected as be-
ing the best piece of grazing around the
farm, and capable of holding more stock
in proportion than any other part of the
farm.
Here the birds remain, year in and year
out, and are only collected and brought
together. on the average, once every four
months.
These occasions are, let us say in June,
to pluck the prime feathers. By these We
mean the long whites, numbering from is
to 20 in each wing, or 8 fancy feathers,
and a few long blacks. all taken at the
same time.
Four months later the stumps of these
feathers are drawn out, and two months
later again-that is six months after the
primes-the short blacks and tall feathers
are taken. OF these it is impossible 10
give any accurate number.
AS a rule, you pluck as many as posi-
Bile without inhicting pain on the bird,
and at the same time leaving enough to
keep out the cold.
An ostrich, like most other animals in
its wild state, is terribly afraid of man,
of any unfamiliar sight, and fees at the
approach of anything new to it's ken.
When domesticated it becomes docile,
and after a time assumes a position of au-
thority, and becomes master of the sit
uation.
From June to September, or, in fact,
till Christmas, thousands of chicks are
reared every year, and thousands meet
with death every year from some form
of accident.
Chicks up to twelve months old die
from various maladies, but seldom, after
they are full grown are they the victims
of any sickness, death usually resulting
from broken leg, killed fighting, or from
scarcity of food in times of drouth.
The nest of an ostrich is a very crude
affair, consisting simply of a round hol-
low carved out in the sandy ground.
Sometimes the female bird may be seen
scratching in the ground preparatory to
laying her first egg, but this is not often
the case, the hollow generally being made
by the continuous sitting of the birds on
the one spot.
one pair of birds will lay from 10 to 20
eggs, but, as is often the case three or
four birds will lay in one nest thus maxi
ing the number of eggs up to 20 or so.
These, of course, have to be Weeded out,
as bird cannot comfortably cover more
than Is eggs, the remainder being thrown
on one side and left to decay.
Forty-four days is the recognized time
allowed for Matching. When nest Is
Matched out, the family are taken out
of the camp and brought to the homestead
to be tanned, where they come in contin-
ual contact with the farm hands, and are
housed at night out of the reach of wild
animals. During the summer months they
will do well, but in winter, when food be-
comes scarcer, should be fed morning and
evening on barley or rape.
1t is during the breeding season that
the male becomes so savage, and his note
of grooming" as the Dutch
call it's heard night and day. The bird
initiates his neck in a cobra like fashion,
and gives utteranCe to three deep roars.
The first two are short, but the third
very prolonged Lion hunters all agree
in asserting that the roar of the king of
beasts and the most foolish of birds re-
semble one another almost exactly. When
the birds are properly savage they become
a great source of aInusement-or, as some
think, of danger.
Ihave seen a bird so savage as to charge
seven times in fifteen minutes, twice re-
ceiving the prongs of the fork through
his neck. on horseback one is even more
obnoxious TO an ostrich than on foot; but
so long as the horse is not afraid and will
stand up to the bird, there is no fear of
accident.
AS he charges, take care to have your
horse well in hand, and as the bird makes
the first strike, catch him by the neck
and hold on for all you're worth, till the
bird becomes exhausted from want of
breath, and falls.
The female bird is seldom vicious When
she has nest or brood of young chicks
one must be prepared, but her manner Of
charging and whole demeanor is a very
mild affair compared TO the males Per-
haps 1t mag uggest itself to some of my
readers: Nnat would result supposine
three of four birds tackled you at once?
1t is very rare occurrence for more
than one bird to charge at time. Should
three or four male birds all imagine at
one particular moment that you are the
meat of each Of them separately, they
first Of all tackle one another, the con-
queror fighting you.
Collecting birds for plucking is always
a great day on the farm. Orders are given
over night to the Kafirs and Hottentots
to catch every available riding horse and
have them saddled up and ready next
morning at sunrise This is done. and