Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-08-21
AN OSTRICH FARM.
Plucking the Feathers and
Counting the Profits.
COCKS PRODUCE THE BEST PLUMES
Oranges are the Things they Like Best
Though they Will Eat Everything
in Sight.

other at Coronado Beach, the resort
just across the bay from San Diego.
Interest of tourists is divided between
the little old adobe church of the Mex
lean village of Old San Diego, where
Ramona, Helen Hunts Indian heroine,
is said to have been married, and the
ostrich farm kept by W. H. Bentley,
within few minutes walk of the
hotel at the beach. The farm has
sixty-fve birds, writes San Diego
(Cal.) correspondent of the New York
Sun. Whether spreading their wings
and fitting along in their peculiar Del
sartean gait. or greedily snatching at
whatever morsels come in their way,
they are droll and interesting.
Everybody has heard the expression,
stomach like an ostrich's, J." but
nobody can quite realize the signifi-
canoe of the comparison until he at
tends luncheon given to the creatures
and watches them dispatch their food.
They eat all sorts of vegetables. but
above all things they like oranges.
The avidity with which they seize and
gulp down whole oranges is at once
startling and amusing. When their
keeper appears with fine orange in
his hand there is a scramble and fut-
tering of great fluffy wings. The
fortunate fellow who gets the fruit
bolts it at once and stands blinking his
satisfaction while the orange slowly
travels by easy stages down his long
throat Cabbage leaves, beet tops,
natural grasses, alfalfa, bits of broken
shell and gravel are all esteemed great
luxuries by these ungainly birds.
The 3-months- old chick stands fully
four feet high. The female does not
mature until years old, nor the male
until 5. The color of the young birds
is brown in general effect, and the
hens retain that hue. As the cock
nears maturity he turns deep, glossy
black. and gets row of pure white
plumes among those of jet. Down the
front of each leg is a stripe of vivid
red, and ring of the same color sur.
rounds the big. vicious eyes, giving the
creature peculiarly rakish and dissi-
pated appearance The cock is at times
very ugly to manage, and the hens,
too, must be carefully handled. They
particularly dislike strangers, and visi-
tors are always cautioned to keep a
long way from the paddock.
As fast as the birds mate the pairs
are confined in the paddock. Just
after the rainy season sets in the hens
begin to lay. The nest is most
primitive rangement-merely an ex-
cavation, about three feet across,
scratched in the sandy soil. Every
other day an egg is deposited in this
nest until the hen is satisfied with the
number. Then the cock turns to and
does the principal part of the sitting.
Every afternoon at 4 o'clock he relieves
the hen and does not quit the nest until
s O'Clock the next morning, thereby
giving the female only the short day
light watch. The usual custom, how
ever. is to remove the eggs to an incu-
bator as fast as they are laid. In this
case the hen will often lay thirty eggs
before resting. Then. after an interval
of six weeks. she resumes her work
The ostrich farmer can count upon
three periods of productiveness in a
year and an aggregate of seventy-fv five
to ninety eggs from each hen. In CAL
ifornia the hens hatch in forty days
two days sooner than in Africa. The
minated birds are allowed to herd, and
are known as the Feather troop"
The plucking comes once in ten
months, and is difficult undertaking.
The firsG plucking takes place when
the chick is six months old. The
feathers are of inferior quality and
are used to make busters. These first
feathers are called spadones. When
the chick is l year old its feathers
can be used for trimmings. At years
a good plume can be obtained, and
after that the bird is regular producer
of fine plumes. As rule each wing
furnishes 104 plumes, while about 1875
are obtained from the tail, making
more than 800 feathers to each bird.
The tail feathers are termed "boos'
in ostrich slang.
The members of the regular feather
troop are docile enough when undis-
turbed. but if provoked in the least
grow very ugly. 1t is necessary to
blindfold the birds before the pluck.
ing. They are brought into the pad
dock and while engaged in feeding on
the corn or cabbage leaves which have
been thrown to them two men who
have had experience in the work APP
proach, seize bird by the neck and
quickly thrust long hood over its
head. The ostrich is then forced into
an Enclosure about three feet square
and gate is closed behind it. 1t is
necessary still to hold the bird, though
while thus hooded it rarely shows
fight. The plumes are shipped off and
the stub of each quill is allowed to
remain until the juices have been
diverted into other growing feathers.
The stub then becomes transparent to
the eye and is pulled out. After the
ostrich has been plucked its thigh is
marked with red paint; also after the
stub has been pulled out. Thus it re-