The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-29
OSTRICH FARMS
HOW ABOUT 100000 TAME BIRDS BRING IN ST.
 100000 PER ANNUM

Frank G. Carpenter)
 , or more wide. to prevent the birds fight ing and kicking one another. Two blfds'
 a cock and a hen, are kept in each pad dock. and one acre of alfalfa amply sui fees for their grazing the year rouIlu-
 Some of the farmers cut and stack the crop and then feed 1t to the ostrlehes when other food Is short, and some let the birds graze. Alfalfa-fed birds nave glossier feathers than those led upon wild grass and brlstles. Their qulils are heavier and they weigh more. They also break easily, and for this reason are not
 so much liked by the dealers as the
 plumes of the birds from the veldt. IT. rigated land suitable for ostrehes IS Iast ! increasing in value; I am told that the best now bring s1,00o per acre.
 Wild ostriches.
 During my stay in Africa have seen many wild ostriches There are some ln the Sahara. They live along the bor- 1 ders of the desert, and one sometimes sees the ostriches, with wings out l stretched, swimming through the ar, over the sand. I saw a few in the Sudan ana in Omdurman was able to buy the cholc- est of white plumes from the wild birds at about s2 apiece. There are many
 ostriches in British East Africa and Sonaaliland All along the Uganda rail- road. from the Indian ocean to Lake VIC toria. they may be seen feeding upon the high plains. l understand that there are some in Abyssinia and many west or Rhodesia in the Kalihari desert. The feathers of the wild birds are oily, and they have long quills. They are freer from bars and other blemishes than are the pumes from the tame birds, and they bring a higher price in the market Down here in South Africa wild birds may not be caught hunted or shot, and
 the man who takes wild ostrich eggs from any of the crown lands without license is subject to a fine of SlO0. The same penalty is attached to hunting or wounding wild bird upon private lands without the owners consent.
 Egyptian ostriches.
 During my stay in Egypt l visited a large ostrich farm near Cairo It has something like 2,O00 birds, and the feath- CTS are largely retaied to tourists. The farm lies on the edge of the desert not far from Heliopolis, where Plato taught school and near the tree under which the Virgin Mary and the Baby Jesus rested about nineteen hundred odd years ago
 This farm has been carved out of the desert. It is divided up into fields, which are surrounded by high mud walls There are alleys in some of the fields, and you can walk over the farm, seeing ostriches of all ages, sizes and sexes engaged in all the occupations of ostrich life. Some Of the birds are feet in height and some are no bigger than Plymouth Rock hens.
 The male and female ostriches are kept in pairs, and usually there is one pair or more in each field. AS went through
 l shook my fist at one lady ostrich, and her husband got angry. The neck, head and legs of the old cock turned as red as blood, and he snapped at me with his bill like an angry dog. He tramped up
 and down the pen, lifting his big two toed huffs high, and the turbaned Egyp- tian who went with me told me that kick from him would kill a horse or knock my head from my shoulders.
 Matching by Incubators.
 It was. on the Egyptian farm that | first saw ostriches matched in incubators. | The farmer told me that the eggs were 1 taken from the nest every day, leaving l one for a nest egg just as we do for
 chickens. About 20 eggs are allowed to each pair of ostriches when setting, ! and the balance of the forty-odd eggs,
 which the hen lays, goes to the incuba- | tors. l saw several hundred eggs. Each
 was as big as the head of a 6-months-old
 baby. It was of smooth ivory white | freckled over with little black specks.
 In the incubators the eggs are laid in l padded boxes and are kept in a room | where the temperature is just about 100 l degrees Fahrenheit. As the time for | matching approaches they are tested day after day by placing them in hole in 1 the wall of a dark room. This hole just | fits then egg, so that the light shines through and shows it's condition. If the egg is not fertilized the light comes through the shell. If it is there will be only light at the larger end, where the air chamber is.
 The eggs are turned every day, and
 when the chicks are just about ready l to hatch the shells are broken with tack hammer The baby ostriches are then taken out and laid away for "A hours in boxes of warm cotton. Before going | further they have their eyes tested, and | if they are lightish in color they are killed, for the light-eyed ones albinos and are of no good for laying.
 Breeding Ostriches on the karoo. ! The most of the farmers of South Africa | now use incubators, but many let the l birds hatch their own eggs. and on nearly | all the large farms you may see these 1 great creatures sitting on the nests which | they have dug out of the sand. The | breeding season begins in June and lasts
 until the end of September, but if the | birds are well-fed they will continue to i breed all the year round. As the time for l breeding approaches the breeders are | camped off in pairs, a field of six acres
 or less being given to each cock and hen.
 The fields are often separated by double l fences, as the cock ostriches are very 1 jealous when their mistresses are laying
 and they will fight one another and of ten break their legs in their attempts to 1 kick through the wires.
 | The cock always picks out the place | for the nest. He then kneels down on his | breast bone and kicks out a round dish l shaped hollow in the sand. When it is l fixed to his satisfaction he coaxes the
 hen ostrich to 1t and gives her instruc-
 tions to lay. If satisfied she goes to
 work and lays one egg every other day
 for about twenty days, She may then l take rest, and begin to lay again, keep
 ing on until she has laid 40 or more. | When she thinks she has enough she be-
 gins to set and here the old cock comes
 again on the job. He sets on the eggs | fully half of the time, and, as a rule,
 takes charge of them at night If the hen
 stays off too long he grows angry and drives her back to the nest. At the end ! of 42 days the eggs are ready for hatch ing and the chicks begin to kick their 1 way out. In this the cock often assists
 them by breaking the shells with his | breast bones and the farmers sometimes
 go from nest to nest and gently tap or
 crack the shells, that the chicks may
 break them apart.
 The chicks when first born. are dear 1 little things with feathers of the downy | of aIai io1ya ft1ct hot had