OSTRICHES
WATCH OUT THE BEAK
The ostrich is a very curious bird and therefore hard to peck. Be careful with glasses, for example, as an ostrich can swallow even apple-sized objects, although a single long haystack can be fatal to an ostrich if left in the throat.
DANGEROUS KICKS
Ostrich biting hurts, but is not dangerous. Instead, when an ostrich gets angry, it kicks forward to a height of about two meters three times a second as hard as a horse. The claw of an ostrich is one of the hardest substances in the animal kingdom, and when hits, it easily pierces the human abdomen, so it’s can be deadly.
There are several known cases in the wild where an ostrich has killed the attacking male lion.
ostrich is also the fastest bipe (two legs) animal in the world. The ostrich can run about 70 km/hour and has a step size of almost six meters at best. This speed ostrich can keep up to half an hour.
Our ostriches are used to their caretakers, and of course the caretakers also know how to read ostrich gestures.
Our Akseli-rooster, for example, is friendly to the hostess of the farm, but of course caution must be exercised at all times.
EXCELLENT VISION
In addition to its size, ostriches have many characteristics that amaze even scientists. For example, ostrich is the only bird that has bladder and eyelashes. The Arabs have a saying “stupider than an ostrich”: the ostrich’s brain is even smaller than its eyeball, which in turn is the largest in the world’s terrestrial animals. An ostrich is able to separate an object the size of a piece of sugar from a distance of up to three kilometers.
CHICKS
The ostrich chick is facing hard work when it comes time to hatch. It has to break an eggshell about 2mm thick by kicking it with its legs and pushing it with its neck. It does not have the so-called egg tooth that other birds have to break the eggshell. It takes about nine hours for the chick to break the shell. A day after hatching, it is ready to leave the nest and follow its parents.
The ostrich chick is well equipped at birth. It has a feather cover ready, good eyesight and a lunch bag with it. During the last hours of hatching, the chick’s yolk sac retracts into the chick’s stomach, and in this way the chick has a spare food at birth to keep up with the first days in nature.
Once in the wild, four to five days after hatching, the chicks begin to pluck small grains of sand, pieces of eggshell and feces from adult birds. The ostrich nest is often far from places to eat and drink and it is therefore quite practical for the chicks to start eating with nutrients that are constantly available nearby. The feces contain a lot of fiber and the necessary bacteria that are necessary for the digestion of the chick to digest and to build immunity.
In nature, the yolk sac is absorbed into the chick’s bloodstream within 2-3 weeks of birth. In this case, the chick has also learned to peck other nutrients from nature, such as grass and various seeds.
Our ostriches are born and hatched in Belgium, from where they travel to us as little “babies”.
EGGS
Ostriches lay eggs as a rule in the summer without a regular rhythm. It can lay at best up to 80 eggs per season, although normally 20-40 eggs are more common.
The ostrich egg is a real family pack. It weighs about one and a half kilos and is equal to 25-30 chicken eggs. The ostrich egg is the largest bird egg in the world, but when proportional to the size of the bird, it is the smallest in the world. If an ostrich lays its eggs in the same proportion as, for example, a tit, a cart would be needed at least to move the egg.
An ostrich is a herd animal that lays eggs in the same nest as others. The incubation is handled by a so-called “favorite female” who is able to distinguish her own from the eggs of others and, in the event of danger, offers egg thieves (such as a hyena, a lion, etc.) other than their own eggs. In this way, nature ensures that only the best of the family continues.
ADULT BIRD
The chicks grow very fast. The birth weight is about 900g and after 10 weeks the weight has already accumulated 10kg. The chick’s weight will continue to grow at a tremendous rate: at the age of three months, its weight will increase by almost half a kilo a day. At this rate, at the age of one, it already weighs about 100kg. An adult ostrich weighs about 130kg, of which only is 35kg of meat to eat. Our Akseli-rooster (in photo) is estimated to weigh nearly 200kg.
Although the ostrich is native to South Africa, it is very frost-resistant due to its adaptability and can therefore be outdoors even in winter.
The ostrich feather cover has no fat at all and therefore gets wet easily. When wet, an ostrich can get the flu, which is the only disease in an adult ostrich.
Ostriches up to 80 years old have been found in the wild.
MEAT
Ostrich meat is red in color and slightly resembles beef.
Meat is very healthy because it has less fat than chicken and more protein than any other meat. In addition, the meat is low in cholesterol, tender and easy to cook. Meat is also often suitable for those who cannot eat other meat dishes (for example beef, pork or chicken) due to allergies.
Leather is also appreciated because it’s very tough and strong. In Europe, ostrich leather is valued even more than crocodile leather. Feathers are used not only for crafts and decorative items, but also in the electronics industry because they have a unique dust-absorbing ability and do not contain any fat.
You can taste ostrich meat in our restaurant, and you can also find ostrich feathers on sale – even as ready-made dust whisks!
