File:Ostrich farming in South Africa. Being an account of its origin and rise; how to set about it; the profits to be derived; how to manage the birds; the capital required; the diseases and difficulties (14748524511).jpg

Identifier: ostrichfarmingin00doug (find matches)
Title: Ostrich farming in South Africa. Being an account of its origin and rise; how to set about it; the profits to be derived; how to manage the birds; the capital required; the diseases and difficulties to be met with, &c. &c
Year: 1881 (1880s)
Authors: Douglass, Arthur
Subjects: Ostrich farms Ostrich farming
Publisher: London, Paris & New York, Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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gs and chicks : but this is utter rubbish ;if anything, the smell is good for them, acting as adisinfectant, some of the most successful men we know 122 OSTRICH-FARMING IN SOUFH AFRICA. having two or more machines working with lamps in atiny room. The proportion of eggs that are not fertile is muchsmaller than is generally supposed; as a rule, when thebirds pair and lay in a nest, they may be taken to beall fertile; but hens, especially young ones, will oftenlay a number of eggs about the veldt before any cockhas paired them. Even with the most perfect incubator and withevery attention, occasionally a batch of eggs will comeout badly, the chicks being gluey and often deformed ;many people fancy that the thunder affects them, butthis we do not believe—we believe that the fault is inthe eggs themselves, which if left to nature wouldhave failed to incubate at all, or have died in the earlystages ; but with the more perfect provision of heat inthe incubator they are brought to maturity.
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CHAPTER XIX. REARING THE CHICKS. For the first few years little difficulty was experiencedin rearing the chicks ; the principal art consisted ingiving them plenty to eat. Our instructions suppliedwith the incubators used to be :— Send them out with a boy the second day afterhatching, if the weather is fine, and put them wherethey are sheltered from the wind and there is a goodsupply of gravel. The third day they will pick upgravel, and when they have filled the gizzard on thefourth day, they will eat any soft green food, with whichthey should be supplied as much as they will eat, lucernecut up fine being the best. They should have wateronce a day, but it must not be brack. Return them tothe incubator at night till a month old, or if there aretoo many for the machine, after a few days they can beput in boxes, lying on sacks or straw, and the boxescovered over, leaving a small air-hole. If too hot theywill stand up with their mouths open and wings out.They should be freely supplied wi

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