RAISING BIG BIRDS

Growing as tall as 2.7m, the ostrich is the largest living bird on the planet, weighing up to 130kg (285lbs). It is also one of the fastest two-legged creatures, with the ability to hit speeds of 65km per hour.

In northern Africa and Arabia, people would race on ostriches as they would horses. So let’s make this clear: owning an ostrich is quite different from looking after a backyard fighting cock! Especially if you have 600 of them – which is the number of ostriches Big Bird has on its farm at any given time.

In order to raise the big birds, the farm needed to be large enough to have areas for them to roam about, especially when they reach maturity. The birds also have to be kept in separate pens according to their age, so the right fencing and layout were also necessary. Those who remember their biology would know that the ostrich arrives in the form of an egg.And ostrich eggs are huge! They are about the size and weight of an American football.

At the Big Bird Farm, there is a medium-sized steel building devoted to incubation. The eggs hatch after 42 days, and the chicks are then kept in sheltered pens for eight weeks. Measuring 10 inches in length and weighing about two pounds, they might not seem particularly fragile, but this is the time when the most mortalities occur, so the utmost care is given.