My eggs have hatched
Discussion
Pretty much as per the title, although technically not mine, as the parent birds have sat on these for absolutely ages and done all the hard work.
So in the coming days and weeks, I'll post loads of chick pics and chart their development. But mainly because they're unbelievably cute.
But for now, can anyone guess the bird they came from
First baby pictures will be uploaded tomorrow lunchtime along with pics of proud parents.
So in the coming days and weeks, I'll post loads of chick pics and chart their development. But mainly because they're unbelievably cute.
But for now, can anyone guess the bird they came from
First baby pictures will be uploaded tomorrow lunchtime along with pics of proud parents.Bigger. Much much bigger.
The hen in the foreground has a swollen distended neck after having swallowed half a housebrick.
On the left is Boris, the dad. He's doing a lot of the parental duties at the moment, normally the females just bugger off but the hens are doing their share of parental duties too.
Loads more pics to follow in the coming weeks and months, as they grow up and (hopefully) have chicks of their own.
The hen in the foreground has a swollen distended neck after having swallowed half a housebrick.
On the left is Boris, the dad. He's doing a lot of the parental duties at the moment, normally the females just bugger off but the hens are doing their share of parental duties too.
Loads more pics to follow in the coming weeks and months, as they grow up and (hopefully) have chicks of their own.
Not uncomfortable at all. However, I can't speak for the ostrich
The brick had passed by this morning, they do eat things that are a little too big for them but eventually they enter the digestive tract. I could hear the brick being pounded to oblivion inside her. Ostriches don't have a crop and gizzard, instead it's one giant muscular organ known as a proventriculus, and it grinds everything to absolute buggery. If your keys are swallowed by an ostrich, then unless you can retrieve them within 2-3 minutes, they'll be bent and twisted beyond all recognition. Following them around for a few days is, sadly, futile.
Anyway, it was lashing it down today. The chicks were, as usual, having none of it and decided to seek shelter.....
They sleep under the wings of the male at night. Early mornings, you can see heads poking out from the feathers.
The brick had passed by this morning, they do eat things that are a little too big for them but eventually they enter the digestive tract. I could hear the brick being pounded to oblivion inside her. Ostriches don't have a crop and gizzard, instead it's one giant muscular organ known as a proventriculus, and it grinds everything to absolute buggery. If your keys are swallowed by an ostrich, then unless you can retrieve them within 2-3 minutes, they'll be bent and twisted beyond all recognition. Following them around for a few days is, sadly, futile.
Anyway, it was lashing it down today. The chicks were, as usual, having none of it and decided to seek shelter.....
They sleep under the wings of the male at night. Early mornings, you can see heads poking out from the feathers.
The brick basically got ground up in to bits inside the bird, once something is swallowed, it doesn't last long. For example, if your car keys are swallowed by an ostrich, they're beyond salvation after a few minutes.
They're growing like little weeds now, doubled in size after 2 weeks.
Boris being a bit of a crazed loon there...
Cute as fluff. I need a reference point to chart their growth, they're already 3 custard tins high.
They're growing like little weeds now, doubled in size after 2 weeks.
Boris being a bit of a crazed loon there...
Cute as fluff. I need a reference point to chart their growth, they're already 3 custard tins high.
A few pics from earlier in the week. We're now at 3 weeks old.
Bumbling about in their field
The bucket is a standard, bog sized 3 gallon bucket. I'll put some size references in the pics if possible but they don't stay still for long.
Monday, I got a pic of them back in the nest. The two eggs there are duff ones, one was rotten the other failed to hatch. The chicks scavenge the nest site for bits of broken shell to eat, as it aids rapid growth and development of the leg bones. In the wild, only 1 in 10 eggs will ever hatch. Some bright spark thought that was a pitiful rate of return, and therefore artificial incubation was better. Chicks hatched in an incubator don't grow to be good breeders though, they're smaller, slower growing, and only good if you want to hatch ostriches for slaughter.
Each chick will eat the broken shells of about 10 eggs in the first 3 months of life. It explains the "pitiful" hatching success of birds in the wild. Frequently, you'll find entire "dead" nests, full of eggs that have just been abandoned. These are frequently raided by the adult birds, so the chicks can eat raw egg and extra shell for growth. They will also lay extra eggs for the chicks to eat. There's method in the madness.
This is the size of the chicks just 2 weeks after hatching. Roughly twice or thrice the size of the original egg.
Heads are up to the rim of the bucket now, which is about 1ft high.
I sexed them on tuesday. The big one is female, the little one is male and the medium sized one is a bloody frisky bugger and protested at having its tail lifted. So I've no idea if that one is male or female.
Wednesday, however, did not go according to plan.
Two very unhappy chicks.
Two parent birds. Woefully scanning the area for the third chick.
I spent an hour searching the two paddocks, but no sign of the 3rd chick. Occasionally they succumb to fox attacks, but seeing the way the adult birds go for the farm dogs, I doubt a fox would survive even a lightning raid. I have seen the remnants of a fox attack, and it isn't pretty. The fox doesn't come out of it - how can I put this delicately - "intact" as per se. But no sign of the chick, and no bits of shredded fox (some times the ostriches will kick off the head of the fox and simply tear the body to shreds with their toenail and stamp on the entrails, so you usually find a leg, or the tail) so it wasn't a fox that took the chick.
I felt pretty s
t to be honest. My gut instinct was everything was going so well, and my gut is never wrong. And once again, my gut instinct was 100% correct.
The fker had escaped and was half a mile away, legging it through a field of corn stubble next to the landing strip. Being a frisky sod, catching her on foot was out of the question so I belted it up the runway as she pegged it in to the woods. According to a few onlookers who were, to some extent, paralytic with laughter, as I entered the woods from the west, she exited from the south, ran back in to the corn stubble and did little pirouettes of victory, twirling and chirping with ecstasy having outwitted a clumsy oaf.
I can heartily recommend the BMW E39 estate for corralling escaped ostriches across fields of corn stubble. The ride is smooth, suspension copes well and is able to reach a speed of 40mph as it sweeps up a kansas tornado of debris in its wake. I'd love to say that's what happened, but in fact it was a sheddy 206 Dturbo sport. That too, is surprisingly agile at 40mph across a field of corn stubble.
Holy fk that bird could run. I swear she was grinning at me as I ushered her back to the bosom of her family.
I'll take a stack of pics tomorrow. I swear to god, though, I could have wrung her scrawny neck.
Bumbling about in their field
The bucket is a standard, bog sized 3 gallon bucket. I'll put some size references in the pics if possible but they don't stay still for long.
Monday, I got a pic of them back in the nest. The two eggs there are duff ones, one was rotten the other failed to hatch. The chicks scavenge the nest site for bits of broken shell to eat, as it aids rapid growth and development of the leg bones. In the wild, only 1 in 10 eggs will ever hatch. Some bright spark thought that was a pitiful rate of return, and therefore artificial incubation was better. Chicks hatched in an incubator don't grow to be good breeders though, they're smaller, slower growing, and only good if you want to hatch ostriches for slaughter.
Each chick will eat the broken shells of about 10 eggs in the first 3 months of life. It explains the "pitiful" hatching success of birds in the wild. Frequently, you'll find entire "dead" nests, full of eggs that have just been abandoned. These are frequently raided by the adult birds, so the chicks can eat raw egg and extra shell for growth. They will also lay extra eggs for the chicks to eat. There's method in the madness.
This is the size of the chicks just 2 weeks after hatching. Roughly twice or thrice the size of the original egg.
Heads are up to the rim of the bucket now, which is about 1ft high.
I sexed them on tuesday. The big one is female, the little one is male and the medium sized one is a bloody frisky bugger and protested at having its tail lifted. So I've no idea if that one is male or female.
Wednesday, however, did not go according to plan.
Two very unhappy chicks.
Two parent birds. Woefully scanning the area for the third chick.
I spent an hour searching the two paddocks, but no sign of the 3rd chick. Occasionally they succumb to fox attacks, but seeing the way the adult birds go for the farm dogs, I doubt a fox would survive even a lightning raid. I have seen the remnants of a fox attack, and it isn't pretty. The fox doesn't come out of it - how can I put this delicately - "intact" as per se. But no sign of the chick, and no bits of shredded fox (some times the ostriches will kick off the head of the fox and simply tear the body to shreds with their toenail and stamp on the entrails, so you usually find a leg, or the tail) so it wasn't a fox that took the chick.
I felt pretty s
t to be honest. My gut instinct was everything was going so well, and my gut is never wrong. And once again, my gut instinct was 100% correct.The f
ker had escaped and was half a mile away, legging it through a field of corn stubble next to the landing strip. Being a frisky sod, catching her on foot was out of the question so I belted it up the runway as she pegged it in to the woods. According to a few onlookers who were, to some extent, paralytic with laughter, as I entered the woods from the west, she exited from the south, ran back in to the corn stubble and did little pirouettes of victory, twirling and chirping with ecstasy having outwitted a clumsy oaf.I can heartily recommend the BMW E39 estate for corralling escaped ostriches across fields of corn stubble. The ride is smooth, suspension copes well and is able to reach a speed of 40mph as it sweeps up a kansas tornado of debris in its wake. I'd love to say that's what happened, but in fact it was a sheddy 206 Dturbo sport. That too, is surprisingly agile at 40mph across a field of corn stubble.
Holy f
k that bird could run. I swear she was grinning at me as I ushered her back to the bosom of her family.I'll take a stack of pics tomorrow. I swear to god, though, I could have wrung her scrawny neck.
Got a few more pics from yesterday but the camera is still in the car and as it's pissing it down it'll have to be a tomorrow night upload.
They get fed a mix of moo mix (beef nuts) layers pellets and mixed corn. The ratio depends on the time of year and the weather.
No, they're not roadrunners!! Even though they're 3 weeks old, they can run faster than road runners, and for a lot longer. Ostriches aren't speedy birds, although they can run at up to 50mph they hate it, it's destabilising. They'll happily trot at 15-20 mph but they can keep up that steady jog for 20-25 hours, non stop.
That being said, I was suitably impressed by the escapee, although not unexpected.
When Boris was a nipper, one chilly morning I went in to his field, he was up near the gate with his mom and pop and watched me intently as I ambled down to the water trough with a rock pick to break up the ice. Boris never took his eyes off me, and despite him only being 2ft tall, I should have known the gig was up. As soon as the first lump of ice was lifted out of the water trough, I heard a scuffle in the snow behind me and the instantaneous, unmistakable pain of a direct kick to the back of my knees, gifting me a one way ticket to ground level, directly in front of a water trough.
As I extricated myself from the icy swirls, yelping profanities along the lines of "you fking bd of a bird" or words to that effect, Boris had already legged it back to the other end of the field, chirping and twirling with glee at the unfurling woe he had so cruelly and inhumanely inflicted on my person.
Ohhh yes. They have form for this sort of thing.
They get fed a mix of moo mix (beef nuts) layers pellets and mixed corn. The ratio depends on the time of year and the weather.
No, they're not roadrunners!! Even though they're 3 weeks old, they can run faster than road runners, and for a lot longer. Ostriches aren't speedy birds, although they can run at up to 50mph they hate it, it's destabilising. They'll happily trot at 15-20 mph but they can keep up that steady jog for 20-25 hours, non stop.
That being said, I was suitably impressed by the escapee, although not unexpected.
When Boris was a nipper, one chilly morning I went in to his field, he was up near the gate with his mom and pop and watched me intently as I ambled down to the water trough with a rock pick to break up the ice. Boris never took his eyes off me, and despite him only being 2ft tall, I should have known the gig was up. As soon as the first lump of ice was lifted out of the water trough, I heard a scuffle in the snow behind me and the instantaneous, unmistakable pain of a direct kick to the back of my knees, gifting me a one way ticket to ground level, directly in front of a water trough.
As I extricated myself from the icy swirls, yelping profanities along the lines of "you f
king bd of a bird" or words to that effect, Boris had already legged it back to the other end of the field, chirping and twirling with glee at the unfurling woe he had so cruelly and inhumanely inflicted on my person.Ohhh yes. They have form for this sort of thing.
Well.... we're coming in to week 4 and whilst showing their photogenic side..
They're also lulling me in to a false sense of security for a well defined snap and displaying their utter, utter contempt...
A very well-timed st.
Yeah. I see the way you're looking at me, you fluffy, adorable leggy bd.
I'll try and pop a few more pics up over the weekend. One is growing at a phenomenal rate (the female that escaped), one is adopting the role of middle manager and trying not to be noticed by being mr or mrs average (I don't know which as when I lifted his/her tail for a peek, it took one look at me and decided my intentions were less than proper and legged it) and the smallest one is a male.
I'm hoping the small one will realise it needs to scoff down copious quantities of egg shell for rapid bone growth.
They're also lulling me in to a false sense of security for a well defined snap and displaying their utter, utter contempt...
A very well-timed s
t.Yeah. I see the way you're looking at me, you fluffy, adorable leggy b
d.I'll try and pop a few more pics up over the weekend. One is growing at a phenomenal rate (the female that escaped), one is adopting the role of middle manager and trying not to be noticed by being mr or mrs average (I don't know which as when I lifted his/her tail for a peek, it took one look at me and decided my intentions were less than proper and legged it) and the smallest one is a male.
I'm hoping the small one will realise it needs to scoff down copious quantities of egg shell for rapid bone growth.
Not been around for a while, so apologies for anyone following the thread.
I've been feeding them broken eggshell at a rate of knots and they chow down on that stuff with relish. Helps the bones to grow.
This was mid september, with the bucket in view to give a sense of scale. I then dished out excess egg shell. The one munched merrily, the two smaller ones not as much.
The large one is indeed female, the other 2 are both males. I managed to peek up their bumholes.
Sat in the field, their growth isn't as pronounced, but back in the shed where I can happily snap away when they're eating, the last few weeks has shown a difference in growth rates
2 weeks ago
This was last week. The female is growing like a weed, the 2 smaller males are growing, but not as fast. To me, I am wondering whether they're growing at all, people say they are but seeing them daily, compared to how quick the female is growing, I have my doubts.
Anyway the chicks are now on a really expensive Dodson and Horrell food for growing ostrich chicks which is a waste of money imho as I can formulate my own food for a third of the price.
Out in the field, they still look quite small.
Today, all three were at the very least a neck length higher than the bucket. The larger one now has legs the height of the bucket.
They've come a long way from this...
I've got a buyer lined up for one of the males as a breeder bird. Chicks that hatch naturally, in a nest, grow bigger and mature faster than ones incubated artificially. Back in the 1990's breeders realised they could get a 90% success rate using incubators, compared with a 10% rate 'naturally'. They then sold those birds at 3 years of age as breeder birds, typically for £30,000 a trio to "investors". Unfortunately, those birds never did well at breeding and consequently, the promises of massive riches bore no fruit.
On the other hand, naturally hatched birds are awesome.
I've been feeding them broken eggshell at a rate of knots and they chow down on that stuff with relish. Helps the bones to grow.
This was mid september, with the bucket in view to give a sense of scale. I then dished out excess egg shell. The one munched merrily, the two smaller ones not as much.
The large one is indeed female, the other 2 are both males. I managed to peek up their bumholes.
Sat in the field, their growth isn't as pronounced, but back in the shed where I can happily snap away when they're eating, the last few weeks has shown a difference in growth rates
2 weeks ago
This was last week. The female is growing like a weed, the 2 smaller males are growing, but not as fast. To me, I am wondering whether they're growing at all, people say they are but seeing them daily, compared to how quick the female is growing, I have my doubts.
Anyway the chicks are now on a really expensive Dodson and Horrell food for growing ostrich chicks which is a waste of money imho as I can formulate my own food for a third of the price.
Out in the field, they still look quite small.
Today, all three were at the very least a neck length higher than the bucket. The larger one now has legs the height of the bucket.
They've come a long way from this...
I've got a buyer lined up for one of the males as a breeder bird. Chicks that hatch naturally, in a nest, grow bigger and mature faster than ones incubated artificially. Back in the 1990's breeders realised they could get a 90% success rate using incubators, compared with a 10% rate 'naturally'. They then sold those birds at 3 years of age as breeder birds, typically for £30,000 a trio to "investors". Unfortunately, those birds never did well at breeding and consequently, the promises of massive riches bore no fruit.
On the other hand, naturally hatched birds are awesome.
I keep meaning to update the thread, and had dozens of wonderful pics stashed on the camera, a few more of those in a bit.
Today was not a good day.
On wednesday afternoon, only two of the chicks came running in for food. The third was lying in a crumpled heap in the field. Boris was agitated, and it's never a good sign. One of the smaller male chicks was flailing around, having dislocated his left hock joint.
Ostrich chicks do often suffer with luxating hock joints, the answer is to strap up both legs and hope they behave, and grow out of it. This one chick had been limping a lot a few weeks back, and had grown out of it. A quick massage of the joint, and flex it by holding the bird upside down until you feel the joint pop back in, and job jobbed.
Bird trotted off, happy as a pig in st.
10 minutes later, out it popped again. Required further attention, so took chick off to the vets for some dog strength metacam and some stronger bandages, then off home. Bird stayed the night in my hallway. There's some pics floating around but unavailable right now.
Yesterday afternoon, he went back to the field. The other birds were not impressed, objected strongly to his presence and kicked him over, dislocating the other hock. Sadly, this is terminal. I bandaged and splinted the other leg, and confined him to a crate but he thrashed around in the crate, splitting his hock open.
He went back to the vets and was euthanised.
Farewell, little fella. I wish I had done more.
Needless to say, I feel pretty st today and I've been crabby as hell. Even though they're not "pets", I've developed a strong bond with them in the 12 weeks they've been alive, and seen each chick develop its own personality. This one was sweet, and mild (the other male is a tad boisterous).
Just to point out how "terminal" a compound dislocation of the hock joint is, there's a pic behind the spoiler.
<edit> I removed the spoiler. Some times, the grim reality of times like this whilst not being inappropriately glorified, shouldn't be sanitised. In the past when other chicks have suffered identical injuries, I've been faced with the somewhat objectionable comments from the holier-than-thou brigade who can't understand why 'more couldn't be done'. Well, from the pic, it's obvious why it's terminal, and why despite how much of an utter, utter I feel about it, euthanasia was the correct option.
Today was not a good day.
On wednesday afternoon, only two of the chicks came running in for food. The third was lying in a crumpled heap in the field. Boris was agitated, and it's never a good sign. One of the smaller male chicks was flailing around, having dislocated his left hock joint.
Ostrich chicks do often suffer with luxating hock joints, the answer is to strap up both legs and hope they behave, and grow out of it. This one chick had been limping a lot a few weeks back, and had grown out of it. A quick massage of the joint, and flex it by holding the bird upside down until you feel the joint pop back in, and job jobbed.
Bird trotted off, happy as a pig in s
t.10 minutes later, out it popped again. Required further attention, so took chick off to the vets for some dog strength metacam and some stronger bandages, then off home. Bird stayed the night in my hallway. There's some pics floating around but unavailable right now.
Yesterday afternoon, he went back to the field. The other birds were not impressed, objected strongly to his presence and kicked him over, dislocating the other hock. Sadly, this is terminal. I bandaged and splinted the other leg, and confined him to a crate but he thrashed around in the crate, splitting his hock open.
He went back to the vets and was euthanised.
Farewell, little fella. I wish I had done more.
Needless to say, I feel pretty s
t today and I've been crabby as hell. Even though they're not "pets", I've developed a strong bond with them in the 12 weeks they've been alive, and seen each chick develop its own personality. This one was sweet, and mild (the other male is a tad boisterous).Just to point out how "terminal" a compound dislocation of the hock joint is, there's a pic behind the spoiler.
<edit> I removed the spoiler. Some times, the grim reality of times like this whilst not being inappropriately glorified, shouldn't be sanitised. In the past when other chicks have suffered identical injuries, I've been faced with the somewhat objectionable comments from the holier-than-thou brigade who can't understand why 'more couldn't be done'. Well, from the pic, it's obvious why it's terminal, and why despite how much of an utter, utter
I feel about it, euthanasia was the correct option.Well, its been nearly 2 years, so to update on the 2 survivors. I named them Saffron and Basil.
They grew. And grew.
This is Saffron, growing fast.
Saffron on the left, Basil on the right.
4 months of age.
Bit of an action shot. By now, Saffron was the clear dominant one (she's the one who escaped down the runway so the microlights couldn't land. Bless her) Basil was quite subordinate and remains so to this day.
So why the update now?
Well the sods have gone and done it again...
The start of the year wasn't good, climate wise (probably for another thread but relevant) we had no proper spring, it went from late winter to early summer. This meant they started nesting way too early and were sitting in early may. Eggs laid this early don't develop, and by late june they had sifted through the eggs and one by one, rejected them.
A second clutch was laid, this time a bit late, meaning if they did hatch, it wouldn't be at least till the start of september.
Lo and behold, on the 1st....
Welcome to the world, little chap.
A second arrived today, so more pics to follow. Sadly, this first one was attacked by Basil. I don't know why, but right now it's currently being hand reared. Basil was moved to the other side so is no longer in contact. Oh and Basil laid an egg, so that's a female too. Saffron has been more interested in the nest, so hoping for more.
The last post shows that its not all fluffykins, unicorns and rainbows. There's another 4 eggs due to hatch, whether we get any live chicks or not remains to be seen. Hopefully they hatch, hopefully they survive and I can eek this thread out another 2 pages...
They grew. And grew.
This is Saffron, growing fast. Saffron on the left, Basil on the right. 4 months of age. Bit of an action shot. By now, Saffron was the clear dominant one (she's the one who escaped down the runway so the microlights couldn't land. Bless her) Basil was quite subordinate and remains so to this day.So why the update now?
Well the sods have gone and done it again...
The start of the year wasn't good, climate wise (probably for another thread but relevant) we had no proper spring, it went from late winter to early summer. This meant they started nesting way too early and were sitting in early may. Eggs laid this early don't develop, and by late june they had sifted through the eggs and one by one, rejected them.
A second clutch was laid, this time a bit late, meaning if they did hatch, it wouldn't be at least till the start of september.
Lo and behold, on the 1st....
Welcome to the world, little chap.A second arrived today, so more pics to follow. Sadly, this first one was attacked by Basil. I don't know why, but right now it's currently being hand reared. Basil was moved to the other side so is no longer in contact. Oh and Basil laid an egg, so that's a female too. Saffron has been more interested in the nest, so hoping for more.
The last post shows that its not all fluffykins, unicorns and rainbows. There's another 4 eggs due to hatch, whether we get any live chicks or not remains to be seen. Hopefully they hatch, hopefully they survive and I can eek this thread out another 2 pages...
Gassing Station | All Creatures Great & Small | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff