Ostrich Experiment

One year ostriches were being introduced into Manitoba. We thought it looked like a profitable venture and so we took the leap and purchased a pair of young ostriches for $7000. We got a new building and put up a pen for them.

At the two year mark and we noticed that the markings were not right and then we had it confirmed that we had two males instead of a pair like we wanted. After talking to the fellow we purchased them from we had the option of spending more money and buying a female but we opted for selling these two for $14,000 and purchasing another young pair for $7000. That way we weren't out too much money.

So, we had to wait another two years before we got any eggs. Interesting point here is that the female laid the egg and then the male guarded it. We had to get it away from him.

These eggs were huge. One ostrich egg was equal to two dozen chicken eggs. The one egg I cook surely gave us a huge omelet.

Some interesting things we learnt were that because of their long necks they wouldn't venture into a bush. So, the few times they got out of the pen they stayed in the open spaces. We were able to chase them back with care as the male could get quite aggressive. Quite a few people came to view them and learn about their ways.

Now we needed to find someone who would hatch the eggs for us. There was a producer near Winnipeg who agreed to hatch them for us. Not all the eggs were fertile but we did get two chicks. The unfertile ones I sold as novelties or painted them.

Then when we were ready to think of selling some the market dropped and finally we decided to butcher them and put the meat in our freezer. You couldn't cut steaks as most of the meat was on the legs and they had the making of a drum stick. We made a lot of ground meat. I t was dark meat and was quite tasty. They had no meat on their breasts as that was made like a shield for protection.

We got two of the hides tanned and then we made some mitts, vests, etc. George got a pair of ostrich cowboy boots made. It was an interesting adventure and we learnt a lot as a family. We didn't get rich but were happy with the end results.