~ Straussenfarm Gemarkenhof, 25.10.2024 ~

I visited an ostrich ranch in the area. They sell ostrich produce (meat, feathers, eggshells, etc.), both in their restaurant and to take home, and offer guided tours. There is also a tiny museum on the farm grounds.

The first stop was an area with a few breeding couples, or rather triples. Ostrich families are made up of one male (with black and white feathers) and two females. The females brawl every winter to determine who is the head wife and who the secondary wife in the coming year. The head wife gets to lay eggs in the (warm & safe) middle of the nest, while the secondary wife's eggs are laid around them (where they are likely to be stolen by predators, or fail to develop for lack of warmth), and she is barred from nearing the nest. The male and the head wife take turns incubating the eggs.

In two large pens, adolescent ostriches were left to graze. Since they don't have teeth, they swallow rocks and churn them in their stomachs to grind food (and non-food, incl. tin cans) down to digestible particles. Thanks to their thick leathery skin, they have no problems surviving the German winter, even outdoors. Summers are more of a problem sometimes, as they are wont to overheating, and on some weeks the nights provide no relief, unlike the chilly nights of the South African deserts.

Ostriches are very entertaining to watch. When they bunch together, they make a good reference material for how a hydra might move.

Another area hosted the kindergarten for ostriches only a couple of weeks old. A few older and bigger ones are left in the pen to teach the younger ones. Their feathers are very stiff and rough to the touch!

The tour finished with a visit of the incubator. The egglaying season has ended, so most of the machinery was offline. A few newly-hatched chicks were still learning how to walk.
A very enjoyable visit. I now like ostriches.