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Place: town of Întorsura Buzăului, Covasna County
Mr Bogdan Platon started the ostrich farm 5 years ago. In the beginning, he was interested in breeding ostriches, but he didn’t know anything about them. He bought some ostriches from other farmers, but it was very difficult in the beginning.
When an ostrich lays an egg, he must steal it because the ostriches don’t take care of the eggs when they live in enclosures. However, the males are very protective and fast, but he has found a way of taking them. The eggs weigh about 1.7 kg. Next, he puts the egg in an incubator such that the egg is stored at the same temperature as the mother ostrich would have provided. After hatching, he keeps the chicken together with the other chickens. He told us that the first 3 months of the chicken’s life is very critical, and mortality may be high. All the chickens were khaki brown with lots of dark brown spots. In the wild, this is useful for hiding them against predators.
As they grow older, they are released into the enclosures. There, two females and a male share space and the owner lets the male make both females pregnant.
When the ostriches are ready for slaughter, he must isolate the selected ostrich in a corner of the enclosure and make it enter a trailer. Next, he drives to a slaughterhouse where a slaughterer slaughters the animal and divides up the meat. He sells the meat and the eggs to anyone who wants to buy it.
There are no veterinarians he can call if the ostriches are ill.
The ostriches are very curious, and they follow what he or anyone else is doing. He let an ostrich bite his hand, but he told us that they don’t bite hard. Instead, they have very strong legs, and we could see that they looked powerful. Besides, their feet looked powerful.
Sometimes, males in adjacent enclosures may start fighting and they may destroy the fence separating them.
Some of the enclosures had a rudimentary roof, protecting the ostriches against rain and snow.
A trough at the base of the fences was filled with cereals which the ostriches were eating when they wanted.
They stay outside all year, and they don’t mind cold weather like -25°C. He showed us a photo of one of their faces on an ice-cold winter day, and its hair was pointing in all directions.
Lots of enclosures were located next to each other and each one had a grass cover.
There were tables with parasols located along the long edge of the enclosures where guests could be served. We were served a delicious meal consisting of soup with ostrich bones, ostrich meat with polenta and a dessert.
