Ostrich Farm in Khust

The ostrich farm, which is located on the outskirts of the city Khust near the bypass road, nowadays, attracts more and more tourists. The farm has existed since 2002, when the owner Vasiliy Perets acquired his first ostriches from the neighboring Slovak Republic. Vasiliy had some difficulties in the process of transportation of the first 6 ostriches through the border. Customs officers were detaining his “live load” at the border for nearly two weeks. Despite the fact that the ostriches were originally imported from Namibia, Africa, our Transcarpathian climate proved to be very favorable for them. They easily endure the cold, eat everything and actively lay eggs. In the best years on the farm there were several hundred of ostriches. Vasiliy grows ostriches for sale. A few other ostrich farms were founded in Transcarpathia during last years. One of them is situated on the outskirts of the village Onok in Vynohradiv area, another is very close to Uzhgorod – in the village Kholmtsy. The farm in Kholmsy belongs to one very popular entrepreneur – Syvokon’. There is one more private farm of a “closed” type somewhere in Transcarpathia.

As I’ve already told, the ostriches eat everything. Cabbage and apples are their favorite food. Vasiliy adds the flour made from cow bones to the food for ostriches. What about the grass, they prefer the alfalfa. The quantity of food needed for ostriches is not very huge. The weight of an adult ostrich can reach 150 kilograms while the height is up to two meters. Their life expectancy is approximately 65-75 years, of which 45 years is the reproductive age. Ostrich eggs are very large. Their weight, on average, is 1-1.5 kg. The taste of an ostrich’s egg is almost identical to a chicken’s one. Ostrich eggs are popular among the housewives who bake. One such egg will be enough to make several cakes. The meat of ostriches tastes like veal.

In the wild nature a male and a female hatch an egg one at a time. Vasiliy practices to use a hatchery to accelerate and secure the process.

Some funny things happen in the farm as well. For example, ostriches have a tendency to run away. Once, a few ostriches somehow escaped from the farm. They were caught later… somewhere around Khust. Mr. Syvokon’s ostriches had also run away once. The whole village was running and searching for ostriches in the wood for several days, trying to catch them. It’s a very hard work, by the way. The birds are very strong and run too fast. They pinch very painfully and even can tear a piece of meat from a human’s hand if they start raging.

And now let’s see some photo material. The ostrich farm of Khust city is in the first picture.



Mr. Vasiliy Perets, keeping an ostrich egg in his hand, is in the next photo.



The owner feeds the birds. Please note, that he gives them the whole apples. He makes it very carefully. As I’ve already said, the adult ostriches can seriously snap. Ostriches aren’t able to take the food from hands, like a dog. They snatch it together with the hand.



Much safer is to feed ostriches with the grass. The guests of the farm are, actually, doing it.



This egg is “waiting to be demonstrated” to the next visitors, hidden from sunlight in the shade of a leather boot. The boot, by the way, is made of ostrich’s skin. Such shoes are very expensive. They say, Mr. Yanukovych wears the same shoes.



This is a young ostrich. These species look very funny, don’t they?



Do you remember the apple in the third picture? Here it is – moving slowly down the neck. It is still intact. It moves with the speed of half a centimeter per second. You can touch it gently through the dense skin.



And these are the youngest ones. They are “hiding” at the moment. This is exactly the way how they hide from the enemies and the world around. They are running away from the “noise”, then abruptly stop and squat, and freeze. “Knock, knock, we are in the house”.



This is the head of a young ostrich. We can observe all the features of an adult ostrich, except the “wool”, which hasn’t still grown up.



Children, of course, are the true fans of ostrich farms. Adults are simply walking and taking pictures, while the children are being overwhelmed with emotions.



“If you crawl up quietly, you can even pat a young ostrich”…



Thanks a lot to Vasiliy Perets for the interesting excursion.

09.03.2010. 08:09

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