Ostriches one the largest living birds. Their relative is the emu (left).
AT a farm not far town, the world’s largest birds are dancing.
The farm in Teku, about 30 minutes’ drive from the town centre in Sibu, is the first in the state for rearing ostriches. On the outside, it looks like any ordinary farm but wait till you get inside. There, you’ll see about 60 ostriches with the youngest chicks at a year old and the oldest, aged 10.
The supervisor Tie Sing Ping Tie was, at first, reluctant to be interviewed because the farm owner, who is his uncle, is thinking of discontinuing commercial ostrich rearing. Besides the hike in feed prices, he said egg-laying had also been badly affected by the weather over the past five years.
Ostriches like attention and are attracted to the clicks of cameras.
So now, the property is doubling up as a show farm, attracting visitors, parti-cularly from schools and non-governmental organisations.
According to Tie, the farm was started in 1996 when his uncle bought 30 ostrich chicks from Australia.
“He paid a few thousand ringgit for each chick. And from 30 first-generation chicks, the ostrich population grew to 600 sixth-generation birds,” he said.
Tie Sing Ping
Tie is assisted by relatives and some workers. The ostrichs are reared for meat, eggs and skin.
“There is great demand for the meat even though the price is RM38 per kg. Ostrich meat tastes like venison and is low in fats and cholesterol,” he said.
He added that so far, the farm has produced thousands of eggs for hatching and for sale.
Ostrich eggs are white, oval-shaped and have a glossy porcelain-like shell.
Tie said one ostrich egg is equivalent to about 20 ordinary hen eggs and usually weighs one kg or more each. At the farm, fresh eggs fetch RM20 each.
He said empty egg shells are also sold as souvenirs at the farm. The skin is used to make leather shoes, belts and wallets.
Ostrichs become sexually mature between two and four years old.
“During the mating season, the males will perform the mating dance. One bird lays between five and six eggs at a time,” Tie explained.
The eggs are arranged in trays for incubation.
He said because the local weather is not conducive for the eggs to hatch naturally, incubators are used, adding that the hatching process usually takes six weeks.
“Newly-hatched chicks can weigh between 800gm and 900gm each. They will be placed in a room with a temperature of 34 degress Celsius until they are able to walk and feed on their own.”
Tie said an ostrich can live up to 70 years, and stands 2.8m at its tallest and weighs 145kg at its heaviest.
A worker processing livestock feeds at the farm.
An adult ostrich eats about 3kg of food everyday, consisting of corn, kangkung (water spinach), beans and other feeds.
Like any other business, ostrich farming also has its challenges.
Tie said apart from costly feeds, there are also egg-producing problems as ostriches do not lay when it rains, adding that even during laying season, not all eggs are suitable for hatching.
He said with only 60 birds left from a flock of 600, his uncle is contemplating giving up his venture.
“We have started planting longan and breeding other livestocks. But we will still keep the birds we have for visitors to see,” he said.
Tie’s nephew, Danny, processing kangkung (water spinach) to feed the ostriches.
