Ostrich Farming: Three Products, Two Toes and a Kick That Kills

The ostrich (Struthio camelus) is the last and most extreme bird in this series. Technically it is poultry — but it doesn't fly, has two toes, yields red meat and can kill you.

Ostrich farming began in a wave of excitement in the 1990s and ended in disappointment for most of the farms that tried it. This guide takes it without the hype: where the money actually comes from, why the bird is dangerous, why the chicks die, and the one question you must answer before you start.

One Bird, Three Products

The economics rest on a single fact: far more than the meat is sold.

Product	Per bird	Note
Leather	1-1.5 m²	Usually the most valuable product. Luxury bags and shoes; known by its quill-follicle pattern
Meat	30-40 kg	Red meat; low in fat and cholesterol
Feathers	1-1.7 kg a year	Fashion, decor and dusters (static electricity)
Eggshell	—	Carving and ornament; small, but income

The critical point: an ostrich farm's profit usually comes from the hide, not the meat. If you have no access to a tannery that handles ostrich and no buyer for the skin, you are throwing away most of the bird's value. That, more than anything, is why farms fail.

Poultry — but Red Meat

Every other bird in this series gives white or dark poultry meat. The ostrich does not.

Ostrich meat is red — it looks, feels and tastes like beef. The reason is muscle physiology: the bird does not fly, it runs (up to 70 km/h), and its leg muscles are dense with myoglobin.

• The fat content is low, and the cholesterol lower than beef or chicken
• Almost all the meat is in the thigh and leg — there is no breast meat, because the breast muscle never flies (compare the turkey, bred for exactly that muscle)
• So the ostrich competes in the red-meat market, not the poultry one

Two Toes — and a Kick That Kills

We have made a habit of counting toes in this series: five in the Faverolles, four in an ordinary hen. Two in the ostrich. No other bird has so few.

The larger of those two toes carries a claw up to 10 cm long — for gripping the ground at speed. And that claw is what makes the ostrich genuinely dangerous.

Safety: Do Not Take This Lightly

• The kick goes forward and downward. An ostrich cannot kick backward. The danger is in front of you.
• The leg muscle is enormous, and a clawed kick can open a man's abdomen and kill him. This is not folklore; fatal accidents are on record.
• The most dangerous moment: the breeding male, in season (spring and summer). His beak and shins turn bright red, he dances with his wings spread and hisses. Do not enter that paddock alone.
• Don't run — you cannot outrun it (70 km/h). Back away slowly.
• Use a tool: a long broom, a V-board or a thorny branch keeps the bird off; an ostrich won't push past something taller than itself.
• The hood trick: put a sock or hood over an ostrich's head and it calms down. That is how professional farms examine and move them.

Output in Numbers

Trait	Value
Male weight	100-150 kg (2-2.7 m)
Female weight	90-110 kg
Breeding age	2-3 years
Eggs per season	40-80 (March-September)
Egg weight	1.4-1.6 kg (≈24 hen eggs)
Incubation	42 days
Slaughter age	10-14 months (90-100 kg)
Breeding unit	A trio: one male, two females
Lifespan	40-50 years (breeding for 30)

It lays the largest egg in the world — and, relative to its body, the smallest. Laying is seasonal, as with the goose and the peafowl.

Incubation: Not Candling — Weighing

Ostrich incubation is the most technical job in this series, and it departs from the hen's on three points:

• 42 days — twice a chicken's
• Very low humidity: 20-30%. An ostrich egg drowns in too much moisture. Carry the 45-55% habit over from chickens and you kill the embryo.
• Weight-loss tracking: the egg must lose 13-15% of its weight across incubation. Too little and the embryo drowns; too much and it dries out.

And candling is nearly impossible: the shell is 2 mm thick and blocks the light. Instead of candling, you use an accurate scale: weigh the egg regularly and follow the weight-loss curve. In ostrich incubation the scale matters more than the lamp.

The detail is in our ostrich incubation guide. The Kuluçka Takip app builds the calendar by species (42 days for the ostrich) and reminds you of turning and hatch days. You can check out the app here.

The Chicks: Where the Money Disappears

In ostrich farming the first three months are everything. Under poor management chick mortality runs to 30-50% — and every chick lost was, months later, 40 kg of meat and 1.3 m² of leather.

Three main causes of death:

1. Leg problems: a slippery floor (concrete, lino) makes the chick's legs splay outward and cripples it for life. The floor must give grip — sand, coarse bedding, rubber matting. Excess protein and lack of movement also bend the legs: an ostrich chick has to walk and run.
2. Impaction: an ostrich chick swallows anything that shines — nails, wire, stones, plastic, screws. It blocks the gizzard and the bird dies. The rule: comb the paddock and the brooder metre by metre. Nothing bright should ever lie on the ground of an ostrich farm.
3. Heat and stress: 32-35 °C in the first week. The logic of our brooder guide applies, on a much larger floor. Chicks are very sensitive to stress and to wet.

Paddocks and Housing

• Breeding unit: a trio (one male, two females) or a pair, each in its own paddock.
• Space: at least 500-1000 m² per trio. An ostrich must run; a cramped pen brings leg trouble and poor fertility.
• Fencing: 1.8-2 m, strong and visible. A panicking bird that runs into a fence breaks its neck; wire is dangerous, timber or pipe is better.
• No corners: round off the paddock corners — a panicking bird jams itself into a corner and injures itself.
• Shade and water: shade is essential; the ostrich takes heat well but must not be left without it.
• Hygiene: the rules in our biosecurity guide apply — and, again, leave nothing loose on the ground.

The Hard Question

Ostrich farming took off on great expectations, breeding-stock prices soared, farms were built — and then most of them closed. The problem was never the bird. It was the market.

Before you start, you must be able to answer this:

"Who is going to buy the meat, the hide and the feathers of the bird I kill?"

• Meat: a niche product in the red-meat trade; you need restaurant and hotel contacts
• Leather: you must find a tannery that handles ostrich; without one, the most valuable part of the bird is wasted
• Selling breeding stock: in the early years farms made money selling stock to each other — that is a bubble, and it cannot last without a market for the products

If your answer is "I don't know", don't start. The ostrich demands capital, land, a two-to-three-year wait — and a market that already exists.

Who Is It For?

The ostrich suits you if: you have the land (500-1000 m² per paddock) and serious capital; you already have buyers for meat, leather and feathers; you can wait two or three years without income; and you can work with a dangerous animal with discipline.

It doesn't suit you if: you're thinking of it as a hobby (it is not a hobby animal); your land is small; you don't know who will buy the products; or children will have access to the paddock (the kick kills).

If you want a big bird and a safer business, look at the turkey (20 kg, the same feed logic, a real market) or the goose (pasture plus meat plus down, at a fraction of the risk).