It Is The Silly Season - The School Holidays Are Here

HOLLIDAY HUNGER - has been in the news, but aside that rather serious issue, the sun is shining, and it is time for the kids to enjoy a well-earned break. 

We met these two fine 'chaps' in Colchester Lions Walk Shopping Centre yesterday (see below). There are all kinds of ways of making a living - being the back end of an Ostrich on your CV would certainly get you noticed.

On a more serious note: Ostrich farming was tried in the UK. Ostriches are extremely skittish in their first three months and are prone to running into fences and killing themselves following being ‘spooked’ by a clap of thunder or other such happening. As such there are breeders that specialise in ‘early years’ farming before passing on the more developed birds to other farmers.

The mating season begins in March or April and ends sometime before September and special mating farms keep breeding pairs. In cold weather Ostrich’s cover, their legs with their wings to keep warm.  The birds can run for a long time at a speed of 55 km/h (34 mph) or even up to about 70 km/h (43 mph), the fastest land speed of any bird. The eggs are highly decorated in South Africa and sold as ornaments in the tourist industry.

Ostriches are farmed for their meat, their skin for leather and the feathers are a fashion accessory and used for feather dusters. Anyone who has seen the TV series: Peaky Blinders will know how fashionable feathers were in ladies’ hats in the eighteenth century. The hats used long hat pins to stay in place, but the pins were so dangerous that one MP tried to have them outlawed in parliament.

These guys love their work and the kids and adults were having great fun interacting with them.

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