Ostrich Eggs: Facts About Ostrich Eggs

One of the facts about ostrich eggs is that these are the largest eggs laid by any living bird, till date. The ostrich is a large earthbound, flightless bird native to Africa. It belongs to Struthionidae family and genus Struthio. The male ostrich is referred to as rooster and the female as hen. A grown male ostrich is taller than the female and each of them are taller than 8 feet. This marks ostrich, the great nomad of Africa, as the largest living bird on the planet Earth. The information about ostrich eggs is presented as below; or you can also read ostrich facts for kids.

Ostrich Eggs Facts

The South Africans have been raising ostriches for at least, 150 years to obtain the meat, feathers and hide. At present, there are more than 2 million ostriches in different parts of the world. One of the astonishing facts is that an ostrich hen can lay 40-200 eggs per year, and around 5-20 eggs at a time. They lay their eggs in a communal pit, still, each female can identify her own eggs. The dominant female lays her eggs first and at the time of covering the pit she may reject eggs of the weaker members. The eggs are guarded and incubated by the hen during the day. The same task is performed by the ostrich male, during the night. Females are grayish-brown and white in color which makes it hard to locate her in the sand so is black male during the night. The following is a list of ostrich eggs facts:

• An ostrich hen lays one egg every second day, from the middle of March till the middle of August.
• An ostrich egg is the smallest when we go by the ratio of the weight of egg to the weight of the bird.
• In favorable conditions, an ostrich female can remain productive for 25-35 years.
• Average incubation or hatching period of ostrich eggs is of 35-45 days.
• On an average, the weight of an ostrich egg is close to 3.1 lbs (1.4 kilograms).
• The color of the ostrich eggs range from a pearl white to cream color.
• Ostrich eggs are approximately 6-7 inches in length and 15-18 inches around.
• If you are looking for nutrition facts for an ostrich egg, you will be surprised to know that it can provide a whopping 2,000 calories.
• Another ostrich egg fact is that the contents of the ostrich eggs in dry form contain 47% of proteins and 44.3% of fats.
• The ostrich eggs also contains calcium, phosphorus and vitamins such as vitamin A, vitamin E, riboflavin and thiamin.
• Trace elements such as magnesium, manganese, selenium, zinc copper and iron are found to be present in the contents of the ostrich eggs.
• Eggs laid by the elephant birds of Madagascar (now extinct) and the giant moa of New Zealand were bigger than that of the ostrich.

There is also a booming art industry that uses ostrich egg shells to make artifacts. The shell of the ostrich eggs is strong, and is 0.06 inches thick and can bear the weight of an adult man. These are carved, hand painted and engraved, and an item may fetch as high as $150. Apart from ostrich eggs, its meat, feathers and hide are also sought after in various industries. The feathers are colorful and are used to make feather dusters. So these were some eggy and flightless facts about ostrich eggs!