Observations of the incubation of imported ostrich (Struthio camulus) eggs in a farm

This study was conducted to investigate the hatchability and infertility of the ostrich eggs. Seven batches of ostrich eggs were imported from Australia into Korea in winter season under quarantine restrictions. Single stage incubation was carried out and the eggs were weighed before incubation. The weight of imported ostrich eggs was varied from 1,074 to over 1,650g and the average egg weights for batches were similar. The hatchability of all eggs batch was reached between 11 and 31%. The infertility of seven batches was varied from 36 to 63%. The first batch of eggs showed relatively low infertility(39％) and high hatchability (31％). On the contrary, the last batch of eggs had low Infertility(36%), and it had the lowest hatchability(11%). The result of this study suggests that hatchability of ostrich eggs imported in late laying season is significantly low because the number of infertile eggs is increased.