How should a domestic ostrich farm be laid out? Master these design principles

According to use and function, an ostrich breeding farm can usually be divided into a production area, an administration area and a staff living area. The production area can further be divided into the rearing area for breeding birds and young birds (over 3~6 months of age), the incubation area, the brooding area, the feed processing and storage area, and the isolation and observation area for newly arrived ostriches or sick and injured ostriches. The ostrich farm can be laid out reasonably according to the following basic principles:

1. It should be conducive to production management. As far as possible, the various production stages should be scientifically linked according to the rearing workflow, so as to achieve orderly and continuous production and improve production efficiency. To prevent ostriches in adjacent pens from fighting through the pen barriers and being injured, there should be a 1~2 m wide isolation passage between the pens (that is, try not to use the method in which one shared pen barrier is used by two enclosures), and trees or forage grass can be planted in the middle for greening. At the same time, however, doors should be kept connecting the sheds, and when the doors are opened a passage can be formed; each pen should have a door, to facilitate the moving of ostriches between pens and adjustment of grouping. In addition to the above-mentioned convenience of transfer and passage within the farm, consideration should also be given to such matters as the convenience of moving hatched chicks and reared young birds to the open-air rearing ground, the convenience of observing and collecting eggs from laying breeding birds, the convenience of transferring commercial birds out with little impact on ostriches in other pens during capture and movement, and the ease with which staff can observe and approach each bird pen. Avoid the adverse factors that unreasonable site layout may bring to production management and the normal growth of ostriches. 2. It should be conducive to epidemic prevention work. Different areas should be separated by a certain distance, and factors such as terrain and wind direction should be considered. Generally, the administration area, living area, feed processing and storage area, and incubation and brooding area should be arranged in sequence in the upwind and higher terrain areas of the production area. The isolation and observation area for sick and injured ostriches should generally be at least 500 m away from the infection-prevention target. 3. It should be conducive to moving between pens and transport. Within the farm, every effort should be made to ensure that pens are interconnected and roads are linked, so as to facilitate temporary separation and opening up. The main roads within the farm should make it convenient for transport vehicles to turn and reverse, and feed and manure can be delivered or transported out conveniently. 4. It should save consumption and be convenient for life. Electricity use and heating in the production area are mainly concentrated in the incubation and brooding section, so this section can be adjacent to the administration and living areas, so as to make the power supply, water supply and heating lines as short as possible and reduce pipeline radiation and consumption. The administration area and living area should be relatively concentrated, so as to facilitate life and work, reduce interference with the ostriches from staff daily living and other activities, and also make it convenient to observe the condition of the flock on the farm at any time. A bird-watching platform can be set up on the top floor of a building somewhere in the administration office area or living area, used at night for guard duty and observation, and during the day to receive outside visitors who can look down at the flock from outside the production area.