VALLEY MILLS, Texas — A Central Texas man says the devastating rain and flooding swept away 204 ostriches from his ranch early Sunday.
"We didn't have any real warning, all of the tributaries and small creeks pushed the water down and took them away," Owner of Superior Ostrich, Reg Lindberg, said.
Lindberg and his team were sent into recovery mode, taking helicopters up and down the Bosque River in search of the birds this morning. To this point, he says they've found 86 of the 204 that went missing. Though some have been found dead.
"We had taken them from eggs, hatched the eggs, nursed the babies all the way to grown animals," Lindberg said. "Two hundred twenty to 250 pounds. That's a big loss, a tremendous loss."
Lindberg says there have been a handful of ostriches found alive by other ranchers and nearby homes along the river and says he plans to retrieve them on Wednesday.
"The live ones we know about are within two miles from where they washed out, we discovered about two or three that we didn't know about," Lindberg said.
However, Lindberg says he's also retrieved two or three ostriches that washed up dead along the river banks. He said they were only able to track them down by "following the buzzards."
"I had a friend that went down there by the bridge and the water was up so high that the birds had to duck under the bridge just to fit underneath," Lindberg said.
Lindberg added that he as not the only rancher to lose animals or livestock, as he said neighbors in his area have lost at least 100 cattle combined from the rains.
"It's just part of ranching, there's nothing easy," Lindberg said. "There's a lot of money walking around there on two feet."
Lindberg says the business of raising ostriches started out as a hobby around 30 years ago, and he continues to raise the birds on the very ranch his grandfather founded back in 1906.
Lindberg said they sell some of the eggs from the birds for human consumption, but their main focus is the meat and the leather made from the skin of the bird.
"There's also some value in the abdominal cavity of these birds, in the fat," Lindberg said. "There's two different kinds of fat in these birds, one that's healthy to eat and the other is for cosmetic use and medicinal purposes because it can penetrate the skin and reduce inflammation."
Lindberg said they hatch ostriches once a week, some within 39 days, some at full term at 42 days and some at 46 days. It's a four or five day process, Lindberg said, and after the chicks are transferred to a heated "chick hotel" coop until they are big enough to produce their own body heat.
"After about a week, they start eating really good, and within ten days they're on their way to adult hood and they convert feed very economically," Lindberg said.
Lindberg says the 204 ostriches that went missing were all within four months of each other in age. Anyone who comes across an ostrich in the Valley Mills area or along the Bosque River can contact him at 214-514-3934 or 214-673-4616.