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Why do some chicks' beaks look trimmed?

post #1 of 7
6/4/10 at 11:05am
Thread Starter 

I see in some people's chick pics that the beaks look like the tip has been snipped off.  Why is that?  Just curious...

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Urban chicken farmer: GLW, polish, EE's, Wellie, bantam Ameraucanas, and D'Uccles.
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post #2 of 7
6/4/10 at 11:22am

Are you talking about the egg tooth? 

http://lancaster.unl.edu/4h/images/embryology/eggtoothx450.jpg

The egg tooth is a small, pointed projection on the top of the beak, near the very tip. It is made of the same hard material as the beak.

The egg tooth appears on the baby bird's beak about Day 7 in its development inside the egg. When the bird is ready to hatch, the egg tooth is like a little can opener. The chicks will pip the shell (make a little hole), and chip away at the shell as it moves around the shell.

After the chick hatches, the egg tooth only lasts a couple of weeks before it falls off or is reabsorbed.

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NO MORE BIRDS - sold everything and moved for work.

It is impossible to have 'enough' chickens

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post #3 of 7
6/4/10 at 12:03pm
Thread Starter 

Not quite.  The pics I'm talking about literally look like a snip of beak has been taken off.

Urban chicken farmer: GLW, polish, EE's, Wellie, bantam Ameraucanas, and D'Uccles.
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Urban chicken farmer: GLW, polish, EE's, Wellie, bantam Ameraucanas, and D'Uccles.
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post #4 of 7
6/4/10 at 12:05pm

Some people trim their chicks' beaks to prevent feather picking.

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The awesomeness of a movie can, under normal circumstances, be easily calculated by counting the number of cars destroyed and multiplying that figure by the number of witty comebacks issued by major characters. The Avengers is a very high ranking movie on this scale.

"Harrison Ford is the President of the United States" is the perfect movie tagline.
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post #5 of 7
6/4/10 at 11:38pm
Thread Starter 

How long does it take for the beaks to grow back fully?

Urban chicken farmer: GLW, polish, EE's, Wellie, bantam Ameraucanas, and D'Uccles.
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Urban chicken farmer: GLW, polish, EE's, Wellie, bantam Ameraucanas, and D'Uccles.
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post #6 of 7
6/5/10 at 5:29am

I think that they'll grow back a little bit but not fully.  It depends how much is taken off.  Debeaking is usually done to commercial laying hens to keep them from cannibalism because they are in such small cages with each other.

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post #7 of 7
6/5/10 at 5:30am

It's also done frequently with game birds such as pheasants.  Google debeaking.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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pretense of taking care of them.  ~~ Thomas Jefferson
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Chicken in the bread pan, pickin' out dough
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the
pretense of taking care of them.  ~~ Thomas Jefferson
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BackYard Chickens › BYC Forum › Raising BackYard Chickens › Raising Baby Chicks › Why do some chicks' beaks look trimmed?