Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[jbwells30]

i have not tried this myself but , use a hot baked potato and stick the spur in it far a few minutes and the spur will fall off, it will grow back. google it and check it out. would love a first hand account of this process

 

[stonykill]

where is beekissed? she started this thread & i havent seen her for a few days now. she always has such great input

beekissed is female? hmmm. I always assumed Bee was male. Always learning.......lol

 

[chickletteSarge]

We just got our 16 baby chickletts in and have started naming them..... the banteys are the only ones with non- food related names...all the others have food names! So far theres; Fried, dumlpins, biscuts, gravey, cookie, nugget, rocky road, ginger snap, and some that I don't remember... DW named most of them.....my kids are learnin that that their chicks will eventually end up on our plates. They know as soon as they go there will be a new set of chicks comming in to replace them.... I kinda like knowing what Is planned for my lil peeps! Lol we had our lives planned out for us in the mil.... this is just chicklette boot camp where only the strong err.... smart survive! Lol > evil lauff!!!!

 

[al6517]

To be honest I never fool with all that potato stuff when removing spurs and I don't know anybody who does, why waste a good potato. When the spurs are long enough you just hold the rooster firmly grab the spur and twist, they come right off.......... no blood......... no mess......... no pain for the Rooster.......... and it takes all of about 2 miliseconds. It's called a shed just like some other animals, when it's ready it will remove all by itself to allow for new growth, so all you do is help it along. it is way to easy and simple, none of my chicken buddy's do any of those weird crazy technics for spur removal, it's just plain dumb LOL, the BYC pet folks always have the weirdest ideas sometimes.

 

[Mrs. K]

My roo is about 2 years old, and is getting some pretty impressive spurs. While I have had chickens for years, only the last couple of years, have I had a rooster. And this is my first rooster that is working out well.

Last year, when he was just over a year old, all my hens looked like hell, barebacked, but they did not seem bothered. Seemed to like him, and were still laying eggs. I think that if a hen is stressed, the first sign is she will stop laying eggs. So I left him in there. 1 roo, and 9 girls.

This year, I notice the older hens look fine, no loss of feathers, but the hens that are approaching the 1 year mark, look barebacked, and a few are missing feathers from their heads. But again, all are happy, and are still laying. The older hens eggs are fertilized, so I know they are receiving the roo's attention.

So I kind of wonder is the bareback from the the younger hens inexperience? Or the spurs?

When and why do you remove the spurs? While the young girls are missing feathers, they are not bloody or injured.

MrsK

 

[galanie]

To be honest I never fool with all that potato stuff when removing spurs and I don't know anybody who does, why waste a good potato. When the spurs are long enough you just hold the rooster firmly grab the spur and twist, they come right off.......... no blood......... no mess......... no pain for the Rooster.......... and it takes all of about 2 miliseconds. It's called a shed just like some other animals, when it's ready it will remove all by itself to allow for new growth, so all you do is help it along. it is way to easy and simple, none of my chicken buddy's do any of those weird crazy technics for spur removal, it's just plain dumb LOL, the BYC pet folks always have the weirdest ideas sometimes.

For the life of me, I can't figure out how the potato thing got started. Plenty of youtube videos out there of people pulling off spurs, go take a look. Most I see are using pliers to get a good grip on the tip of it. By the way, it's just the outer coating you're pulling off, he'll still have a "spur" but it'll be soft.

 

[HappyHenMama]

As a second year newbie, I respectfully request that you "OTs" lay it on! Many on this forum sincerely want to learn the old, time-tested ways and tricks of the trade...where else are we gonna get that information? Perhaps a good start would be for each of our OTs to make a list of maybe 5 points that they feel every chicken owner would benefit from knowing. Those that are on this forum for the purely social, etc. aspect can skip the advice and go right to the pictures on some other thread. I think it would be a shame to withhold valuable information and experience from those who would appreciate it in an effort to somehow not offend or put off those that know it all and don't need it.
That said...LAY IT ON ME, BABY!!!!!

I Couldn't have said it better myself! That's why I'm on this site. To learn from the people that have been there, learned from their experiences and have knowledge that I can benefit from! LAY IT ON ME TOO, BABY!

 

[Zany Chick]

I Couldn't have said it better myself! That's why I'm on this site. To learn from the people that have been there, learned from their experiences and have knowledge that I can benefit from! LAY IT ON ME TOO, BABY!

Agreed!!! And I wish I had found this thread in time for the old timers to slap me in the head with a stick for thinking I could get chickens without already having the coop built. It's like the project that will not end and it's a family member that is finishing it for me. Maybe I should invite him over so he can see why the need is so urgent. Or I could have gone with my original plan of my husband cutting along the lines I drew and me assembling it myself. I will NEVER get an animal before permanent shelter again.

Lord give me patience.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Well I thought it would be good to ask before I grab a pair of pliers and rip roos legs off! He's already skittish around me, lol, I'd prob never catch him again! I've heard of the potatoe thing but wonder how that would work...I've been told cautery, but I'd prob burn myself...well look, I got three, so I'll do a little roo experiment and let you know. I lost a few hens this year, and several went broody, so feathers are looking worn and frazzled, want to take care of this before I got bare skin, wounds and sunburn. I think the damage started by old white roo who was just too aggressive for his own good, the broodies already look better, these are much better roos now. Why do this? Well primarily because the grandkids are coming, and don't know if they will think they are little aliens,I'd rather do this now than have to break a neck later... U tube is great, but I'm wireless, and pretty much in a no service area, the towers are supposed to be upgraded to 4g by august, maybe then it'll work better, it just takes sôoooo long to download. Than for the input either way, now I'm off to find some pliers

 

[jbwells30]

i have never even worried aabout removing them. just said i heard of that. but if it does work like they say that is pretty cool. also did not know you could just twist them off. see, learn something new every day. always figured you could snip the end like a fingernail but never tried that either