Beak clipping?

[Charleymitchell]

I had beautiful bourbon red turkeys! They were soo sweet but I spent countless hours with them turning them into pets. They are very curious! and will peck but not mean to hurt! I had two full size toms and they never really apart one time My big tom No toe lol Got sick and I had to take him to a vet.. The other turkey got so depressed wouldn't gooble or eat! After a few days I put them back together they play fought and went right back to strutting their stuff!! I had my sister at the age of 3 running and playing with them they never hurt her or me. I love turkeys I'm looking to get some in may!

 

[jak2002003]

To clip the beak is a common practice with farmers who raise FACTORY FARMED hens - either for eggs or meat. They do it because the hens are kept in such cramped conditions and the stress makes them peck at each other badly.

It is very inhumane. The end of the beak of all the chicks is sliced off with a hot wire. It is very painful for the chicks as the beak is full of nerves.

No raiser of backyard chickens or a normal farm needs to do this, unless you are going to keep all the hens in small boxes piled on top of each other!

You can find interesting videos on You Tube about this practice.

DON'T DO IT!

 

[Charleymitchell]

Its heart breaking what they do to sweet loving chickens .. Really sad.

 

[Nambroth]

De-beaking is done to baby chicks, usually destined to live in close, cramped cages or in overcrowded factory farming floors, to prevent them from harming and cannibalizing each other. Battery-caged hens for commercial egg production and commercial meat birds are often kept in conditions where they can barely turn around. They are bored and not able to preform many normal chicken behaviors and it is common that they'd harm one another in these poor conditions.
De-beaking is not like clipping wings (wing clipping cuts the grown-in feather shaft, which has no blood or nerve endings in it, similar to our hair or fingernails), but instead cuts through the upper part of the beak which is very sensitive, and full of nerve endings... similar to the bed of our fingernails. Though we have no way to know for sure, it's completely reasonable to think that this likely hurts the chick, and sadly may continue to cause chronic pain (again it's hard to know for sure so these are assumptions based on observation). The upper beak never grows back properly, as intended.

Chickens kept in backyard flocks by caring owners that provide enough room for each bird would rarely do this (harm one another ceaselessly) because they have space to be chickens, and thus there is no reason to de-beak chicks in these situations.

 

[Waight]

Oh awesome! Thank you ! I'm thinking of getting a burbon red because they're so pretty. It's nice to hear that they are sweet ^_^.

I had beautiful bourbon red turkeys! They were soo sweet but I spent countless hours with them turning them into pets. They are very curious! and will peck but not mean to hurt! I had two full size toms and they never really apart one time My big tom No toe lol Got sick and I had to take him to a vet.. The other turkey got so depressed wouldn't gooble or eat! After a few days I put them back together they play fought and went right back to strutting their stuff!! I had my sister at the age of 3 running and playing with them they never hurt her or me. I love turkeys I'm looking to get some in may!

 

[Charleymitchell]

They are very loving always keep two males. they are great protection for chickens and chicks! my baby chicks would run and hid under them. They were always so sweet.