Beak Trimming

[hedz82]

A chicken feels with its beak, it has to use it like it's fingertips. The beak has a lot of nerve endings. Try cutting off the tip of your fingers and then tell me if its an okay thing to do to baby chickens. Would you do it to your child if it improved his or her tying skills?

 

[hedz82]

A chicken feels with its beak, it has to use it like it's fingertips. The beak has a lot of nerve endings. Try cutting off the tip of your fingers and then tell me if its an okay thing to do to baby chickens. Would you do it to your child if it improved his or her typing skills?

 

[mtnviewfarms]

I consider it consciously maiming the bird. As has been said by others, the WHOLE BEAK and not just 'most of a beak' is necessary for many important reasons as noted above.

Poultry that are housed and treated in a humane and appropriate manner don't peck at each other in such a way that is harmful!

As you can probably tell ----------- I'm very much against the mutilation of a chicken's beak1

 

[maggielulu]

i bought my 6 blondes from a guy outside of town last summer. he had 50 hens. i wish i had room to save them all. these i got where all molting. anyway. one has a bad hip we call her gimp. she gets around great. the problem is most of there beaks grow extremely long to where they have a hard time getting food off the ground where they are out and about. When they are in the coop i have there feed in a deep enough box they can get to there feed. anyway. i have to clip 4 of there beaks. would that be because this guy clip there beaks before? when i clip them i clip them like toe nails right before the quick just a few hairs before. the girls dont scream nothing. no blood. and they are like really happy and eat like crazy after.

 

[Lydia77]

I do think it's cruel. We got some pullets about a month ago, pre-ordered from Southern States, and the chicken house that sent them did not just "trim" the points, they butchered their beaks. Some of them are very badly misshaped now. I thought that they would grow back but I'm finding that not to be true. They are able to eat and drink OK but when it comes to treats like raw kale or cabbage, they can't get hold of it to pull it apart. But I am a good baby chicken mama and I love my girls so much that I sit outside and handfeed small pieces of their greens to them so they can enjoy them with the rest of my little flock.

 

[realsis]

Trimming a beak and beak mutations are different things entirely. I trim my girls beak as you would trim a finger nail. She was born a cross beak and trimming helps it from getting grossly over grown where she can't eat better.HOWEVER what some
hatcheries and chicken plants do is absoultly CRUEL
and disfiguring!!! They burn or sear off the upper
beak. I've seen it done in videos. Its painful and
cruel. Its absoultely awful!!!! So a clear line between
trimming and disfigurement needs to be drawn. If its
slightly trimming to help the bird its fine but if its removing or its
burning off the upper beak its Un natrual and cruel
and awful!!! It should be outlawed. This is just my
opinion. I'm a huge animal lover and respect
animals.doing the partial beak removal for what ever reason is wrong. It disfigures the chick and is very painful for them. There is a clear difference from trimming a beak as you would a finger nail to help the bird and torturing the bird by burning off its upper beak. If your asking about beak trimming as you would trim a nail no blood or pain involved then its perfectly fine. But if your asking about the kind of butchery and disfigurement the hatcheries and plants do to keep them from "pecking each other" then its absoultly wrong and I would NEVER consider it. They shove these babies in a machine that litterly burns the beak off. they scream in agony. Its so very cruel. Just watch a video on how its done it will make you ill.its absoultely horrible and so wrong!!

 

[Audio51]

I do think it's cruel. We got some pullets about a month ago, pre-ordered from Southern States, and the chicken house that sent them did not just "trim" the points, they butchered their beaks. Some of them are very badly misshaped now. I thought that they would grow back but I'm finding that not to be true. They are able to eat and drink OK but when it comes to treats like raw kale or cabbage, they can't get hold of it to pull it apart. But I am a good baby chicken mama and I love my girls so much that I sit outside and handfeed small pieces of their greens to them so they can enjoy them with the rest of my little flock.

I think what people are referring to here is actually called "de-beaking". It is completely different from trimming a beak. You trim you own finger and toenails, don't you? That is what beak "trimming" is. It is done when beaks become too long for the bird to be able to eat properly and it would actually be cruel NOT to do this as they can starve to death.

De-beaking is something akin to declawing a cat, but not as extreme. It is removing enough of the top beak that it will not grow back. The birds can still eat/drink but cannot injure other birds by pecking.

 

[Lydia77]

I don't think I could stand to see those videos ... I'm not sure "how" they trimmed the beaks of my chickens but they butchered them, plain and simple!

 

[MarjorieBee]

[/IMG]

Looking for advice for this Araucana's beak. He is 18 weeks old, Just gave a crow for the first time, (was sold as a pullet!) I haven't been too concerned as he still eats and drinks ok. But now that I realize he is a rooster I am wondering about his ability to help defend the flock with that beak of his. He doesn't close his mouth, has a bit of an under bite. He will let me open it and clean out his mouth every now and then since he can't really keep up on it. I've read about beak trimming but only on the top and I am not sure if that would help this situation.

 

[DeJay213]

I have a hen that is about 8months old and she is rubbing her beak along the chicken wire in her hen house. It is now starting to split on the end so i trimmed a little with toe nail clippers i don't want to trim too much, but it is still split. Any suggestions?