Does anyone trim their Chickens beaks...........if so WHY?

belive it to be cruel, and see absoutley no reason do do it for a few back yard birds. They only need to do it for crowded stressed factory farm birds that tend to pick at each other. The beak is very sensitive and it hurts the baby bird. Also it makes it harder for the bird to eat and drink, and they cant really pick up seeds as easy.

 

they debeak to keep them from picking each other and eating there eggs. I bought a bantie hen from a sale that was debeaked and didnt realize why it was at the time. The beak grew back and now she picks on the other bantie and eats her eggs and ive tried a lot to stop her from doing it. ive tried just trimming a little offher beak so it wasnt hooked, putting balls in her nestbox and checking for eggs more often but I think Im going to end up debeaking her too else she'll end up in the soup pot. It looks bad, it sounds bad but I guess if it keeps her around and stops the problems I'll have to do it.

 

My grandmother used to debeak her pullets - she raise some mean, broody hens (but they were egg-laying machines). I don't know what breed they were - they were white and laid white eggs. They would peck the holy fire out of you when you reached under them to get the eggs.

 

one of my RIR hens had her beak trimmed - too short if you ask me - and although it doesn't seem to effect anything, I think it's cruel and pointless action for a small flock or free range bird

 

It's to prevent damage from pecking. It doesn't prevent pecking itself.

If the birds are in a good environment - sufficient food, water, space, and entertainment - pecking won't be a problem in 95% of situations. some birds just do peck, however.

Trimming is often done for very large flocks.

 

dont buy debeaked birds it only encourages the practise ,and tell the producers why you wont buy from them

 

One of my red stars accidentally ripped her beak right across the middle and she was in terrible pain. I could never do that.

 

Quote:If they did not debeak them, they couldn't raise them up to sale age in the same way, thus they would have to charge a whole lot more for started pullets. Also it is sort of industry standard for commercial farms.

The solution is not to buy started birds from a big hatchery -- costs way too much with shipping anyhow -- find someone local to buy from

Good luck, have fun,

Pat