How exactly do you pluck a feather?

[gritsar]

Or should you even try?
Lil' Bit's one lonely tail feather has finally given up the ghost. It's broken and trailing on the ground.
I tried to gingerly pull it, but she fusses.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Try plucking it like you do your eyebrows. Grab hold and yank! You'd fuss too if someone gingerly pulled on your eyebrows.

Your other option is to cut it off so it is not dragging. It will grow back when she molts. If you yank it now, it will probably grow back before the general molt.

 

[gritsar]

Thanks Ridge. Tuffoldhen and I discussed this and while I took off the broken part that was dragging on the ground, the shaft is still intact.
DH says that Lil'Bit no longer has a "rudder" to steer with now that her one and only tail feather is gone.

In fact, I DID use my high grade eyebrow tweezers to try and pull it. Those tweezers costs me ten bucks! But I had already stopped using them for myself after using them on another hens bumblefoot. Now DH has to buy me a new pair and with inflation they cost $16!

 

[Uppity Peon]

I have a couple linemans' pliers, slipjoint pliers, offset slipjoints, channel-locks, various sizes of needle-nose pliers, circlet pliers, vice-grips and more.

But I have never plucked a chicken's tail-feather.

 

[Ridgerunner]

High grade eyebrow tweezers? I figured you would use your fingertips or a set of Uppity's pliers. And I thought I was in the lah dee dah corner of the state. Course it was Lil'Bit, your favorite.

Glad you got it solved.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
My eyebrows and my hair are my only sources of vanity. I can't do nothing with the rest of the face. Might as well spend the money that would normaly go to cosmetics on my brows.

 

[newchickmom]

I had to do this because a hen had a broken tail feather that was bleeding at the shaft. So I just got hold of it as close to the skin as possible and yanked it out. It probably hurt a little, but it stops the bleeding, just like it would with a parrot.