my hen has spurs?

[WAWyandottes]

One of my GL Wyandottes has very sharp, curved spurs, a little over 1" long. She also has the smallest comb of the entire flock... Always wondered if one was related to the other. I know of a flock of wild turkeys where almost every female has spurs and small beards. Genetics! Such fun!

 

[SamanthaLouise]

I have three five year old light Sussex hens, and all though they are all from the same place, one of them has spurs.
To begin with I thought they were a fifth toe, but this is not the case as her toe/spur does not have the same placement as my Houdan, Silkie or even my Dorking. She is definitely a hen, and she does have odd wee spurs!

 

[SamanthaLouise]

This is the seven old girls of my flock, Freckles, with the spurs is the light Sussex in the front.




Here's a close up of her face. She even has a small comb and wattles, a gorgeous looking girl




And here is one of the feet in question. Four toes and a spur. Her spurs are actually quite large, although she doesn't utilise them in any way. She's actually a docile, sweet girl

 

[lauranickerson]

I just bought a few laying hens off Craigslist and one has some gnarly spurs. They aren't necessarily long, but they are sharp! She appears to be an Australorp. She seems nice so far, and they said she was one of the nicest they have, but I've only had them a few hours, most being nighttime hours.

Does anyone cut down their hens' spurs?

 

[collins57]

hello,
me and my husband have been raising chickens bout a yr ,I have a game hen who has spurs and I poppy was a game chicken person my little hen is all white some reddish rust color only on her chest with a comb that is startin to resemble a comb of that of a rooster now I do not know of her mother or father but I do know whn my poppy gave me the eggs to put under my little game hen when she decided to set he mention something of them being 3/4 blue mountain something and 1/4 something else I really had no big concern I was tryin to help my little hen ,so this is how I came about butterball which is the name my grand son gave her my poppy gave me 5 little black game hens all lookd same black black legs with the red on their chest but u could see other colors if the sun hit them right some blue green and so ,forth predators got all but one I name her raylan and for long time she ate and slept with our dog and cat ate with them wel she was laying but we had no rooster so my pop gave me eggs which he had stored in the bottom of his frig and told me take em home and put them under her lol didn't know bout the frig thing so I did she hatch then some had feather that was on head they were majority white except a red one lucky which was white with black spots so the 3 odds looking ones bcame pets to the grand bbys we have Mohawk lucky and butterball by this time my black game crossd with our white rocks which we had acquired and she had 2 frm that a rooster who runs the yard we call him jr so I began noticing after the lost of Mohawk and lucky to watch butterball and wel one day she had spurs I thought o that's weird and they r now as big as my ful grown white rock rooster and she has tried settin but she doesn't follow thru she has wasted 3 batches of eggs which were all hers she lays everyday but her r huge and white so as my old black mommy set one of hers out and I know it hatchd and if im correct it should be 3/4 game and a 1/4 white rock bcause my jr was the only one fast enuf to run her down I have bramhas as wel and one red buf which could've fatherd or my old white rock either way my little butterball is odd and has her own way of thinking so I was realy tryin to find information and pics of her breed see if she was only one or if more like her for my grandson which now tells his friends hes a grandpa cuz of her egg lol

 

[Roan]

@collins57 Please forgive me but I had a difficult time reading your post. Could you re-ask your questions as individual questions please? Again, please don't take offense, it's just easier if you list each question separately.

As for spurred hens, I'm wondering if it's a throwback to the original breeds. The hens would benefit greatly in the wild if they too could defend themselves with spurred feet, especially during brooding. We had a Rhode Island Red that developed spurs and I remember thinking she'd be great at defending her chicks from the other chickens and any predator that came around.

Unfortunately, she didn't make it through the winter and had never brooded so couldn't test any theories.

Just a thought though, is it possible that it could be a throwback from the beginning?

 

[Mycoolbreeze]

I also have a hen with spurs. I have no idea what breed she is, the seller told me she's an ameracauna, but she lays white eggs & she doesn't look ameracauna to me. She is very aggressive, unfriendly, prefers to forage, & she behaves more like a game bird. She's a good brooder & layer. Any ideas on her breed?

 

[varidgerunner]

Spurs are pretty common in hens. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a hen that didn't have a small round bump in the scale where the spur belongs. Some grow pretty long. A lot of gamefowl have them, it has long been a trait selected for, in the belief that it is a sign of the virility of her sons. A lot of chicken breeds have gamefowl in them somewhere. Either in their original makeup, (if Maly or Cornish is listed in the breeds makeup, they are descended from games), or added in later to fix color, (games come in a lot of color patterns). Going way back, there were probably more game chickens raised than anything else. Before people had TV and sports stadiums they had to have something to watch. You don't think that people that lived in a jungle full of food domesticated a bony 4 pound jungle bird that laid 20 eggs a year in a hidden nest for eggs and meat, do you?

 

[pom pom chook]

 

[pom pom chook]

My four year old chicken(Snoggy) has huge spurs where about should I trim to and not cause bleeding?