new chicken, need shoulder

[chickengirlnm]

i had no idea that some chicks come that way poor little things i am so glad when i got mine they all came ' normal" i would not know how to handle one without a beak. to me that sounds very cruel i understand why they do it but still .......

 

[patandchickens]

Someone asked for personal-experience stories:

I got my three Red Sex-links at "ready to lay" age via the feed store (because I really wanted chickens but was about to "hatch" our second child at the time and just didn't feel up to dealing with tiny fluffy fragile chicks, especially with ZERO chicken experience).

So, I was sad but I guess shouldn't have been all that surprised when they arrived debeaked.

Two of them look pretty much like book diagrams, with maybe 30-40% missing from the top beak missing and maybe 15-20% missing from the lower beak. The other one either ducked at the right moment or exercised mind control on the person doing the debeaking <g> because she is only missing the very tippymost tip of the beak and could probably be mistaken for 'normal'.

I've had the girls for, um <counting on fingers> five months now and their beaks look exactly the same as when they arrived, so I don't think they're going to grow back any.

The two "really" debeaked ones can't pick up small items off of a hard surface -- for instance if they scratch a bare patch in their litter, down to the hard floor, then fling feed crumbles onto it, they can't pick them up.

However, in all other ways they do just fine, especially since they spend the whole day out on grass. They can eat tomatoes, bugs, stale bread, etcetera just fine (and boy oh boy do NOT get between those girls and a tomato hornworm!!). Scratch is fine as long as thrown on grass or soft dirt.

Can't comment on whether their ability to preen is affected since I have nothing to compare them to. All I can say is that the one who's most apt to have disheveled feathers is the one with the basically-normal beak

Are they "depressed"? Dunno, especially since they are the only chickens that I have ever personally known (next spring this may change, heh heh, don't tell my husband). But by cat/dog/horse standards they certainly seem like happy animals.

I absolutely will never buy another factory-started pullet, mostly because of the debeaking issue (it may not bother the chickens now but it must hurt like the dickens when it is originally done, and while I understand that it *may* have more benefits than downsides if pullets are being grown in a high-density hatchery kind of way, I'd rather not support that kind of chicken raising anyhow, I think).

HOWEVER, I would not worry about *your* debeaked pullets -- just make sure their food is in large pieces and/or on a soft deep surface, and figure that you are giving them a much nicer life than they've been used to thus far. By all means write the hatchery a nasty note, too, of course <g>

Best of luck,

Pat

 

[seminolewind]

Pat, thanks for sharing your experience. BTW, I just found out that a bird vet can repair beaks- I will check into it,and see what the cost is. I think what they do is sorta like putting fake nails on. Karen