Removal of scale under sebright's tongue?

[nicoleandeliceo]

Hi, I'm a newbie and live in Yucatan Mexico. I just bought a pair of sebrights and they are laying eggs. I'm incubating them, but have been told by a few locals that they are hard to raise. One local had all his chicks die in the first few months. An exotic bird raiser here told me that there is a trick to the sebrights. He said after they are a month old or so, to pull out a scale that is under their tongue. He says it will increase their chance to live. Sounds kinda weird to me. I can't find any information verifying this online.

Has anyone heard of such a thing? Does anyone know any other tips for raising the chicks if they hatch?

Like I said, I'm a total newbie. I've been hatching quails for a couple weeks, and my first chickens are going to hatch Feb 1st.

 

[sourland]

I have never heard of such a thing.

 

[donrae]

Someone's pulling your leg.

I've not raised Sebrights myself, but my mom had some, no problems. I've never seen anything here saying they're hard to raise.

 

[Peep-Chicken]

My friend has Seabrights, never have had to do that.

 

[Serenity Sav]

I own sebrights; never heard of it, certainly never have done it.

 

[StruckBy]

Yup...he was pulling your leg. Sebrights aren't great layers so that cuts down your #s, & the chicks are tiny enough that some people find it helpful to grind the chick starter finer than normal. Of course, my little roo was raised by his mom and was stealing her layer pellets when he was the size of a standard chick so I'm not sure how necessary it is.

 

[Vamvakas]

wat?

 

[ESofVA]

I lost quite a few bantam chicks when I first started...maybe 25%. Then I thought about adding things to their food like milk, then molasses, then egg yolk until I finally realized it was the size of the chick starter crumbles. I started running the crumbles in our "Magic Bullet" (a food processor will work but 2 blades are almost a necessity in those to get the small size) to grind the crumbles very fine for the first few weeks. My losses now are so low that they aren't even worth mentioning. In my case, the tiny bantam chicks just can't get the larger pieces down their throats.
Funny watching chicks running off with something too big to eat. Tiny chicks with their moms usually eat specks of food she has put on the ground for them or they find around a feeder.

 

[IronEagle]

Hi, I'm a newbie and live in Yucatan Mexico. I just bought a pair of sebrights and they are laying eggs. I'm incubating them, but have been told by a few locals that they are hard to raise. One local had all his chicks die in the first few months. An exotic bird raiser here told me that there is a trick to the sebrights. He said after they are a month old or so, to pull out a scale that is under their tongue. He says it will increase their chance to live. Sounds kinda weird to me. I can't find any information verifying this online.

Has anyone heard of such a thing? Does anyone know any other tips for raising the chicks if they hatch?

Like I said, I'm a total newbie. I've been hatching quails for a couple weeks, and my first chickens are going to hatch Feb 1st.

Hi nicoleandeliceo,
I know this thread is fairly old but I just had to comment. I also live in the Yucatan and just today my neighbor (who is a very experienced chicken keeper and comes from a very long family tradition of natural chicken keeping) came over and "removed the scales" from my chickens tongues. It all started because I had asked him if I should be concerned that one of my chickens was sneezing yesterday and he said that yes, I should be concerned. I brought him the chicken and he reached under the tongue and pulled off what looked like a fish scale (but slightly softer and translucent). The chicken didn't like it, but seemed OK afterwards.

I asked him what that is and he said that some chickens tongues grow with an extra piece underneath that prevents them from eating normally and causes them to get sick more often. After removal, they heal and are stronger because they can eat better. (so I sort of associated it with the benefits of humans having tonsils removed?) Anyway, not all of my chickens had this extra piece but he removed the piece from 4 of them. He asked that for the next 3 days I squeeze a lime into their mouth once a day.

Afterwards I came to BYC to see if anyone had commented about this before and found your thread. This must be either a local Yucatecan home remedy or perhaps the birds bred here (although mine are mostly local cross breeds) have it? I am also new to chicken keeping (6 months for me) so it's all new to me. But my neighbors chickens are so healthy and lively and I trust his methods.

I hope you have had great luck with your seabrights, I would love to see a picture. I'd also like to know if you went through with the removals?

Blessings,
IronEagle

 

[nicoleandeliceo]

Hi nicoleandeliceo,
I know this thread is fairly old but I just had to comment. I also live in the Yucatan and just today my neighbor (who is a very experienced chicken keeper and comes from a very long family tradition of natural chicken keeping) came over and "removed the scales" from my chickens tongues. It all started because I had asked him if I should be concerned that one of my chickens was sneezing yesterday and he said that yes, I should be concerned. I brought him the chicken and he reached under the tongue and pulled off what looked like a fish scale (but slightly softer and translucent). The chicken didn't like it, but seemed OK afterwards.

I asked him what that is and he said that some chickens tongues grow with an extra piece underneath that prevents them from eating normally and causes them to get sick more often. After removal, they heal and are stronger because they can eat better. (so I sort of associated it with the benefits of humans having tonsils removed?) Anyway, not all of my chickens had this extra piece but he removed the piece from 4 of them. He asked that for the next 3 days I squeeze a lime into their mouth once a day.

Afterwards I came to BYC to see if anyone had commented about this before and found your thread. This must be either a local Yucatecan home remedy or perhaps the birds bred here (although mine are mostly local cross breeds) have it? I am also new to chicken keeping (6 months for me) so it's all new to me. But my neighbors chickens are so healthy and lively and I trust his methods.

I hope you have had great luck with your seabrights, I would love to see a picture. I'd also like to know if you went through with the removals?

Blessings,
IronEagle

IronEagle, I just sent you a private message with my contact info. Would love to chat more about raising chickens in Yucatan with you. -Nicole