Rooster spurs

[Pine Grove]

I can honestly say, In my 43 years with poultry I've never seen domesticated cocks use their spurs for scratching litter,How is that even possible?

 

[Resolution]

All spurred gallinaceous birds use their feet to scratch through leaf litter. Those species with elongated metatarsal spurs are able to dig through the leaf litter and around the edges of a dust wallow with more efficiency and less energy expenditure than those with no spurs. That extended spur does the work of a hundred a bill digs with one deft motion.
Fill an enclosure with dead lead leaves and let the birds stomp it down a bit. Once there is a dense layer of leaf litter on the floor of the enclosure you will be able to observe how wild junglefowl uncover invertebrates and roots under the dense canopy of the forest while keeping an eye out for danger. Each drag of the foot can either be the cavalier empty scratch we see so often in a bare pen or the full leg scratch one appreciates in a forest setting, especially when a pair accompanies young chicks.

 

[birdsofparadise]

Quote:
My Shamo roos scratch thru the bamboo leaf litter until they reach the volcanic soil underneath it all. They pick a little and then move on so the flock can get at the bare spot. Finally, after the hens move on, the mynahs show up to look for the left overs.

 

[skeeter]

Quote:
Let the birds sort it out. Spurs or kicking thorns as they are also known are primarily designed in the defense of hens, chicks and nests against small, non-obligatory predators. They are also used in defense against larger predators of the males themselves. The most important daily use is not in defense or fighting but rather in uncovering food. The spurs are used to rake through leaf litter.

Yes. There will be fights at first. These may even be a bit spooky to watch.
They will sort it out and much of the fighting is a form of courtship.
The fighting is ritualistic and done to advertise the fitness and rank of each competing male. Just let them sort it out.

The individuals that cooperate thrive and live long lives. The over competitive individuals get eaten or their nests are destroyed.
Roosters are designed by nature to look out for the safety and well being of their families- not engage in useless fighting all day. This wont stop the teenagers from fighting senselessly on occasion- but just let them work it out.

I dont know what book you are reading but some roosters will fight till one is killed,I let two brothers that have been penned up together all winter out with the hens and another rooster,they both chased the other roo away but the two brothers would not stop fighting each other,when i seperated them their combs were split and bloody their waddles were torn and bleeding both had their mouths hanging open it was just a matter of time untill one or the other went down, and I didnt want to lose a nice roo

 

[Judy]

Quote:
I completely agree with you. Also, the spurs or kicking thorns are used by the male to rake the substrate to uncover vital nutrients in the form of invertebrates and rootlets for the chicks and hen. If you have more than one rooster you won't have a problem. In nature, junglefowl males form prides. The males engage in ritual dances which are just show but the peck order is pretty established. They have much more to deal with in the form of their own predators; nest predators and competing prides than just fight with one another all day.
I've been keeping chickens for close to forty years and have had something like two or three roosters that attacked on occasion and this invariably happened because they were breeding stock males that were separated for most of the year with a few select hens and no other males.

Good, educational post, Resolution.

We need more old timers like you to share their experience knowledge with this board.

I read your posts and I like your bold, right to the point style, telling it like it is, whether one likes it or not.

There is lot of people here thinking that keeping backyard chicken is about same like keeping a pair of Seramas in canary cage.

LOL

SECOND THAT MOTION!!!!

Please keep hanging around here and sharing your expertise with us!!!

IMHO, this site badly needs the slant of folks like you....

 

[abluechipstock]

i used big dog nail trimmers, you don't have to cut so close to the leg, you can just take he tips without making them bleed, i only did this to a cochin that had 5 inch spurs, all my roosters now have there spurs, i think they are pretty

 

[QuailHollow]

Nail clippers? Honestly? Just use a pair of pliers and pull them off! Under that horny exterior is the actual new spur growth.

1. Use some baby oil and rub it at the base of the spur.
2. Get a good hold of the foot with your fingers near where the spur begins, and with small pliers, grasp the spur from about 1/2 inch from the foot.
3. With good pressure, rotate the pliers about half way around. If you're not comfortable with that, just jostle it until you feel it 'release'.

At first you will meet resistance, but then you will hear a "crunch" noise, and the spur will be off in your pliers. Use some cool water to rinse off the new spur and pat dry.

What's left will be about half the size of the old spur. If you are afraid that it is going to be 'too sharp', nip just the end off and pack with a styptic agent.

 

[racuda]

QuailHollowP&P :

Nail clippers? Honestly? Just use a pair of pliers and pull them off! Under that horny exterior is the actual new spur growth.

Yes, I didn't know this until one of mine lost one of his fence fighting. It was as if a "cap" just popped off.​

 

[QuailHollow]

Quote:
Yep, you got it.

 

[ivan3]

Resolution wrote: The most important daily use is not in defense or fighting but rather in uncovering food. The spurs are used to rake through leaf litter.

Here, in the deciduous `jungle', our roo puts them to good use.

He did, however, as a sharp spurred cockerel, open up the flank of a GSL hen (4 stitches worth). The spurs were then trimmed with a Dremel cutting wheel (too dangerous to repeat). We used heavy grit emery boards to take just the points off the claws. This intervention eliminated all insult/injury (but for a few lost feathers) during subsequent breeding. We still use the emery boards (only the sharp points of the spurs/claws need be rasped away - ten minutes every three weeks, or so).

Skip forward three years:

This `overgrowth' had started to interfere with his gait. The spurs would also `lock' together when he went to roost. He was heard (over the monitor) to be falling off during the night as he shifted around in his sleep (`plopping' into the shavings and then complaining about it - as close to a whine as a roo can manage). We didn't want to cut again and, so, as we were bringing him in daily to change his dressing (bumble foot resulting from an Osage Orange thorn puncture). he had the spurs shortened with a triangular file. He would go to sleep in my lap as Cassie worked the `spuricure' a little at a time:

(rest of shots are here: http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c331/IvanIvanovich/Dispurs/ )

He no longer falls from the roost or `goose steps' when not scratching or running . He remains a `thorny' fellow, but was a most docile patient: