Tips for When and How to Debeak Chickens 

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Tips for When and How to Debeak Chickens 

Debeaking, also called beak trimming, is a partial removal of the beak of poultry, especially layer hens, when layer hens are confined to a chicken house, farmers generally trim their beaks to prevent them from pecking (and possibly hurting) one another. While the term debeak implies that the entire beak is removed, in fact usually less than a third of the upper beak is trimmed, and not the whole beak.

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But there are other issues that come into play

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For instance, because a trimmed beak will usually grow back – just as our finger- and toenails do – some chicken farmers, in fact, remove more than a third of the chicks’ beaks so that their beaks are permanently shortened. They sometimes remove part of the lower beak too.

Also, the entire issue of debeaking is very controversial, with animal welfare organizations worldwide calling for an end to the process, and commercial operators insisting it is essential for the viability of the industry and wellbeing of the chickens.

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Chicken’s beaks are where our mouths are, and they contain keratin, the same substance found in human nails, hair, and in the feathers of birds. The beak itself is covered with skin, and the keratin dries on the beak making it hard. In fact, all birds have beaks, and because they are sharp and pointed they are used for eating, pecking, and for manipulating objects including food, and for grooming. This is not what humans use their mouths for!

So, this then leads to the question why poultry farmers need to debeak their chicks.

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Why Poultry Farmers Debeak Chickens

Every industry has particular needs, and in the chicken industry this is just one of them. To understand chicken beak trimming it is necessary to understand pecking, which is perfectly normal behavior in the chicken world. This is where the term “pecking order” originated. Every chicken knows its place in the pecking order although some will (rather like humans) decide they want to be higher in the chain of command! But even that isn’t usually an issue. Rather, it’s more like a squabble between feathered friends that want to either keep or increase their authority.

Issues emerge when large numbers of chickens are kept in a single flock and their behavior starts to change. For instance, when chickens are cooped up together in a chicken house they tend to peck more than they would if left to roam and forage for themselves.

The reasons for so-called feather pecking are relatively vague and are generally given as boredom or feed deficiency. But sometimes it happens for no reason at all and it becomes horribly violent – rather like gang warfare!

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Those with experience say that when one chicken draws blood, the rest of the flock can easily be drawn into the fight and this “cannibalistic” behavior continues unabated, often with disastrous results. In the worst case scenario, the entire flock could be injured or even killed.

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In the real world, unless they are free-range egg-laying chickens, there is a real danger that they will hurt each other – or even start pecking themselves.

That said, there are even reports of free-range chickens pecking each other to death, even if there are only 10 to 20 of them in the yard. So experts do recommend debeaking (beak trimming) if there is evidence of this sort of cannibalism.

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Certainly, if farmers keep hundreds or thousands of chickens in a chicken house, debeaking is considered essential, though broiler chickens that are kept for their meat are not usually debeaked. According to research, if chicks aren’t debeaked, up to 30 percent of the flock could be pecked to death.