My grand childre raise exodic chickens and need and electric debeaker for their home use. thanks

-- Melba Royal (strawberry1672001@yahoo.com), January 26, 2002

Answers

as far as I know,,its just a hot knife,, so,, an uncapping knife might work,, (maybe)

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 26, 2002.

Melba, are you sure they need this? Debeaking is pretty brutal. (People, PLEASE don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about. I have birds who have been debeaked, I've seen it done, and it's just one of those things that simply IS painful, no need to argue.) On the factory farms, they de-beak because the living conditions drive the birds crazy and they become cannibalistic. I'd guess your grandkids birds are not going to be that severely confined, so they probably won't be stressed to the point of pecking each other. I know chickens can be nasty and they sometimes will even kill one another, but it's not common. Healthy birds, given a reasonable amount of space and a decent diet, should not be inclined to peck and fight to the point that debeaking is necessary. If they ARE fighting and acting stressed, I'd suspect that something is wrong with the way they are being kept.

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), January 26, 2002.

With Shannon on this one. Also, I would expect that any bird that's been disfigured (and burning a substantial part of the beak off is disfiguring in my opinion) would probably not be able to be exhibited - that sort of closes off the options for exotic chickens.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), January 27, 2002.

I bought a couple differant chickens from a fellow,I like a variety of chickens,and I got one that liked to peck. Brought it's bad habit with her.All the others started to do it to,they had to defend themsleves.I used a pair of toe nail clippers to snip of the end of their beck.Key words here are "TOP" and "A LITTLE BIT".Snip of A LITTLE BIT of their TOP beck.I didn't even take a quarter inch of the TOP beck.Just enough to take the pinch away,which is only A LITTLE BIT.They can still eat fine.They can still scoop up their food and water.You take too much off and you won't be able to stop the bleeding.Using an electric debeaker solves the bleeding,because it seals the cut.BECAREFUL if anyone attempts this. I did almost 30 chickens and had no problems.Just remember the key words.I put the chickens I bought in at night too.Someone said they would get along better with the others this way.Someone mentioned something about showing debeaked chickens,might have something there. Better check first.I never had any problems until I brought these 2 home,but I still have these two and we enjoy them. Everything is Ok now.They don't act any differant at all. Wouldn't know it was even done unless you look real close. Ray The Farm Chesterville,ME

-- Ray (thecfarm@midmaine.com), January 28, 2002.