UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA • COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE

AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION

BERKELEY 4, CALIFORNIA

DEBEAKING POULTRYW. E. NEWLON' and J. R. TAVERNETTF

Cannibalism and feather picking among chick-ens, turkeys, and pheasants cause considerablelosses to flock owners. These vices increasebird mortality and reduce the market value ofchickens because of bare or pin backs and ofturkeys because of blue backs. A number of me-chanical devices, antipick salves, and dietchanges have been used to prevent the vices; but

none of these methods have been universally suc-cessful. Several years ago a poultryman in SanDiego County, California, tried debeaking hisbirds (removing part of the upper beak) to stopcannibalism and feather picking. Since the re-sults were satisfactory, other poultrymen inthat area adopted the method; and it has now be-come a common practice with many flock ownersthroughout the state. Wherever used it has dis-placed all former methods.

The procedure in debeaking is to remove a

portion of the upper beak (fig. l) by means ofa heated knife, which cauterizes the tissue andprevents bleeding.

drink within a few minutes after being debeaked.Mash should be fed immediately to discouragepicking at other things that may injure the beak.Grain or other coarse materials should not be

fed for about 24 hours, since these may causebleeding. All feed should be placed in hoppers,because debeaked birds cannot take it off theground or floor so easily. The birds have lesstendency to pick over the feed and bill it out

of the hoppers: being unable to pick up choiceparticles, they are forced to eat exactly whatis mixed for them. They have difficulty in eat-ing green feed unless it is chopped and fed inhoppers rather than in large pieces on the ground.They cannot easily obtain sufficient shell andlimestone or granite grit even from hoppers, be-cause they hesitate to force the lower beak intothese heavy materials. This difficulty is over-come, however, if the shell and grit are fre-

quently scattered over the grain or mash.

Flocks of debeaked growing birds have madegreater average weight gains than flocks of non-

Fig. 1. —Debeaked chickens: on A and B about one half of the upper beak has been removed; on C andD enough was removed several months ago so that the beak healed over but did not grow back.

Effect on Birds

Observations made on many flocks throughoutthe state show that debeaking is a positive con-trol for all forms of cannibalism and featherpulling. Growing birds tend to be more uniformin size and in feather condition, and all birdsare less nervous and more quiet . There are noharmful effects; hungry birds start to eat and

Poultry Specialist in Agricultural Extension.

Associate Agricultural Engineer in the Ex-periment Station.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

LIBRARYCOLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE

DAVIS

debeaked birds. Two reasons are given: First,the birds must eat the feed as it is mixed, thusobtaining a more balanced diet. Second, the ag-gressive birds are unable to drive the timid onesaway from the feed; the latter obtain their share;and so the flock is more uniform in size and hasa higher average weight.

Debeaking Devices

The first device used for debeaking was asoldering iron with a chisel point that requiredtwo persons for the operation. While one person

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held the bird's upper beak over a lath or somesimilar object, another handled the solderingiron. Since then, however, devices both home-made and commercial have been developed withwhich one person can do the job.

Figures 2 to 4 show a satisfactory homemadedevice developed at the University of California.It consists of a 350-watt soldering iron with aremovable tip replaced by a specially constructed

Fig. 2.--A homemade debeaker us-ing an electric soldering iron fittedwith a special tip.

Fig. 3 ---The soldering iron and thespecial tip. The tip on the iron isturned 90 from its normal position.

one. This tip was made by welding a piece ofl/8-inch flat, hard, alloy steel over the end ofa sleeve that had been threaded to screw onto theheating element. This piece of steel extendsdown about 1/2 inch below the sleeve and is bev-eled on the back side to make a cutting bladeabout 1 inch wide.

Any heavy-duty (250- to 500-watt) solderingiron, with or without a removable tip, may beprepared for this purpose by merely cutting offthe copper tip 1/4 inch in front of the heatingelement and brazing the cauterizing blade onto

the stump. This procedure eliminates the sleevementioned above. The soldering iron is clampedon a small board hinged to the main base. Thetip of the iron is held about 3 or 4 inchesabove the beak rest by a spring and is pulleddown by a foot lever attached to the tip by meansof a chain and rod. The beak rest consists of a

piece of standard l/8-inch iron pipe flattenedto a l/4-inch thickness where the beak is placed.One end of the pipe is connected to a pail ofwater by a rubber tube (fig. 4). When the de-vice is being used, water is allowed to tricklethrough the pipe to keep it cool and to preventburning of the bird's mouth. A flow of a dropof water every 2 or' 3 seconds is sufficient forthe cooling. A shield made of l/4-inch asbestos

Fig. 4. --Another view of thehomemade debeaker, showing thevarious parts. The asbestosshield has been removed fromits supports and placed in ahorizontal position.

board is placed across the front of the device(see fig. 2) to protect the bird's comb and the

operator's hand from the heat of the iron. Ahole about 3/4 inch square is cut in the shieldat the beak rest for inserting the beak. The

entire unit is mounted on a main base that canbe fastened on a table or special stand. Apiece of asbestos is wrapped around a portionof the heated tip to assist in maintaining the

heat.Figure 5 shows the only commercial unit now

being manufactured. The removable cutting bladeis on the end of a copper rod attached to a

hand lever. A portion of the rod recedes into a

hollow heating element , and the heat is conducteddown the rod to the blade. The lever is attachedto a spring that normally holds the blade up. It

can be operated by hand or can have a foot pedalattached to it. The beak rest is made of a

piece of partially flattened copper tubing and

is cooled by siphoning from a pail of water. The

unit is also equipped with an adjustable beak

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stop for gauging the amount of beak to be cutoff. The heating element has a connected loadof 250 watts. In figure 6 is sketched a newmodel of commercial debeaker to be manufacturedby the same company as the model in figure 5.

Fig. 5.--A commercial debeaker.

Fig. 6. —A sketch of a proposed modelof commercial debeaker to be manufacturedby the same company as the model shown infigure 5-

Debeaking Practices

Both turkeys and chickens from hatching to

maturity have been successfully treated. Agedoes not seem to be important except that newlyhatched birds should learn to eat before beingdebeaked. They should therefore be 3 days old

or more. The most common practice is to debeakwhen the birds are removed from the brooders.Birds that depend on the range for a portion oftheir feed, however, should not be treated. De-beaking of breeding roosters has not been suf-ficiently investigated and is not recommended.It has, however, been successfully done on breed-ing toms.

The time required for the beaks to grow backto normal varies according to the amount removed.Sufficient experimental work has not been doneto make exact determinations on the rate of re-growth. According to general observations, how-ever, regrowth takes 3 to 6 months when one thirdto one half of the beak is removed, and can be

stopped entirely by removing three quarters or

slightly more (fig. 1, C and D)

.

Cauterizing the beak to prevent bleeding is

very important and should be done carefully. Forproper cauterizing, the blade should be hotenough to have a dark-red color (about 1,000°F)or be slightly hotter. Some operators prefer to

use a sharp blade that cuts quickly and then tocauterize by holding the beak against the bladefor a second or so. They claim that crushing ofthe beak is lessened by this method. Other op-erators prefer to use a relatively dull bladethat cuts more slowly and has time to cauterizewhile cutting. Either method is satisfactoryprovided the heat is applied long enough to stopthe bleeding but not so long as to injure thebird. Young birds can be cauterized more quick-ly than older ones.

When a foot-operated unit is used, the birdmay be held by the legs with one hand and bythe head and neck with the other. The beak isheld open by pressing on the angle of jaws withthe thumb and forefinger or by placing the fore-finger in the mouth. When a hand-operated de-vice is used, the bird's legs may be held wellup into the operator's right or left armpit whilethe head and beak are held in position with thesame hand. In this way the other hand is leftfree to work the lever. Care should be taken to

have the bird's tongue below the beak rest.

The rate at which debeaking can be done de-pends on the age of the birds, the experience ofthe operator, and the amount of assistance avail-able. When the birds are given to an experiencedoperator as fast as he can handle them, 200 to300 adult and 300 to 400 young birds can be de-beaked per hour. One operator with three assist-ants was able to debeak 300 6-week-old birds ina half hour.

5m-Aug. ,'44(1216) [3]

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